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Editor Interview: The Boss: An Erotic Collection

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

A: All Genre Fiction

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

A: Zimbell House Publishing, our parent company, offers several anthologies a year in each of its imprints to help new writers get exposure. They help break down the barrier to getting published, without the smear of vanity presses.

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

A: There are so many, it's hard to narrow down.

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

A: Our acquisitions team. They really are dedicated to helping showcase talented new writers.

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

A: Follow the guidelines. Nothing is more frustrating than having to turn down someone because they didn't bother to read the guidelines.

Q: Describe the ideal submission.

A: Each work we publish is unique. So guidelines matter. The ideal submission will adhere to the guidelines for that particular call and have been proofread and edited before submission. We see far too many sloppy submissions.

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

A: Word counts and subject matter.

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

A: Cover letters don't really matter for anthology calls-there isn't time to slog through them. They do for novels. Previous publication credit means that the writer should know how to follow guidelines. What more important to know is the author's social media following.

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

A: At Zimbell House Publishing, Temptation Press, and Chipper Press, we do in fact read the entire submission. Our reasoning is that you don't know where the issues lie until you've read it all. Our editors like to know exactly what we're getting into before we accept a submission. Some writers have rather strong beginnings, flounder a bit in the middle, and then bring it home in the end. In this example, we would help the author with developmental editing. Some have strong arcs, subplots are solid, but the dialog needs help. Sometimes it POV issues, by skimming or just reading the first few pages, you're doing your publishing house a disservice.

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

A: At Zimbell House and its imprints, our acquisitions team evaluates several areas individually before a piece is accepted. Character development, the story arc, dialog, author voice, etc.

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

A: At Zimbell House and our imprints, Temptation Press (for erotica) and Chipper Press (middle-grade), our acquisitions process is the same. A team of reviewers each do a rough read through of the submission, then fills out a recommendation form. This form goes over every aspect of what goes into a quality piece of writing. Including what level editorial help it needs. These forms are turned into our Publisher and she then makes a decision on whether to move forward or decline the submission.

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

A: The world is changing, either you adapt or perish. Our parent company, Zimbell House Publishing, embraces current technologies and keeps an eye to the future. Not every new technology is worth the capital investment but improving processes and time efficiencies are.

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

A: It depends. For anthologies, we expect a near perfect submission due to our extremely tight turn around times. We do not have the time to interact too much with the authors due to sheer volume. So the editing we expect to do is light; spelling, grammar, etc. However, for a novel, it's a completely different animal. Zimbell House, Temptation Press, and Chipper Press, all do substantive editing, each of our novels go through a four-stage editing process, beginning with developmental edits. We work with our authors during the editing process and the author is heavily involved. At Zimbell House, we partner with our authors to produce the best product possible, so it will sell for generations.

Q: Do you nominate work you've published for any national or international awards?

A: For our anthologies, we nominate work to Pushcart. For our novels, we nominate to appropriate awards for that genre.