Improbable Press
Cart 0

Improbable Press Blog

What "We're Editing Your Book" Really Means

Publishing Reference

What "We're Editing Your Book" Really Means

By Atlin Merrick A writer recently asked what we mean by 'we're editing your book,' and though we've talked about the overall book editing process on this blog, we never covered the nitty gritty of how the editing process goes. We're about to do that right now. How We Edit Your Book You've sent your completed novel to us. We've never seen those words before. We're excited! Though the precise process depends on the editor, for Improbable Press, this is how we edit: While we read, we're making note of big things like 'this story starts too early… begin the...

Read more →


Matches Burning (writing prompt)

Writing Prompts

Matches Burning (writing prompt)

I think a prompt is everything that motivates you. It can be anything, and it doesn't have to have anything to do with what you go on to create, it's simply a catalyst. Maybe that's what this semi-regular column should be called: catalyst. Whether you're writing a poem or a polemic, if you're noodling on a novel or stewing over the next step in a short story, sometimes a lyric is enough to propel you forward – I know lyrics can often help me as I walk around grumbling to myself about a plot point – and speaking of point,...

Read more →


Twins: crunchy facts for your fiction

Crunchy facts for your fiction

Twins: crunchy facts for your fiction

Want a crunchy fact for your sci-fi novel? A little something that gives a sense of place, science, or culture? How about this: your extraterrestrials always give birth to twins. In humans twin births are rare, happening about 4 times to 1,000 births, but get this: Clawed New World monkeys (Callitrichidae) — tiny wee creatures between 4 to 21 ounces – rarely have one baby, instead they nearly always have fraternal twins (or triplets when in captivity) and they can do so with greater ease than humans in part because they develop their placenta a lot longer than we do...

Read more →


Crunchy Facts for Your Fiction: Introduction

Crunchy facts for your fiction

Crunchy Facts for Your Fiction: Introduction

I read all kinds of interesting stuff. How moths drink the tears of sleeping birds. That flour is explosive. That Marie Curie's belongings will be radioactive for 500 years. And there are probably at least 500 billion galaxies. These are little facts that are a delight just for knowing, or for knowing so you can add them to a story and give it a wee bit of crunch. Crunch? Crunchy facts are those chewy, spikey, textural bits of minutiae that give your story complexity. So says novelist and songwriter Narrelle M Harris, who made up this tasty term. Crunchy facts...

Read more →


Submission Guidelines? I'm a special writer, I don't need no stinkin' guidelines!

Atlin Merrick Publishing Reference Submission Guidelines Writer's Guidelines

Submission Guidelines? I'm a special writer, I don't need no stinkin' guidelines!

By Atlin Merrick Just…just go around me. I'm going to be here awhile, stretched out on this grass, staring at the fluffy clouds while I tell youngsters to get off my lawn. Which is to say I am a tiny bit exhausted. O so weary of others doing what I used to do, and now I just want to squirt everyone with this hose I'm not holding and holler "Learn from my mistakes for heaven's sake! I also didn't follow submission guidelines! And do you know what it got me? Don't you walk away while I'm yelling at you!" Submission...

Read more →