Luna Moth Publishing

http://www.lunamoth-publishing.co.uk/

smells like a vanity press?

'We Publish New Authors'
Def vanity.

This one is barely out of the box and the plastic wrapper!

Doesn't even look like their page links online are up and running. Does have all the look and shape of a paid author services company. Even if they were offering a standard publishing contract, I'd be inclined to wait a while until they build a catalogue and you know the owner and the experience/credientals of staff working for them.

Luna Moth Website:
At Luna Moth Publishing, our aim is to encourage aspiring authors and promote promising books that major publishers often ignore.

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Red flag. Major publishers do not ignore "aspiring authors" - debut novelists are published all the time.

Luna Moth Website:
We realise the effort that is put into a finished manuscript and therefore believe that the author deserves the best services available. We offer professional production, quality printing, marketing and distribution services.

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These aren't "services". These are all things that a commercial publisher should be doing as a matter of course at the same time as paying an author an advance for their work.

Describing them as "services" suggests that you are looking to sell something to authors, not the public.

Luna Moth Website:
Although our company is still recent, our partners have been working in the world of publishing for many years.

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Leaving aside the grammar fail, there's nothing on the website setting out what this publishing experience is.

Luna Moth Website:
Our commissioning panel chooses the manuscripts not only for their quality but also for their commercial potential.

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That's what they should be doing anyway, so I don't know why they need to set it out specifically. Of course, it's not clear what's meant by "commercial potential" - could mean selling to the public, could equally mean selling to the author.

Luna Moth Website:
Indeed, you will be able to get in touch with our employees and partners, at each stage of the evolution of your book: conception, realisation, promotion, distribution.

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Curious to know what they mean by "partners". Ideally this should all be done in-house (with the exception of printing, which usually goes to a printer).

Luna Moth Website:
You will benefit from an irreproachable professional production:

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It's a shame that doesn't extend to the website, which is littered with typos and grammatical errors.

Luna Moth Website:
Suite 404 Albany House - 324-326 Regent Street - London W1B 3HH - Tel. +44 (0) 203 086 7156

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This professional company is in crowded premises given that it shares Suite 404 with all of these companies.

Proach:
I submitted a partial a week to two weeks ago, and they asked for more.

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How did you hear about them?

MM

The website looks kinda cookie cutter. I've seen that same design elsewhere but I can't pin point it....

The also have massive adsense campaign running to attract authors, normally this means they anticipate some immediate profit.

Luna Moth is the name of a character in Michael Chabon's Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Rip off!

KTC said:

Luna Moth is the name of a character in Michael Chabon's Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Rip off!

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It's also a type of rare moth.

Just sayin'.

michael_b said:

It's also a type of rare moth.

Just sayin'.

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i know that

Momento Mori said:

This professional company is in crowded premises given that it shares Suite 404 with all of these companies.

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It must get pretty hot in that office suite!

More likely, it is simply a mailing drop-point for a number of different companies and not their offices, unless, of course, they all work standing up without desks.

As an update the Albany House address in London looks to me like a registered 'holdings' address, for companies and domain names. A Google search on this address throws up a multitude of companies using the location.

Following the above link provided, and the below link I have provided, it indicates that numerous companies use it. Their phone numbers are scattered across the UK, and not just based in London.

http://www.web-solutions.dk/contact.htm

The moral of the story is don't go 'live' with your company when you start up if your only presence is 'virtual'. The website is the candy-floss in the corporate world - and should be one of the last pieces of the jigsaw.

I heard back from these today,

They sent me a nice long letter saying how they liked my sample chapters etc but wanted me to pay £2088 for them to publish...

Seems rather scamish

So yeah, anyone thinking of these I'd avoid.

Zefiris said:

I heard back from these today,

They sent me a nice long letter saying how they liked my sample chapters etc but wanted me to pay £2088 for them to publish...

Seems rather scamish

So yeah, anyone thinking of these I'd avoid.

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OH! I'm so glad you posted here too. (-; Everybody should know...hopefully googlefuers find this thread!

Zefiris said:

I heard back from these today,

They sent me a nice long letter saying how they liked my sample chapters etc but wanted me to pay £2088 for them to publish...

Seems rather scamish

So yeah, anyone thinking of these I'd avoid.

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Indeed. After two whole months their website amounts to a single page and no working links on the top menu, including the 'Catalogue' link page.

...and the reason,

'Your search did not match any products.'

2088 pounds? That's like $5k American (I think).

Run. Run very, very fast.

Zefiris:
They sent me a nice long letter saying how they liked my sample chapters etc but wanted me to pay £2088 for them to publish...

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That's naughty - given that there's nothing on their website to indicate they charge a fee to publish.

Luna Moth Website:
Our commissioning panel chooses the manuscripts not only for their quality but also for their commercial potential.

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So the "commercial potential" would seem to be "how much money can we get authors to stump up?"

MM