TLDR: Contract simple and fair. Annie great. Covers nice. Store bad/currently down. Sales (specifically, sales on a year old 4K word fluffy summer romance) consistent but meh.
I sold Etopia a short story for two reasons - one, another author I know and respect recommended the founder (Annie Melton) as being good people, and two, they accept short fiction of a length that most publishers do not. I think the thing I sold them was 4K words. (The next lowest word count req. is 7K at EC.)
In my opinion, Annie is in fact "good people." Very open and honest. She has been extremely candid in the writer's loop, and her communications with me were prompt, professional, and friendly. She will answer any question without pretending that the answers are Sekrit Publishing Things Mere Authors Must Not Know. Can't speak for everyone, but I was treated like a business partner.
The contract is fair and in clear English.
Covers were kind of all over the place at first, but they've been pretty awesome the last six months or so.
Pay is monthly, on time every time. I also get an emailed spreadsheet breaking down where the sales came from. The sheet also shows the math on how my royalty was figured.
The editing *is* hit and miss. My context for that opinion is my experience with: my editor at Carina Press, my editor for my weekly non-fiction column, my editor for my freelance journalism, and more I can't be arsed to remember at this moment. Also, I can read.
There were major problems with the editing at the launch of the press, and Annie was really, REALLY open about it and worked very hard to address the issues - to the point of re-editing most things herself. AFAIK, she tossed the bad apples.
The retail store wasn't good and they're replacing it, with what or when I don't know because I haven't checked the loop in awhile.
I will probably not submit a short again, but not because the experience was bad. I won't sub again because the sales from my self-pubbed short are higher and trending up, whereas I'm only selling a handful (5-10) of copies of "Get the Motor Running" every month. Dunno what novel sales are like.
If you don't want to do the work of self-pub, and lord knows it's work, I *am* getting a check for an average of two dollars every month, and have been for a year. No upward trend, but no downward trend either and, well, it's a 99 cent short story that can be summarized as "two blue collar young people meet and have sex." It was never going to set the world on fire.
Sorry to go on so long, but I'm not in the mood for drama and I thought maybe I could bore the thread into submission. Maximum verbosity FTW!