is Reagent Press a real publisher?

Question

I came across an ad that said they were looking for book submissions. However when I went to their website http://www.tvpress.com/ they seem mainly to published books by Robert Stanek. There were only two other authors with a book each listed. Is this some company run by one guy doing a print-on-demand deal somewhere?

Answer 1

Beware

"Tri, I just got a question about Reagent Press, and visited its website. Have you ever heard of Robert Stanek, of Ruin Mist fame? If so, you'll need no further warning when I tell you that he's the owner of Reagent Press. If you haven't, he's a self-published SF author who briefly became notorious for pseudonymously posting reviews of his books and creating enormous numbers of Listmania lists featuring his books on Amazon. Apart from his self-publishing venture, I don't believe he has any publishing background at all (I'm being kind and tactful here). Not to mention, the only books listed on the site are by him."


" I don’t think J.R. King is really a kid. First of all the name is clearly a pseudonym. Also there is no picture or bio of him anywhere. You think he would have a personal webpage to promote his books, but he doesn’t. And his book is published by Reagent Press which is a vanity press owned by the self published author Robert Stanek. Except for one other author (who has a photograph and bio) and “J.R. King”, Reagent only publishes the the work of Robert Stanek. Robert Stanek is widely suspected of writing hundreds of positive reviews of his own books on Amazon.

Almost every Amazon reviewer of “J.R. King’s” book on Amazon has also reviewed one or more Stanek’s books.

I think J.R. King is Robert Stanek. Stanek is trying to hop on the teen writer bandwagon in hopes of selling books. (his awful Ruinmist books are certainly not selling anymore)

Out of curiosity I wrote a letter to Reagent requesting a J.R. King press package with a photograph and I never got a reply."

Answer 2

They seem to be a small independent publisher. You should always do a lot of research on small publishers before you consider working with them!

Edit: Ohhh, REAgent Press! I looked up Regent Press and they seem legit, if small. Yeah, Reagent Press is owned by that wacky Stanek dude. Avoid.