Editor Interview: Doubleback Books

Previously published work

Doubleback Review, Sundress Publications, Salish Magazine, Kegedonce Press, Theytus Books, Half Mystic Press, Mountaineers Books, Sasquatch Books, Epicenter Press, Fathom Publishing, university presses, Bracken Magazine, Deep Wild Journal, Milkweed Editions, Trail to Table Press, BRAVE Books, Pacific Northwest Gothic Magazine, Northern Shadows Magazine, and publications/publishers that feature Indigenous authors.

Doubleback authors Letitia L. Moffitt, Jamie Moore, and Terese Svoboda. Artist: Kathleen Frank.

Most reprint publishers rescue books that have fallen into the public domain. Doubleback Books does something rarer: We reprint books that went out of print because their small, independent presses folded in the twenty-first century—books that went out of print before their time, through no fault of their own. We take in creative nonfiction such as memoirs, fiction such as novels, novellas, chapbooks, and story and poetry collections that were both published and orphaned after 2000, and we bring them back as free downloadable ebooks.

Every Doubleback book is a second act. Tell us why this one deserves an encore: Who do you imagine reading it, and what do you hope they feel or take away from it? Feel free to include this as a separate paragraph in the synopsis section of the submission form.

We group submissions into three categories—nonfiction, fiction, and poetry—and our criteria differ across them. However, all submissions should have some sort of positive impact upon the readers. We generally don't lean towards books that stir up anger or negative emotions, unless they're invoked with a purposeful, positive call to action. We would love to see more projects by Indigenous authors, as well as nature writing and creative nonfiction. We generally receive many more poetry submissions than fiction and nonfiction, and would like to balance that out. Above all, the ideal submission is written for its readers, not for its author.

Please read the submission directions carefully and follow them. Most rejections at the first pass come from simply not following directions. Also, even though your book has been published before does not mean it's error-free. A message from the author stating that it doesn't need any editing and is perfect as is comes across as rather arrogant. Even large publishers have what's called an acceptable error rate that we aim to reduce.

We would like to receive a professional author bio that could potentially be used as the about the author section of the book as well as for future press materials if your book is selected for publication. We also welcome additional information about you in additional paragraphs below, labeled "Additional Information." Please give us more information rather than less. It's easier for our editors to reduce length than add to it, and it gives us more information about you for acquisition decisions. We like to see all of the following: related degrees, related work experience, any literary awards you've won, other books you've published (especially on similar topics), and random fun facts/hobbies related to the book. This information helps us get to know you better and may or may not influence our acquisition decisions, depending on your book and the current competition in its category. We don't currently accept cover letters.

It varies depending on the genre and how much competition there is in that submission's category. We've been receiving many more poetry submissions than prose. For poetry currently, on the first pass, about one-fourth of submissions are cut based on the synopsis. Another quarter or so are cut based on brief screenings. The remaining half of poetry and generally most of prose submissions are fully read before making a final decision.

We perform an initial screening based on the synopses looking for general fit, topics of interest, and quality. Manuscripts are then screened again, more in-depth, to select the top ten in each category, looking for general writing quality and topics of interest. We also read the author bios and any additional information submitted. It's important to us that authors would be good representatives of our organization. After selecting the top ten, the projects are sent for full readings and the top five selections in each category are chosen. The manuscripts and all information are then sent to our genre editors who perform another full reading and select the final manuscripts for publication.

Our open reading period is the most exciting time of the year for me. I very much look forward to reading through our submissions and seeing our publication options for the next year. Our submissions are automatically entered into a database which I access and scan through. First I read the synopses and cut any don't fit our goals for this year. Types of projects that typically get cut quickly are manuscripts with a lot of negativity, and projects that seem to be only valuable to the author rather than readers. I then do a count to see how many are left and get some idea of how many I still need to cut in order to select the top ten in each category—nonfiction, fiction, and poetry. I read the table of contents, author bios, and any additional information for each manuscript before reading a few pages of each. The amount of reading I do depends on how many submissions I need to cut. If a story is of interest to me, like any human I tend to read more. I continue going back and forth reading more and more, as necessary, till I come to a decision on which manuscripts will make it to our top-ten round. It's very exciting to select our future publications, and I happily pass on the top ten to undergo full readings by our editorial department.

Since Doubleback publishes only previously published books, we edit much less than the typical publisher. We focus mostly on evaluating whether additional front and back matter would benefit the book, such as a new introduction or afterword. We fully edit any new material added, but generally only do minimal developmental/substantive/line editing to the previously published material. Authors see and approve all dev/substantive/line edits. The full manuscript is then fully copyediting, since copyediting mistakes are common even in previously published books. If the copyediting corrections are purely technical, such as quotation marks facing the wrong way, we generally don't send copyediting corrections to the author to approve. If any wording changes or poetry line formatting edits are suggested—any larger sort of copyediting corrections—those are sent to the author for approval. After formatting, the book is sent to the author for a final check, after which the book undergoes full proofreading by our editorial team before publication.

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Doubleback Books is an imprint of Sundress Publications, a nonprofit literary press, and is fully funded by Sundress Publications and the efforts of our volunteer staff.

Most of our publicity and marketing is handled by our parent publisher Sundress Publications. Doubleback creates press releases and press kits which are sent out by Sundress Publications via a myriad of distribution channels. Social media posts are also created by Doubleback and posted both by Doubleback and Sundress Publications. We interview each author, and those interviews are published on The Sundress Blog as further publicity for our books. We also publish book reviews and do book reading events.