Brain Mill Press

They have an option where you can donate money to support their press.

We built in press support so that patronage could happen at multiple levels. Those who become press supporters are donating to support production of future titles, including design, art, materials, and staffing.

Click to expand...

And you get a Brain Mill t-shirt in return (if your contribution is over $100).

Genre is muddy : they publish "love books", which are about the human experience of love. One of the founders is a successful author, but that doesn't translate to being a successful publisher. I'd avoid unless they proved themselves.

I think I have "love books" translated. They're romance people, but they want to publish at least some books that break the very strict rules of the genre - for example by not having a HEA/HFN ending.

They claim industry experience.

They're trying an experiment by making a limited edition print book with extra stuff for pre-orders. I'd be intrigued to see if that works out. I think one of them is a book designer and they're interested in making print books more valuable with design and stuff you can't do in ebooks.

The entry fee to the contest also makes you a "member" - with a discount on book purchases. Whether it's a good deal or not depends on whether you like their books (no way of knowing) and how many they make. The entry fee/prize ratio is unfavorable, so I wouldn't enter even if I had something suitable. I'm not sure this is a good way to get initial subs because of that. It's a good way to get money out of inexperienced writers, though. (And it's even themed, it opened in March and it closes June 1 - that's not a lot of time to write a good novella from scratch unless you don't have a day job - even then, if you aren't a fast writer).

I'm not sure this one is red flagging so much as making me go "Huh." The contest is a red flag. The love books thing I think I get, though.

Run like heck and watch from a long distance with binoculars.

Only an idiot opens a publishing house without having any books to sell and accepts "donations" to stay afloat.

I expect this one's hoping to make a living from eager contest entrants.

Um, no. No, thank you.

The general rule is wait and see if they're still in business after a year.

Hope there's a redesign on the website. Those brains creep me out.

Guys, Brain Mill Press has an Open reading period for poetry chapbooks.

No fee is requested to submit via there submittable account. I'm using submittable on a regular basis and it is a great way to deal with your submissions to publishers.

I've checked them out the best I could. They've obviously been around for almost 2 years, they have 16 books published and at least 10 more forthcoming.

I couldn't pick up any red flags around internet, so I want to know what do you think now, about them ?? Please tell me your opinions and your advice on submitting my chapbook.

They are offering 250$ and royalities to 1-4 chapbooks they choose to publish. This would be my first book/chapbook, so I'm OK with that paying rate, but still, tell me what you think about it.

Hope to hear as many opinions as possible ASAP, since the open reading period ends on 31. August.

No particular red flags, but I checked five or six books' Amazon sales rankings and they were all around the 2,000,000 mark or worse. Unless they're making phenomenal sales on their website, I don't see evidence that this will get you anywhere. Which is sad, because these look like quite enjoyable stories. Nothing threw up a flag for me in terms of proofing or typesetting, not in the short section I read, and I liked where the books were going. They're just not selling, and that means you're not going to get anywhere with them.

And don't sell yourself short because it's your first book. Your debut status is valuable--treat it as such.

Thank you for the advice. I've reached the decision to pass on this opportunity. Reasons are numerous, but I don't think my first book/chapbook should be rushed, so I'm just going to keep with submitting to literary magazines for now, until the right opportunity for a poetry collection comes by.