Burnstown Publishing House (formerly General Store Publishing House)

No, it is not normal practice. Reputable publishers do not charge reading or evaluation fees--or indeed, fees of any kind.

GSPH also says that, based on the editor's comments, "[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]we will decide what type of publishing program (if any) to offer you." This suggests the possibility of vanity publishing to me, since commercial publishers simply publish--they don't offer different "programs."

Even if none of the above were the case, I don't see any indication that GSPH regularly publishes speculative fiction. If you write genre fiction, you really want a publisher that specializes in that genre.

- Victoria
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No, best to stay away from them.

But a catchy name for a house.

As Victoria said, it seems that General Store Publishing House is a very small press that publishes local history and other special-interest titles. It wasn't clear to me from a look at their titles whether they were a commercial small press or a vanity/subsidy house--their asking for an upfront payment shows that they are working on a vanity/subsidy model with at least some of their titles.

And if your goal is "to sell many copies" of a speculative fiction book, it seems that General Store Publishing House would be a poor fit no matter what--their market niche appears to be pretty focused on local-interest stuff.

Two hundred smackers to read an MS? Please. There may be fifty ways to leave your lover, but I swear, there must be five hundred places to separate an author from their wallet.