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Editor Interview: Southeast Missouri State University Press

Q: Describe what you publish in 25 characters or less.

A: Quiet lit & the weird

Q: What other current publications (or publishers) do you admire most?

A: Some of my favorite small presses at the moment include Civil Coping Mechanisms, Outpost 19, Urban Farmhouse, Two Dollar Radio, Black Lawrence Press, Braddock Avenue Books, Moon City Press...I could go on.

Q: If you publish writing, who are your favorite writers? If you publish art, who are your favorite artists?

A: Some of my older favorites include Pynchon, Woolf, Delillo, Murakami, Joyce, etc.. etc.. You get the idea.
But I'm also a big fan of folks like Gabe Blackwell, Brandon Hobson, Mike Meginnis, Brandi Wells, Danielle Evans, Matt Bell, Roxane Gay
Don't be scared off by these fiction-centric answers, poets. I'm more of a fiction guy, but I assure you we love poetry (and love to publish poetry) as well.

Q: What sets your publication apart from others that publish similar material?

A: At the moment, our catalog is diverse and covers a wide range of genres and topics. We've published everything from novels and poetry to regional history to cookbooks. We really just look for manuscripts that move and inspire us, regardless of how conventional or experimental it is. Maybe that doesn't set us apart from others, but it works for us.

Q: What is the best advice you can give people who are considering submitting work to your publication?

A: Make sure it's ready. If you're entering through a contest, knock our socks off with your manuscript. If you're sending us a query, make sure you represent the book in a way that makes us want to read more.

Q: Describe the ideal submission.

A: Something a little weird, a little funny, and with a huge, but not sentimental, heart.

Q: What do submitters most often get wrong about your submissions process?

A: Not following basic instructions. Sending queries without nearly enough information (or, conversely) with far too much information. Keep queries to a page or two. Make sure to follow contest rules and guidelines, please.

Q: How much do you want to know about the person submitting to you?

A: We love publishing first time authors, but it's also nice to know publication credits and what kind of an audience an author has established.

Q: If you publish writing, how much of a piece do you read before making the decision to reject it?

A: Anywhere from a page to the full manuscript. It really depends on the quality of the writing. Some manuscripts reveal themselves as sloppy and ill-conceived very early on. Others are strong all the way through. The things to remember is this: we're a very small operation and we don't publish many books a year, so sometimes we have to pass on stuff that we really, really like a lot.

Q: What additional evaluations, if any, does a piece go through before it is accepted?

A: Non-fiction manuscripts, especially ones involving public figures, are vetted for accuracy. Otherwise, we look at the writing and the content.

Q: What is a day in the life of an editor like for you?

A: The director and assistant keep a folder of all the queries as they come in and work their way through them when there's time. When we request a full manuscript, it's first reviewed by 2-3 interns, and is then reviewed by the director for a final decision.
For Big Muddy and Cape Rock (the journals that we publish), interns review submissions as they come in and then the journal editors work through submissions as time allows to make final decisions.

Q: How important do you feel it is for publishers to embrace modern technologies?

A: It's absolutely important. We have to keep up both as a business and as advocates for our authors. Ultimately, we want to deliver literature to readers in whatever ways they're most likely to read and appreciate it.

Q: How much do you edit an accepted piece prior to publication?

A: With a new director, we're revamping the process a bit. While the amount of editing happens on a piece by piece basis, we generally provide substantive editing/suggestions when we feel they could benefit the piece, but authors get final approval of their manuscripts. This is true of the books published by the press and pieces published in our journals.