Crescent Moon Press

They opened in late May with no books and still have no books. The website has quirky fonts and transitions and an unstable nav bar. The owners and staff are specifically named which is good but I don't see much industry experience really? I don't know anything really to add but it looks like another romance e-POD press to me?

Well, opening in May, surely it's not too surprising that they don't have a book out yet. It's only the first of September, after all. Odd that they don't even have anything on their "coming soon" page though.

I don't really see anything wrong with their fonts or nav bar. They worked fine for me, anyway. I guess that's in the eye of the beholder. I would be hesitant to go with a totally new company, but on the other hand, I don't see anything actually wrong with them.

I think epublishers with a well planned launch have books the moment they open (Samhain, Loose Id etc), and the prep time on an ebook isn't generally all that long. So I would call a three month stretch without content interesting but not necesarily a concern. It does probably show they didn't start a press just to push their own books

Be not the first by whom the New are try'd,
Nor yet the last to lay the Old aside.

-- Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism

Hi all... I am Steph Murray, the CEO of Crescent Moon Press. I couldn't resist posting to this thread.

We are currently running a launch contest, and we invite everyone to come over to our website and check it out at www.crescentmoonpress.com

After we have our contest winners, we will officially launch.

In the interim, if anyone has any questions, feel free to email me.

Be well.

Welcome to the forums

Veinglory, I don't mean to be argumentative here, in fact I really don't know the answer to this. But wouldn't the editing time on a good e-book be the same as for a traditional book? I've seen plenty of authors talk about many more than 3 months in edit. Since you have experience in the e-book industry, which I don't, I wondered what your experience is.

Just following up on our previous comments. The CEO from Crescent Moon pretty much answered the previous question, I think.

I did take a look at the people running Crescent Moon. They look like they have good credentials for starting a company. Good luck to them!

It varies but I have spent as little as a week on edits if I do them right away (1-6 passes) and had it come out a week after that. Ebooks are often novelette and novel length and you don't have to set up a lot of hardware, make the books, warehouse of ship them. So long as the cover art is ready...

Of course taking longer is probably wise. But as I said, many epublishers have books lined up before opening their website so that was probably on my mind too.

Maybe Ms. Murray will be able to help out (which welcome, btw, to AbsoluteWrite). I was looking at your site since I was curious about the contest. I went to the Glade to check it out and it just set a scene, so then I checked the contest page and it talked about it a little, but didn't clarify the length of the manuscript or what exactly had to be in the story. I read somewhere to check out the submissions link, but there is none.

StephMurray said:

Hi all... I am Steph Murray, the CEO of Crescent Moon Press. I couldn't resist posting to this thread.

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Welcome to AW. Pull up a seat. Stay awhile.

Thanks for the welcome everyone. Glad to be here.

Hi Amanda! To answer your question, on the Query Page, we talk about our submissions req's. We say that we are looking for manu's 75k-120k words, standard manuscript format, but no erotica. We are accepting anything in the magical, paranormal, fantasy and sci fi genre, so long as it is a romance or with heavy romantic elements. All that info is on the Query link. We will be updating by Monday and are going to put a link from the contest page to that Query link so that it is easier to find.

It is sincerely my pleasure to talk about anything to do with CMP- as this is my passion. (I am sure you all can relate.) I am around if you have any other q's...

oh- and there is also a link to the contest page in the Glade...

veinglory said:

It varies but I have spent as little as a week on edits if I do them right away (1-6 passes) and had it come out a week after that. Ebooks are often novelette and novel length and you don't have to set up a lot of hardware, make the books, warehouse of ship them. So long as the cover art is ready...

Of course taking longer is probably wise. But as I said, many epublishers have books lined up before opening their website so that was probably on my mind too.

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Wow! That is fast on edits. I have talked to authors who spent months, sometimes 6 or more months, on edits.

Is that typical, I wonder? I really don't mean to hijack the thread, but I'm really curious.

Thank you for such a prompt response, Steph. I hate to be a bother, but could you please explain more on what you're looking for? I read "The Glade" page, but, to me, it's hard to tell exactly what kind of story you're looking for. Although it could also mean that you've given writers a glance of what they need to write with a whole lot of space to be creative.

StephMurray said:

Hi Amanda! To answer your question, on the Query Page, we talk about our submissions req's. We say that we are looking for manu's 75k-120k words, standard manuscript format, but no erotica. We are accepting anything in the magical, paranormal, fantasy and sci fi genre, so long as it is a romance or with heavy romantic elements. All that info is on the Query link.

Click to expand...

See the query page...

best of luck to you.

Hi everyone,
Love the Web Site and wish you much success. What is the plan for attracting book buying customers if this is a new company?

Thank you to the staff of Cresent Moon for commenting here. That is refreshing and encouraging. Wishing you success, Kate Alister

Kate Alister said:

Hi everyone,
Love the Web Site and wish you much success. What is the plan for attracting book buying customers if this is a new company?

Thank you to the staff of Cresent Moon for commenting here. That is refreshing and encouraging. Wishing you success, Kate Alister

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Have you worked with the, Kate? I ask because those posts by them were from two years ago. What's going on with the company now?!

I'm taking the muse online conference and this company is available for pitch sessions, so I visited their website. I see a big sign that says RWA non vanity publisher, is this current? I thought the rwa did away with such listings

Their covers don't thrill me. They look very amateurish. Anyone have any sales data on these guys?

Nope, but maybe someone will send some.

These are their terms and conditions:

Author's Compensation Package

CMP offers a royalty of 37.5% for all ebooks sold 7.5% for print books up to 5,000 copies sold 10% for print books from copy 5001-10,000 12% for print books from 10,001 and up. Print books to follow ebooks.

Royalties will be paid twice a year, dates to be announced after we have posted the schedule for our first releases.

CMP will retain the rights to all works for 5-7 years from the date of the contract.

If you have further questions, e-mail us. Once we have purchased your work, you will receive a contract that will cover the details.


I think 5-7years is way too long for a contract

Personally I prefer a longish term. It reduces the paperwork.

veinglory said:

Personally I prefer a longish term. It reduces the paperwork.

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I can understand that entirely, but this is a new press. I dont think it would be wise to give 7 years worth of rights to a publisher who is just starting out.

No, but every good contract should have a balancing clause that determines how and when a book falls out of print and rights reverting back to the author. I mean, if in seven years your book is still selling, wouldn't that be worth the contract? Plus no legit publisher, either commercial or epub, is going to want to hold on to a book for seven years if in two years it stops selling.