Editor Interview: Wet Cement Press

Innovative literature.

New Directions
Blaze Vox
Spuyten Duyvil
City Lights

Marilynne Robinson prose, Elizabeth Robinson poetry, Annie Ernoux essays

We consider hybrid and as yet unseen forms, and shift our preferences to include what we discover.

Please buy one of our books first, at least read something by one of our authors.

First, the author queries us with a brief description of the project. When we see the mss. we are looking to see if it is something we feel we have not read before. It may be a familiar subject seen from a new angle, or an old form with a new set of formal rules. The best writing we see has a reason to be in the world and brings us news about the human condition. In other words it needs to be about more than "what happened in your life." The ideal submission is not about identity politics, nor trauma, nor is it the first thing you have ever published. Don't send us a mss. if you just started writing, master something first.

Not having any idea about what we publish.

Not really. We like a few words about what the author has written to date.

We read as much of a manuscript as holds our interest. This may be a few pages or the whole manuscript. We sometimes have to reject excellent manuscripts because of our schedules or previous commitments.

We are a group of editors. We share our thoughts, and discuss what is wonderful or questionable about each book we publish. We invite some authors to work with us in editing their mss. Sometimes we accept a book on the condition that the author expresses interest in working with us editorially. Some books we accept as they are.

We are a volunteer editing staff, so the work we do is periodic and often late at night.

Sometimes we provide intense editing sometimes no editing at all, maybe just proofreading. Always, always an author is given final approval of edits.

Yes, when appropriate.