Phil93, welcome to Absolute Write.
I recently published my new novel, The Great Purple Hoo-Ha, with Mandrake of Oxford. They are a very well-respected occult publisher in the UK who also have a great selection of genre fiction. When I was in London on several recent trips, every time I mentioned Mandrake, in bookstores or among friends, I got nothing but glowing responses.
That's funny, because I've worked in publishing for years and I've never heard of Mandrake. Admittedly, I've never been involved in occult publishing--oh, hang on, I have. For a few years I was an editor at a packager which specialised in esoteric non-fiction, some of which could have been called occult. And I've
still never heard of Mandrake.
You can find their books in stores - tho perhaps more in occult bookstores than in mainstream. Their prices seem comparable to those of other publishers of trade paperbacks.
Only a tiny proportion of bookshops specialise in occult titles: if Mandrake's books are only really stocked in those specialist bookshops, then their sales profile is going to be tiny. They'll need to find sales elsewhere to stay afloat.
They are easy to work with - and that questionnaire asks many of the same questions I was asked when I published with a larger publisher in the USA. Tho if I were you, I'd just query them with an e-mail and get back to that kind of stuff when it seems you might have a deal.
And here we differ. You see, I prefer to check out publishers
before I submit to them: that way, I don't waste anyone's time--including my own--if it turns out that the publisher doesn't actually edit the books it publishes, or is operating as a vanity press by expecting me to buy my own books.
A quick look at Mandrake's website reveals a rather unpleasant design, some very clumsy navigation, and number of typos.
It also leads me to this, from Mandrake's "submissions" page:
We may look more favourable [sic] on a title if the author can undertake to provide us with CRC, that is copy ready for the printer. This considerably lightens our workload and enables us to move forward quickly to publication. We would need a printed copy and the digital files in something like Pagemaker or similar DTP programme. In some cases we may ask the author to preorder a small quantity of the title on publication. All this is subject to the manuscript being accepted in the first instance and passing our normal reading process.
So: they "may ask" their authors to buy their own books, which is a huge red flag; and they prefer authors to submit in a print-ready form, which implies that they don't edit the books that they publish.
Either one of these two issues would stop me submitting to Mandrake: but the two together? A definite no-no. I won't be submitting to Mandrake.
