[Publisher] The Last Line

they're all "available to order" - I'm not sure if that's a good sign (mainstream booksellers have ACCESS to their stuff!) or indicative of something else (mainsteam booksellers don't HAVE their stuff!)

Click to expand...

That means their books have ISBNs. That's rock-bottom minimal.

Mainstream booksellers will get a copy if someone walks over to the special order desk and waves a credit card. Other than that ... you won't see 'em.

Publishers pay authors. Up front. In advance. Is this publisher paying your science fiction society?

It looks like they progressed from a writing group, to publishers. The usual questions would be: what publishing experience do they have (eg in marketing, editing, cover design etc). Usually this is written on a Meet the Staff page with new publishers (eg: *name* has been an editor for x amount of years with...) . Also, how long have they been "publishing" as The Last Line. Two years (from the experts here) is usally a good sign that they are more likely to survive as a publishing company. But the only date I can find are on their About Us with their writing group (2009) but that's not saying they've been publishing that long.

From their discussion over ISBN numbers etc here:

http://thelastline.yolasite.com/about-us.php

They're new at this. Something to take into consideration!

Matt Adams is mentioned (his name is tied to Tales from the Asylum) and it Looks like he has a number of titles:

http://www.goodreads.com/author/list/129695.M_Adams

I'm curious to know how they get their authors (invitation only etc) as I can't see anything about submissions, contracts, royalties etc. Usually that information is available on a publishing site. Take a look at how this speculative fiction company handles telling authors how they can/cannot submit to them:

http://www.immersionpress.com/?page_id=5

I see nothing like this with The Last Line.

Some AWers with far better experience (*edit*, like James D up there ^ ) will no doubt be able to help more. This one is just a little strange for me in that I can't see how they approach authors or even if they intend to.

But on a design note: the background to the website bothered me a touch: I had difficulty reading the words (potential readers may well feel the same).