I've been offered a contract for my fantasy by Cactus Moon Publishing in Tempe, AZ. I've seen more than a few red flags in their contract and on their website, and can't find anything much about them. Anyone know anything about this publisher?
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Cactus Moon Publications
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Do you mean Cactus Moon Publications?
If so, I've never seen a publisher's website with so many imprints and so little information - not even what genres are represented in each imprint. Their Mission Statement is full of high flown language about collaboration (including the obligatory description of themselves as a "new model of publishing company"), but nothing concrete about how they do business. They say they are not vanity, are "independent of traditional publishing companies" and are a "hybrid-publisher," whatever that means.
ETA: Had a look at a couple of their books. The covers range from decent to fairly awful, the writing from shaky to pretty good. One book had a misspelling and a punctuation error on the first page.
Since you have a contract in hand, would you mind sharing details, e.g. Do they offer an advance? Are their royalties computed on cover price, on net (and is the term "net" defined?), or by some other method? Is the author expected to "kick in" for publishing expenses?
If so, I've never seen a publisher's website with so many imprints and so little information - not even what genres are represented in each imprint. Their Mission Statement is full of high flown language about collaboration (including the obligatory description of themselves as a "new model of publishing company"), but nothing concrete about how they do business. They say they are not vanity, are "independent of traditional publishing companies" and are a "hybrid-publisher," whatever that means.
ETA: Had a look at a couple of their books. The covers range from decent to fairly awful, the writing from shaky to pretty good. One book had a misspelling and a punctuation error on the first page.
Since you have a contract in hand, would you mind sharing details, e.g. Do they offer an advance? Are their royalties computed on cover price, on net (and is the term "net" defined?), or by some other method? Is the author expected to "kick in" for publishing expenses?
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Their web site doesn't fit into my browser screen. I have to actually enlarge my browser to accommodate the whole thing. Not a good sign, but a good publisher could have a bad site, I guess.
On this page (http://cactusmoonpublications.com/mission.html), they say things like "Cactus Moon ... (and its imprints are) considered hybrid-publishers." Hyphenation is their own.
My understanding of hybrid publishing is that the author must foot at least part of the bill to publish the book. If you're wanting to avoid vanity publishing, avoid hybrid as well.
Under the "Collaboration" bullet, they say they "collaborate" with a "variety of contractors," which is another way of indicating they probably don't have in-house editors and other professionals.
Under "Polish," the site says this: "Our choices are made on factors beyond the story and writing ability.". Red flag. And then the kicker that, in my mind at least, flags them as a vanity press for sure: "any author that is willing to work hard, accept feedback and boldly share their product is a welcome addition to our company".
The cover of the one book I was able to see on the web site looked like it was composed by a child using Photoshop.
I'd avoid them.
On this page (http://cactusmoonpublications.com/mission.html), they say things like "Cactus Moon ... (and its imprints are) considered hybrid-publishers." Hyphenation is their own.
My understanding of hybrid publishing is that the author must foot at least part of the bill to publish the book. If you're wanting to avoid vanity publishing, avoid hybrid as well.
Under the "Collaboration" bullet, they say they "collaborate" with a "variety of contractors," which is another way of indicating they probably don't have in-house editors and other professionals.
Under "Polish," the site says this: "Our choices are made on factors beyond the story and writing ability.". Red flag. And then the kicker that, in my mind at least, flags them as a vanity press for sure: "any author that is willing to work hard, accept feedback and boldly share their product is a welcome addition to our company".
The cover of the one book I was able to see on the web site looked like it was composed by a child using Photoshop.
I'd avoid them.
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Have you or any of your friends ever bought and read any of their books?
What attracted you to them in the first place?
What attracted you to them in the first place?
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Yeah, some of the links under that Collaborator's List raise more questions than they answer.
ETA: Found this under the Mission Statement, too:
That reads suspiciously like a "thou shalt not criticize thy publisher ever" routine.
ETA: Found this under the Mission Statement, too:
That reads suspiciously like a "thou shalt not criticize thy publisher ever" routine.
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The business is apparently run out of a house in Tempe. Given the hideous layout of the landing page, I'm not terribly inclined to trust the editors' CVs about magazine design skills. The nearly-NDA language VBB quoted above makes me even more hesitant about this press.
But you never know, give 'em a couple of years to see what happens.
(I looked a bit deeper. I'm firmly enacting Filigree's Rule on this one. No further comment.)
But you never know, give 'em a couple of years to see what happens.
(I looked a bit deeper. I'm firmly enacting Filigree's Rule on this one. No further comment.)
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Hmm. My understanding of hybrid publishing is that it applies to authors who both self-publish and trade publish*. It shouldn't apply to a publisher at all.
*It can also mean authors who represent some of their work themselves, and have an agent to rep the rest - usually distinguished by genre, but also size of work being shopped around.
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According to this HuffPo article, hybrid publishing is where "the author paid for some or all of their production and print costs in exchange for higher royalty rates."
The "hybrid" author is one who has been traditionally published but also self-publishes.
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You say "hybrid," I say "vanity."
A vanity press is one where the author pays for some or all of their production and print costs.
(Note: This does not mean self-publishing. In self-publishing the author pays nothing, the publisher pays everything. That the author and the publisher are the same person is interesting but unimportant.)
A vanity press is one where the author pays for some or all of their production and print costs.
(Note: This does not mean self-publishing. In self-publishing the author pays nothing, the publisher pays everything. That the author and the publisher are the same person is interesting but unimportant.)
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I wholeheartedly agree.
However, the publisher in question is representing itself as a "hybrid" publisher, so I think the definition is important.
Perhaps. The problem is that someone is representing hybrid publishing (which was used to refer to authors who do trade AND self-publishing) as being something else - namely vanity publishing. Thus, my previous post. Regardless of what some writes on the HuffPo blog, hybrid is a term applied to authors, not publishers.
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Cactus Moon Publishing published my children's book in 2017. Though the book turned out nicely, the title and my name were missing from the spine of the book, which makes it impossible to find when shelved. That was a minor problem. The biggest problem was Cactus Moon Publishing was unsupportive and dishonest. Their practices have been reported to Writer Beware.
Ouch! That sounds like a pretty major problem to me - though the other problem is worse.
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Oof, sorry to hear that, Randi. Like Mccardey said, that's no small problem with the spine. Thanks for reporting to Writer Beware, though if you feel like sharing more details about the unsupportiveness and dishonesty here, it would be a huge help for anyone until a WB post gets made.
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Briefly, the publisher of Cactus Moon tried to coerce me into paying for returned books and told me it was in my contract I was responsible for unsold books. Actually, it was not in the contract. More details May 15, 2022 on The Maggie Project: https://themaggieproject.blogspot.com/