Publisher says in Las Vegas, anything is possible

Describe your business.

Imbrifex Books is a traditional book-publishing firm that makes the most of 21st-century tools and technology. While we’re new in the world of books, we’ve been involved in online publishing since the dawn of the public Web. We launched roadtripamerica.com in 1996 and living-las-vegas.com in 2004. We provide editorial service, graphic design and marketing services to our authors. Because we are a small press publishing six to seven titles per year, we have a personal commitment to ensuring that every book is a success.

Las Vegas feels like the perfect home for our company — the wild west, where every anything is still possible and anything might happen as soon as next week.

What inspired you to open this business?

Las Vegas is a hotbed of talent and creativity. There are hundreds of stories between Jean and Apex just waiting to be discovered, developed and delivered to a worldwide audience. Imbrifex Books intends to provide a quality conduit for those stories.

Have you always been a book lover?

I’ve always loved to read. When I was 7 years old, I spent a year in traction with both legs attached to heavy weights for 24 hours a day. It presented me with a fantastic opportunity to hone my reading skills. I developed a speed reading technique that I still use. Being able to read full-length books in a few hours is a skill I particularly appreciate now that I need it for professional reasons.

Why did you decide to focus on the Southwest?

I’ve been providing real-world, real-time advice every day for more than 20 years to roadtripamerica.com readers. This daily correspondence has sharpened my thinking about all aspects of road tripping. My understanding of what drives families, couples and solo travelers to hit the road provides me with deep understanding of what kinds of books and travel guides they are seeking and how the information they need can best be delivered.

What criteria do you look for when taking book idea submissions?

For fiction: Do the first five sentences of a manuscript have sufficient tension to encourage me to read the next five? For nonfiction: Does the proposal sell me on the concept, and does the author have the skill to bring the book into being?

Does the query letter provide concrete answers to the questions we pose on our submission guidelines?

Can I sell this book? How big an audience is the book likely to attract?

To what extent does the author have a platform that we can leverage to promote the book?

Talk about the book “Getting Off on Frank Sinatra,” which is set to release in March 2017.

Our debut novel, by Megan Edwards, will be available online and in stores in March 2017. In this mystery set in Las Vegas, aspiring journalist Copper Black discovers a dead body behind a door she should never have opened. Now embroiled in a high-profile murder investigation, Copper juggles her love life, career ambitions, family drama, and an Indian uprising while trying to solve the murder. It’s a book for all who love Las Vegas and a good whodunit.