Amberjack Publishing

Red flags abound. Be very, very, VERY cautious. (Ok, run screaming the other direction.)

--Ken

I saw more like yellow flags. Mainly that the people listed on the Our Team page don't have much experience in publishing. The author services thing is a worry but they're definitely trying to separate them as much as they can. How that works in reality is another question, though.

So this might be a situation where it would be wise to wait a couple of years and see how this house does as it gets established (it only opened in 2014) before signing anything with them. I don't think a submission is likely to hurt you, though.

I wouldn't put this publisher at the top of any list, though, so make sure you've exhausted other options with agents/houses first. Always aim high.

@ pinkbowvintage - Did you end up submitting your full? I noticed the services no longer appear on their website, but I'm still not sure about this press.

Their submissions page is labeled "publishing services". I don't know about you, but I would read that as potentially fee-based. If not it is a very poor choice of words. Services are provided to a client not a co-participant in a publishing endeavor.

I found the real FAQ page: http://amberjackpublishing.com/faq/

It's...sparse.

Noticed that this is now one of the non-Google ads on the page (which means it's vetted by AW, right?) although the ending tag seems to be missing as it spills onto the "Welcome to the Absolute Write Water Cooler" text (who do we report that to?)

They had a very vague contest running through the end of December (write the story you've always wanted to write! 5000 words OR first 5000) without a lot of information as to what they want or what rights you're giving up for submitting. Oh, and they require you to like their Facebook page. I guess if you don't have Facebook, they're not interested in your writing?

Their Wordpress on their blog seems a bit screwy - the title of their featured blog post takes me to their books link and the comment function looks weird. (This could be because I got "upgraded" back to IE 8 though.) Also, I see ten featured authors, but eight books listed. Are some of them anthologies or co-authored?

tiakall, I'm not sure any of the ads on AW are vetted. Even if they are, you should always do further research just to make sure the publisher/service/whatever is right for you.

From this thread, I'm pretty sure they're not right for me.

Thedrellum said:

tiakall, I'm not sure any of the ads on AW are vetted. Even if they are, you should always do further research just to make sure the publisher/service/whatever is right for you.

Click to expand...

As far as I know, the non-Google ads are vetted, but probably only for known scammers and obvious red flags. It's certainly not an imprimatur.

So yes, it's always necessary to do further research.

Use of the cringe-worthy term 'fiction novel' is very off-putting.

Amberjack's team members seem to be curiously shy about giving their surnames. The company is based in Idaho and was registered in April 2014 by Jason Burenheide, who works as a Medical Esthetician at Renu MediSpa in Eagle, Idaho.

Their distributor is Midpoint Trade and they are on Net Galley. I consider those two things at least, good signs.

Are there any updates about this publisher?

Thank you for responding. I have a book from one of their authors and was merely curious of their promotions and etc.

One of their novels, DREAM ME, made it on the Buzz Books 2017 list. That's pretty promising.