Fireship Press

[kelliewallace]

I came across these guys for my historical fiction novel. Anyone deal with them?

http://fireshippress.com

[aliceshortcake]

It sounds like a pretty standard POD publisher:

Our books are published as Print on Demand trade paperbacks and will be available to the title lists of major book distributors in the United States and Canada, so any customer, at any store, can order it. Fireship also provides Print on Demand in the UK and Australia.
Book titles will appear in Books in Print and will be available through Ingram, and Baker & Taylor -- the two largest book distributors in the United States. Books will be available in Europe via both Gardner's Books and Bertram Books, the two largest book distributors in Europe. Books will also be available in Canada via Chapters/Indigo, the largest book distributor in Canada.

So, no bookstore placement.

Although most of the responsibility for the marketing of the book will fall to the authors themselves, it is our intent to do as much as possible to assist in the promotion of our authors' books. We can provide some printed advertising materials for the author's use, including flyers and books marks, and authors may purchase copies of their titles at 45% off the cover price. We encourage authors to acquire either Facebook fan pages, or personal Facebook pages so that they can interact with readers on Fireship's Facebook page.

It doesn't sound very promising to me, unless there's a niche market for historical fiction with a nautical tinge.

[MickRooney]

Originally Posted by aliceshortcake

So, no bookstore placement.

It also doesn't sound like those operating this POD publisher know the difference between a distributor and a wholesaler.

Gardners Books is Britain's leading book, DVD, Blu-ray and Music CD wholesaler.

http://www.gardners.com/gardners/default.aspx

[Terie]

I met two Fireship authors, who said that Fireship took on four of the writers in their critique group.

I also talked to someone who read a Fireship book and said it was not up to a professional standard. I got the impression that the person meant both the quality of the story (plotting and so forth) and the editing.

[kelliewallace]

They liked my first 3 chapters and asked to see the full MS with the help of a line edit. What is that? I would have thought they might have done that?

[HapiSofi]

Originally Posted by kelliewallace

They liked my first 3 chapters and asked to see the full MS with the help of a line edit. What is that? I would have thought they might have done that?

A line edit is a full-scale text edit. It stops short of suggesting that you delete chapters and rejigger the plot, but addresses more complex large-scale structuresl than a conventional copyedit would.

You're right that your publisher should do this for you. It's only proper -- and besides, line edits are expensive. High three figures, low four, is what you would wind up paying.

Fireship doesn't sound like a prize among publishers.

[kelliewallace]

Its a shame, because they seem to be a good press.