On the "Compare Publishing Prices" page Light Switch is compared to AuthorHouse, Xlibris and other well-known vanity presses and author service providers...and an outfit called A Book's Mind I've never heard of but which is the second most expensive option.
http://www.abooksmind.com/index.php
By an amazing coincidence Light Switch and A Book's Mind have the same address - P.O. Box 272847, Fort Collins, CO 80527!
There's an amusing, albeit somewhat out-of-date, blog post about ABM here:
http://www.bookmakingblog.com/2012/10/is-books-mind-really-serious-about.html
Light Switch seems to have been set up to take over the '100% free' arm of the business whilst ABM attempts to go up-market. Potential customers are left in no doubt that it's up to them to market their books. At the bottom of the 'Services' page we find the following quote:
Not all marketing people are writers, but all
writers must learn to be marketers. — Joanne Kraft
http://www.lightswitchpress.com/services.php
Who is Joanne Kraft? A self-publishing expert, perhaps? No, she's the author of a single non-fiction book,
Just Too Busy, published by Beacon Hill Press. Her Amazon profile describes her as "a sought-after speaker", and as such she has a ready-made conservative Christian audience. But AFAIK Beacon Hill Press isn't a vanity press or author service provider and most potential Light Switch customers won't have Kraft's advantages, so the quotation is both pointless and misleading.
By the way, the promotional materials on that page bear the image of the book
Baseball Stat Tracker by one Travis Greenfield. It was actually published by A Book's Mind and was written by one of the publishers, Floyd Oldfield:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0982875150/?tag=absowrit-20
Two other members of the ABM publishing team, Jon McHatton and Jenene Scott, have also self-pubbed their work with the company.
Most of the Light Switch books I examined via Amazon's Look Inside feature had not been edited to anything approaching a professional standard. I was also amused by what we're supposed to think is an impartial article about Light Switch:
The Evolution of Publishing:
The Virtual SCRIBE: Book Reviews & More by Bonnie Lee
Light Switch Press has taken a huge step in the evolution of book publishing with its completely free publishing services. This true blend of traditional book publishing and self-publishing offers authors a no-risk avenue to having their book professionally published. Light Switch Press offers authors totally free publishing—no out-of-pocket costs to publish, completely free distribution, cover design and book formatting with higher royalties than traditional publishing. Authors also maintain full ownership of their work.
http://www.lightswitchpress.com/article1.php
Bonnie
Lee is actually Bonnie
Lewis:
Publisher, Editor
TheVirtualScribe
2012 – Present (2 years)Tucson area
Author's Best Friend -- Book Reviews, Marketing/PR for new books
Ghost writing, substantive editing, manuscript editing
Work with A Book's Mind Publishing, Light Switch Publishing, and independent authors
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/bonnie-lewis/2b/7b0/a92
Do these people think we can't use Google?
Finally, I wonder how many writers took advantage of Light Switch's 'free' services but couldn't resist the temptation to buy a Marketing Bundle (200 each of business cards, bookmarks and flyers) for $289.99...and how many writers didn't see their book in print because their ebooks failed to sell 100 copies.