Rainmaker Publishing

Do they get their books into bookstores? What are their print runs? How many titles have they published? How long have they been in business? What kind of advance are they offering? What are their royalty rates? Who else do they publish? Have you personally read any of their books? (Get 'em by interlibrary loan if no other way -- if they aren't available by interlibrary loan, that should tell you something right there.)

I wouldn't think of submitting a book to a publisher until I'd read a few of their titles.

And there's no way to tell whether that one book has been published by the publishing arm or the self-publishing arm.

Let's give them the benefit of the doubt and assume it was published by the publishing arm. It's still risky to go with a publisher with such a tiny track record. Small publishers by their nature are often financially unstable, and it makes sense to wait a bit, until they've managed to build up a backlist and show they can stay in business (this will also show you whether they can market and distribute their books).

There's discussion on the website about bypassing the regular book trade and seeking to sell in nontraditional markets. That's great if it can be done, but ideally you want this sort of thing in addition to traditional marketing and distribution. Not instead of it or as the publisher's main focus. Ignoring normal bookselling channels in favor of non-book outlets is likely to be a recipe for poor sales.

The people running the company have varied professional backgrounds but don't appear to have experience in trade publishing.

I'd watch this one for at least a year before thinking of submitting, to see how it develops.

- Victoria