Has anyone ever heard of, or knows people who has been published by dreamspinnerpress? As far as I can see, it's a boys love publishing house where you can submit your work. Mostly they sell e-books for aprox 17USD each, but also have paperbacks. This is basically what they offer: "... For novel length work, we pay a negotiated advance (25% is paid when the contract is signed and 75% is paid upon approval of the final proof) and 25% of net royalties thereafter. Novella length stories earn 33% royalties and Short Stories earn 50% royalties. Short stories and novellas for anthologies are purchased for a flat amount based on the length of the work. Copyright remains with the author. Exceptions are made for an anthology of shorter fiction by a single author in which case the novel length guidelines apply. ..." I'm wondering if it would be smart to try it out, yet on the other hand it seems kind of.. I don't know, unproffesional? Now I have no experience with publishers whatsoever, so I have no idea, if this is a normal way of handling things, or wether it truely is unproffesional. So does anyone has any experience with this?
I didn't see any listing for them on Preditors and Editors, probably because they are new. I looked at their site. I didn't see any books as expensive as $17, most were between $1.99 and $8.99, which is more like it for an ebook. They have author pages listed. Possibly you could try and contact some of their published authors and see what their experience have been.
An advance is positive, depending on how large. It should be substantial, as 25% of net for mainly ebooks is a small royalty. And 'net' should be defined in the contract. Standard is a % of cover price. Net is becoming more common, but 25% of net could mean 15% or less of the cover price--for an ebook that is way below what most publishers pay. You can find more input about them over at Absolute Write.
