This interview is provided for archival purposes. The listing is not currently active.
Q: Describe what you publish in 25 characters or less.
A: SF with female protag
Q: What other current publications (or publishers) do you admire most?
A: Anybody who is willing and able to publish SF in this publishing economy - and especially anyone who thinks the word "midlist" is not a pejorative.
Q: If you publish writing, who are your favorite writers? If you publish art, who are your favorite artists?
A: Jane Austen, Ursula LeGuin, C.J. Cherryh, Ellis Peters, P.D. James, Tony Hillerman
Q: What sets your publication apart from others that publish similar material?
A: The stress on women making their own decisions and solving problems without resorting to hatred of men.
Q: What is the best advice you can give people who are considering submitting work to your publication?
A: Read the previous volumes. Be patient, because we do have every intention of bringing out more volumes as soon as it is financially feasible.
Q: Describe the ideal submission.
A: A piece in which the characters are real; speak like people actually speak; face situations that are not manufactured, but arise naturally in the course of the story; and don't act stupidly. We like characters with brains.
Q: What do submitters most often get wrong about your submissions process?
A: Their antagonists (usually male) are thoughtless, cruel or power-hungry. We would rather not see one-dimensional villains.
Q: How much do you want to know about the person submitting to you?
A: We care most about the story itself.
Q: If you publish writing, how much of a piece do you read before making the decision to reject it?
A: Depends entirely on the piece. If it's clear from the first page or so that the author really can't write or hasn't read our guidelines, we can stop quickly. If the story grabs us and holds our interest, we read through to the end.
Q: What additional evaluations, if any, does a piece go through before it is accepted?
A: A story needs to "fit" with other stories that are likely to be part of the volume, so as to present to the reading public a more or less cohesive whole, without overlap or repetition. Sometimes stories can be about the same issue--e.g., a woman's response to war--as long as each story presents a different aspect or reaches a different conclusion.
Q: What is a day in the life of an editor like for you?
A: Impossible to answer this question. If stories arrive, they go into a queue, and when enough time to read presents itself in the face of everything else going on, the queue gets accessed and reading begins. I don't do this full-time, and life often gets in the way.
Q: How important do you feel it is for publishers to embrace modern technologies?
A: It's important to look at what the market wants and try to provide it, if possible. Some people want to read traditional books, and that audience needs to be served; others want electronic reading opportunities, and those should be available for them. The readers are what's important here, not the technologies. But we do believe strongly in POD, because any publisher owned by companies run by accountants and lawyers will not want "small" books, and some of the most significant books around are not the best-sellers.