Dog Horn Publishing

Not sure why you think it looks promising. No distribution, no chance of being stocked in brick n mortar stores (not enough of a discount) and stuff on the website like "Many of our releases are exclusive limited editions. Once gone, they're gone forever." Uh, do they take all rights forever then toss them in a trashcan?

And paying on net is seldom good, especially if it's not spelled out how the publisher defines the net. Can you explain what looks so promising to them? I'm just genuinely curious.

"We will gladly accept the return of defective books and/or incorrect shipments within 30 days of purchase. We do not condone the pulping or destruction of books, so we cannot refund non-defective orders where only the cover is sent back. Non-defective books are returned at your own cost; we will only refund postage for defective books and/or incorrect shipments."

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Bolding mine. In short, they don't accept returns. One reason they are not on bookstore shelves.

I think their refund policy would keep them out of stores too.

batgirl said:

Returns policy : "We will gladly accept the return of defective books and/or incorrect shipments within 30 days of purchase. We do not condone the pulping or destruction of books, so we cannot refund non-defective orders where only the cover is sent back.

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That's not really a returns policy at all, at least for booksellers, since it allows only for defective books or incorrect shipments. Also, a knowledgeable publisher should be aware that covers are stripped off and sent back only for mass market paperbacks. Since Dog Horn doesn't produce mass market paperbacks, this is an irrelevant concern.

The UK's PS Publishing had success with limited editions and now has expanded beyond that, so it's not necessarily a bad place to start. To market limited editions, though, you need connections within the genre(s) you're publishing.

Another concern: you have to order 25 books to get the 40% discount that most booksellers expect. Dunno how likely it is that a bookseller will take a chance on 25 books from a publisher that in effect has no returns policy.

Though the website produces the impression that they've been publishing books for a while, all the releases are shown as "coming 2009." The attrition rate for small presses is high--it's a good idea to hold off on submitting to a new publisher until it has shown some staying power and proved it can take books all the way through the production process. That also gives you the opportunity to assess things like cover art, quality, distribution, and whether (or if) the publisher is marketing its books.

- Victoria