I came across these guys for my urban fantasy. Most of the books out have been written by the owner. Is that normal?
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Moon Rose Publishing
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Unimportant
No COVID yet. Still masking.
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Well, it's normal for self-publishers who try to branch out into being a small press. You'll find quite a few outfits like this. But they usually have little editing or distribution; the owner-author(s) have little or no industry experience; the books have minimal sales. So I wouldn't recommend them.
What Unimportant said.
It's a way of making their books look as though they're from a publisher instead of self-published on Amazon.
It's a way of making their books look as though they're from a publisher instead of self-published on Amazon.
We aren't told who these editors are or how much previous experience they've had. From an Amazon review of one of MRP's books:
I can't see much evidence of perfection in any of the MRP books I looked inside - clunky writing, cliches, typos including the ever-popular poured instead of pored and eccentric punctuation abound.
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Just saying "We are not a vanity publisher" raises the question of "Why might people think you are?"
You don't see "We are not a vanity publisher" on Bantam/Doubleday/Dell's web site, do you?
You don't see "We are not a vanity publisher" on Bantam/Doubleday/Dell's web site, do you?
I agree with Unimportant - you'll see a number of these presses which were started with the sole intention of making a self published book not look self published. Sometimes they do develop into sucessful small presses and sometimes they implode horribly.
One of the main issues with these sort of operations is that you are competing for time and attention with the owner/owners spouse and no matter how great your book, you will always come second because they have a more vested interest in making sure that their own work sells.
One press that comes to mind for this kind of senario is Ridan as this is pretty much what happened with them - self publishing the spouse led to signing other authors led to spouse becoming more successful which led to signing with bigger publisher which led to owners completely losing interest in all of their other authors which led to lots of angry, frustrated and disapointed authors left in limbo when the publisher stopped responding to emails.
It's certainly a warning tale when dealing with these publisher/writer presses.
I've seen this in the art world, too - they're called 'vanity galleries', and are started up by artists to showcase their own work. Sometimes they are viable, sometimes not. When I research them, I double-check on the owner's art, their online presence, and their business background. If the owner's art isn't up to standard quality, if they are reactionary prima donnas online, and they have no applicable business background - I never even bother to query them about art.
I've also turned down vanity galleries for the same reason (though I give more diplomatic responses.) I'm not raising someone else's low profile with my work.
I've also turned down vanity galleries for the same reason (though I give more diplomatic responses.) I'm not raising someone else's low profile with my work.
Like Fable Press, I think they may have closed. Their social media is still active but site is down.
Was in fact acquired by SideStreet Cookie Publishing effective Jan '15: http://www.sidestreetcookiepublishing.com/