Editor Interview: Allworth Press

Success for creatives.

Some of our exciting titles are Living Trusts for Everyone, Protecting Your Assets from Probate, Lawsuits, and Long-Term Care, Love and Money, The Smart Woman's Guide to Building and Protecting Wealth, The Secret Life of Money, The Money Mentor, Legal Guide for the Visual Artist, Business and Legal Forms for Graphic Designers, Hollywood Dealmaking, and many other titles to help those in the arts and also those building their financial futures and planning their estates.

I'm a great admirer of Thomas Mann, especially The Magic Mountain which inspired my recent novel A Woman in the Wild (Arcade Publishing). In terms of contemporary authors, I enjoy the novels of James McBride, Zakes Mda, and Julian Barnes. With respect to the Allworth Press mission of helping creative professionals like artists and authors, I know the Allworth authors and very much admire their willingness to help the community of artists by sharing their expertise.

No other publisher has focused so closely on the challenges and needs of creative people who are writers, visual artists, musicians. etc. In addition, we cover critical financial and legal issues that everyone faces such as how to avoid probate, living trusts, settling estates, and the like.

Please look closely at what we publish so your submission falls within our areas of interest.

The ideal submissions serves our creative audience, gives a succinct overview of the book and the need for it, highlights the author's expertise and gives any information that might help with sales of the book, discusses competitive/comparable books, and usually provides a sample chapter. This would come after a one page query sent by email.

They don't look at what we actually publish.

A cover letter or email begins the process. Then I can request a full proposal if I'm interested. Our authors have expertise so I want to understand a potential author's qualifications. Publication credits aid in this.

It depends on what is submitted. I will read as far as necessary to see the promise of the piece and its fit with the press. Also, whether any problems I see can be resolved by careful editing.

Other editorial staff review and comment.

I'm the publisher, so in addition to editing I'm looking at the shaping of future lists, dealing with authors about books we are publishing or are considering publishing, and helping with the business aspects of publishing.

It depends on the piece. Some require little editing, some require a lot. Substantive editing will be provided if necessary. Line editing, copy editing, and proofreading are all provided. The author does get to review and approve the edits.

In general, the books are informational guides and not appropriate for that.

By revenues generated from book sales to the book trade. We are distributed by Simon & Schuster.

We have an in-house publicity department.