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Cold Moon Press / Book Mark It Promotions

PVish

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Anyone know about this one? I just received an email solicitation from someone I've never met whose book is coming out soon from them. That their "About Us" page is "under construction" is a possible red flag.

I hesitate to buy books from people I don't know when the books are published by companies I've never heard of.
 

profen4

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The "whois lookup" has the site registered to one, Rua Dr. Brito Camara. Google that name and see what you find.
 
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Richard Falk

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According to their website, they offer "advances on contracts [no indication as to how much], an author copy of the work [note the singular here], and some promotional materials". Additionally, "Authors receive discounts on books they purchase".

However, they clearly expect authors to do the bulk of the promotional work, specifying that they should, among other things, produce their own business cards and supply "contact information for five newspapers to whom you [note: not the publisher] can send press releases", "contact information for five bookstores in your area where you can schedule signings" and "contact information for five libraries in your area where you can schedule readings/discussions/signings".

Perhaps more worryingly, this is a sister venture to book-mark-it.com — which believes "in empowering authors to take control of the future of their book through effective, affordable marketing solutions". This does not, of course, mean that authors signing up to Cold Moon Press will be pressured to buy marketing solutions from the sister company, but it's potentially a bit of a red flag.

Overall, my impression is that this is a fairly low-budget POD-cum-ebook operation not entirely dissimilar to PublishAmerica, but I could be wrong. Knowing the kind of advances they offer would be especially interesting.
 

CaoPaux

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The "whois lookup" has the site registered to one, Rua Dr. Brito Camara. Google that name and see what you find.

OMG! I was going to recommend the press to a friend of mine who has a manuscript that might fit the submission requirements. Glad I checked here first.
Rua runs Domains Discreet, which is a registry service. He has nothing to do with Cold Moon beyond making their registry listing private.
 

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I would suggest that any publisher who talks about the author's responsibilities in selling the book is a publisher worth making a wide detour. They've made it obvious, in as many words, that they don't have the ability to do anything with a book other than print it.

One of the big tip-offs is that they'll "entertain" all kinds of genres. Small indies don't have that kind of an editing team, nor do they have that kind of pull with that many audiences.

Lastly, I see that they're using Lightning Source as their distribution, which means they are simply making the book available on everyone's online bookstores. They don't have any real distribution other than what the author can provide.