Editor Interview: Stonehewer Books

Emerging Writers’ Fiction

Transit Books, Fitzcarraldo Editions, Coach House Books, Coffee House Press

My tastes range widely, from the timeless insight of Leo Tolstoy and Jane Austen to the contemporary magic of Kazuo Ishiguro, Andre Alexis, and Susanna Clarke. Broadly speaking, I like books that do it all.

Because we only publish a few titles a year, we are able to give each one the attention it deserves. This means we are rigorous with our editing, thoughtful in our design, and responsive to our authors.

Make sure somebody else has read your work — and that you’ve taken their notes to heart and revised accordingly.

Good characters chasing clear goals in a fully realized world — with the twist of personality that only a dedicated artist can provide.

Not reading the submission guidelines. We are open to a lot — but not everything!

I like to get some sense of who the writer is. The cover letter has almost nothing to do with whether a submission gets accepted or not, but it is the first impression — if it’s poorly written or full of typos, you have me going into your submission in a negative frame of mind.
Having short stories placed in respectable literary magazines is always taken as a good sign, but we are happy to publish someone with no publication credits if the work is good.

Depends on the submission, but roughly a third of a novel is a good rule of thumb. If there’s no discernible plot by then, or I’ve been given no reason to empathize with the main character, there’s not much that can be done. If I have been hooked in some way, though, I’ll read to the end. On the opposite end of the spectrum, in some rare cases it’s clear within a page or two that what I’m reading isn’t a good fit for Stonehewer, but even then, I like to read on a while — you never know when a cuttable opening might lead to a worthy story.
Short stories are different. If there’s one knockout piece, I’m liable to read the whole collection searching for a repeat of that feeling. But if the first two or three stories fail to grab me, I’m not likely to go on. So put your best foot forward!

We judge work entirely on its quality.

We’re a small press, so I wear a lot of hats, and every day is different. This comes in handy while editing — I can take breaks, work on something else, and give myself important time to mull your story over in both my conscious and unconscious minds.

Depends on the submission, but probably moderately-to-heavily. We are looking for competent storytellers who come to us with a high-quality product, but there is always room to improve. While we do not have the resources to shepherd a writer through a total rewrite, if we are impressed we might give some advice and invite them to resubmit at a later date.

Yes.