Maybe someone with more computer fu than me can see if this one has the same ISP addy as the defunct BooksUnbound. Kudos to you for spotting the name!
Any "publisher" who offers "services" is going to cost the writer money at some point. That is in violation of
Yog's Law.
Their website is not a confidence-builder. Quite the opposite.
Look what's missing:
No physical street address or even a PO box on the contact page.
A serious lack of information about, oh, everything. That is the most naked publishing website I've ever seen.
Contrast it with the website of another young publishing house.
http://www.darkstarbooks.net/
There, you've got location, a phone number, and they'll even let you check out their contract if you're curious. They don't offer "services", which is in their favor. They offer advances. Like a publisher is supposed to.
LW books has only got one book, too.
Let's look at that---ONE book for sale. One.
Okay, they have to start somewhere, but while the book has 16 glowing, 5-star reviews on Amazon, I can't help but be suspicious. If they're honest reviews and not sock puppet friends of the author or publisher, then why was the author unable to place her fantastic book with a larger house for a wider audience and real money?
Just a thought.
They're too new. Wait a year. Submit to some other place.
I hope you're not making the rookie mistake of starting with smaller presses or the like, thinking they will go easier on a new writer.
The good ones are going to be much more picky about what they accept since they have more at stake. They have high overheads and low profits, printing far fewer books a year than a larger house.
The bad ones will take just about everything, knowing they can probably sell enough copies to their writers to keep afloat. Or they could be well-intentioned but quite clueless about how to run a publishing business. Or they could be a scam operation.
In publishing the rules are reversed. You always start at the top with the biggest publisher/agent you can find and work your way down.
I wasted time with small presses (doing a lot of rewrites after each rejection) then sent my book in to the biggest dog on the block.
Damned if they didn't buy it.
Please, check out
this highly informative letter appearing on the Writer Beware blog!