Is Usborne Books a Scam? 3 Major Flaws!

It offers every children’s books you could imagine, like flipbooks, fiction, and even non-fiction, Spanish titles, and season titles! Usborne Books’ website has seemingly divided the books they sell based on particular age groups, as seen below

• 0-2 years old
• 3-5 years old
• 5-7 years old
• 7-11 years old
• 11-13 years old
• Young adult

They have published at least 3,000 books in total ever since the year of inception. If I were you, I would not be surprised by these numbers since Usborne Publishing has 35 fantastic writers and more than 50 book designers.

Plus, the staff in charge of book production, accounts, sales, marketing, and everything else is at least composed of 250 people.

With such dedication and passion for producing books for children, they have scored multiple titles and awards. They have built a remarkable reputation in the niche of children’s book publishing companies.

How To Make Money With Usborne Books

Getting Started

To get started with Usborne Books, you will join as a consultant by initially purchasing their Educational Consultant Kit. This can cost you $75 for the new consultant mini kit or  $125 for the New consultant kit, plus taxes.

The main difference between the new kits is the number of books they have, the mini kit includes 10 best-selling titles, and the new consultant kit 20.  

There is an upsell for both starter kits, a full catalog of all their products that you can get for plus $12 + taxes.

As if you haven’t already had enough of all the startup costs, there are also recurring fees you must consider. There are subscriptions you would have to pay for. If you are wondering what kind of subscriptions these are, they are mostly just tools you would need to place and process orders.

Most MLM companies usually have a high start-up cost, so it is no surprise you would have to spend a lot just to get started with Usborne Books.

Selling Products

Once you have done all that, you are now considered a consultant of Usborne Books. I have to give a round of applause to this company because their attention tends to lean more towards direct sales than the recruitment aspect.

One of the reasons why MLMs are constantly linked to pyramid schemes is that some companies only use their products as a cover-up when in reality, all the money comes from the recruitment aspect.

We are on the right track since, just from this observation alone, we can say with confidence that Usborne Books is not a pyramid scheme.

With that being said, you have the duty as a consultant to sell their books directly to individuals, schools, and libraries. Unfortunately, as indicated by their disclosure statement, you can not sell their books to bookstores.

Usbourne gives 25% commission on sales, but it’s based on the sale volume. The more you sell, the higher your percentage can be.

You may earn even more if you go up the ladder and become a team leader.

They also have compensation plans for direct sales companies.

What’s great about Usborne Books is you can also hold special programs to reach out to more potential buyers such as home shows, e-shows, book fairs, and many more as seen in the table below. You will also see the commission percentages you are able to earn.

Usborne Books Compensation Plan

Now onto the best bits of this post, the compensation plan. Usborne Books’ compensation plan is pretty straightforward. I suggest you take notes since their compensation plan contains substantial and equally important information.

You are most likely encouraged to climb to higher ranks from being a consultant if you want to earn more profit. This will always be the case with MLMs because commission flow always goes upward the pyramid, meaning that the most benefit from marketing strategies like these are those at the top, leaving almost little to nothing to the mass of people accumulated at the bottom.

Listed below are the ranks higher than the consultant level and the requirements you have to satisfy to achieve it.

Team Leader

To become a team leader, you need to reach a personal sales worth $1,000. Here’s the interesting part, you have to reach this amount within two months prior the date of promotion. Seems pretty achievable for such a short period of time, right?

Not really. Although it is not really impossible to achieve these numbers, you would have to hustle all day and market the books in a way that everybody will want to buy from you. From an economical standpoint, children’s books isn’t always at the highest demand.

What I have mentioned above is just the requirement for your personal sales. What about the group sales? Usborne Publishing also requires you to gather group sales worth $2,750 two months before promotion.

You are also required to recruit at least 3 people earning $500 each in the last 3 months and 3 personal success-bound recruits.

Depending on your rank, you can earn loads of bonuses with Usborne Publishing. One of the many bonuses you could earn is a Promote Out Bonus.

All this means is when a consultant from your downline gets promoted to the rank of Team Leader, you and this particular consultant will equally share the bonus to be received. According to the website of Usborne Books, you’ll receive a $250 Promote Out Bonus in this case.

Senior Leader

The requirements to be a Senior Leader are similar to Team Leader’s. The main difference is by this time, you should already have 1-second level Team Leader and 2 first level Team Leaders. You are eligible to earn $500 Promote Out Bonus when a Team Leader of yours get promoted to Senior Leader, as well.

Executive Leader

The requirements are still the same as Team Leader, only with the additional requirements of having 1 third-level Team Leader, 1 second-level Team Leader, and 3 first level Team Leaders. Earn a Promote Out Bonus of $500 when someone from your downline becomes an Executive Leader.

Director

Same old, same requirements – just make sure to have 1 Executive Team Leader and 6 first level Team Leaders within your downline. When one of your members becomes Director, too, you can receive $1,000 Promote Out Bonus.

Is Usborne Books a scam? You may find the answers you are looking for once you have read the next section below!

What I Don’t Like About Usborne Books

Low Success Rate

This is one of the most common cases when it comes to MLMs, so you should start getting used to this fact by now. In Usborne Books’ case, members are testifying about how you can only earn so little selling their books. Of course, with a business opportunity in the field of books, it will be hard to get leads.

Hosting parties are only worse, too. Yes, the parties are only usually just for an hour. However, preparation could take time, calls, effort, and patience. A lot is going on behind the scenes.

You can pour all your effort into this party, but there’s also the possibility that no one wants to attend it (it reminds me of when I was a kid). Plus, the time spent preparing is not worth the amount of money you can earn with it.

The good news, though, there’s still a recruitment program. Bad news: recruiting others in a business opportunity like this is hard.

Expensive Startup Cost

What makes it worse is the expensive startup costs, and don’t forget the recurring fees too! There is no guarantee that you can earn this back, and you would have to sustain a possible loss. That’s one thing to take note of.

No Extensive Training

Usborne Books provides training to their consultants. Unfortunately, this isn’t of much help since it only introduces the basics of business and not much on what you need to know to succeed in this opportunity.

Bulky Inventory

Of course, you’re going around selling books. Naturally, you have to carry the books when you’re on duty. It’s like having a heavy cloud above your head all the time.

What Makes Usborne Books Worth It

Great Quality of Books

Usborne Publishing has been in the books industry even before the early 2000s. With such a long history and experience, it is no doubt that they have picked up a lot and is now constantly producing books of amazing quality.

Set the Pace

There are no pre-determined schedules, your schedule is mostly up to you! You don’t have to worry about due dates and waking up before 8 am!

Reliable BBB Rating

If you are familiar with the Better Business Bureau, you know that a business must be accredited with it and rated with an A to know if it is legit or not. Fortunately for Usborne Books, even though the BBB does not accredit them, they have an A+ rating, as seen in the screenshot below!

My Final Judgement! Is Usborne Books a Scam?

No, Usborne Books is not a scam. It is a legitimate company selling children’s books and they publish great books. However, I can’t recommend it to you. I simply think it is not a great business opportunity at all.

Startup costs are expensive, and even if you spend all your money on the kits, this does not guarantee you can earn this money back. As you have seen from the reviews of customers, you can only earn so little despite all your effort, time, and money.

I think it’s best not to get involved with their MLM program, or any MLM ever, but you could buy their books for your kids if you like!

Just keep one thing in mind, this won’t happen overnight! But if you are the type of fella that can follow a blueprint and willing to take action, then you can turn your passion into a thriving online business!