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Crowded Quarantine Publications

Darkvampiredrake

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Hey all, does anyone have any experience with these guys, or any specific details? I have no skill at looking between the lines or finding anything not immediately present in a google search, but I've gone through most of their site and it looks fair enough (to a newbie). They look really nice, and they seem to have a large focus on individualizing their authors to make them stand out. They're closed for submissions right now, and I don't know how long that will last, but they looked straightforward enough when they were open last time. Just hoping for some extra info on their reputation and processes.

There are two sites:

http://www.crowdedquarantine.co.uk/

http://crowdedquarantine.com/
 
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aleighrose

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From their "About" page (bolding mine):
Crowded Quarantine Publications Ltd. was founded in 2011 by horror author, Adam Millard, and his wife Zoe. Our goal is to release only the best in horror and speculative fiction, and work closely with our authors to bring their visions to fruition. In the short time since the company was formed we have released close to thirty titles and are always looking to expand. In 2012 we launched a non-fiction imprint, Crowded Crockpot, which will see the launch of several new books in 2014. Crowded Quarantine are not, in any way, shape or form, a vanity press, and do not charge authors for publication.
I don't understand why the press is treated as a plural noun in the last sentence, especially since it was used as a singular noun in the first sentence.
Also, the press is run by an author rather than someone with any publishing experience.

On the more positive side, they've been around since 2011 (so they pass the "wait a few years" test) and the few titles that I looked into had halfway decent sales rankings on Amazon.
 

Darkvampiredrake

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Is being author-run a bad sign? I figured an author would be a good choice to run a publishing company since we have to know quite a bit about them, but this could just be my naivete talking. I really don't know (hence why I put up the question). I just don't catch on to things; I looked through the About page three times and didn't notice anything that seemed weird at all.

Oh, and I think the usage of plural seems right with how they used singular with the company's full name, but used plural to indicate the people working under the name 'Crowded Quarantine'.
 

aleighrose

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Typically, the name of a publishing is treated as a singular noun.

While an author-run press is not always a bad thing, it usually means that the staff have no real experience in the publishing industry. The work of a publisher is very different from the work of an author and requires a lot of knowledge of marketing, editing, financing, etc. But Crowded Quarantine is run by an author and his wife, neither of whom possessed any experience in publishing before starting their own publishing company. Since the page mentions no other staff members, it could just be the two of them handling everything.