It took me by surprise that he would want to help out such a newly self pubbed author.
He is not helping you out. He wants your business. If you use his services, he will get 50% of the profits from your book. (Remember, if you do everything yourself, you keep 100% of the profits.) Now, if you think his services are worth that money, then go for it. If he's not doing anything worth paying for, then don't.
The info on their site about how publishing works is definitely less than accurate.
Do you pay an author advance fee?
Being a royalties based model we make our money from the royalties from the sale of the book.
Advance-paying publishers DO use a royalties-based model. That's what an advance is -- getting paid royalties the publisher expects you to earn before you actually earn them.
Why are you 'The Mischievous Publisher'?
Mischievous means to have a fondness for causing trouble in a playful way.Direidi believes in causing trouble for the mainstream publishing houses by focusing on E-books and POD.
Micropresses like this are not causing trouble for big publishing houses. They aren't selling enough to do that.
The problem is the odds are against the author.
This makes it sound like agents and editors pick manuscripts out of a hat. The odds are against the author whose book isn't ready to sell yet. The odds are in favor of the author who wrote a really awesome manuscript.
Bottom line: If you are asking if this company is a scam, then the answer is, no, I don't see anything decietful here, other than repeating the usual myths about how big publishers discourage new writers, and sadly, there's very few start-ups that don't spread that myth.
If you are asking if this company is worth your time or half your profits, that's something you have to decide for yourself. To me, giving your manuscript to companies like this is the equivalent of buying an egg slicer you saw on an infomercial. Does it do anything you couldn't already do? No. Does that make it a scam? No.
