Improbable Press Blog

By Atlin Merrick We don't start off knowing this stuff. When my first books were published I knew nothing about anything. Do I have to make every change the editor asks for? Can they do it if I don't agree? Will they hate me if I disagree? No, no, and no. Edits to Your Beloved Manuscript Every writer is edited. All of us. Oh sure, maybe not the famous ones, but you've read a later work of a superstar, the stuff no editor touches because the writer's too powerful? Yeah, well then you've seen how those books too often needed...

Submissions Now Closed: Thank you for 220+ stories! ANNA KARENINA ISN'T DEAD: The rewritten lives of literary legends You suffer. You die. You exist so the hero can have his journey. Who are you? You're a woman in classic literature. Of course this isn't the destiny of every woman, but from Anna Karenina to Jocasta to Cio-Cio-San, from Esmeralda to Aida to Mrs Rochester, death, madness, or suffering is the fate of far too many women in classic stories. Anna Karenina Isn't Dead undoes that. In this anthology of literary women, these women live. Do they have a happily ever after? Maybe. Do...

By Ali Coyle Every writer has, probably at several times, been becalmed by writer’s block. You open the working document and nothing comes to mind. Your plot (and your characters) are going nowhere until inspiration fills your sails again. It sucks. Inspiration needs feeding, though. And regularly. Writers need to read, to immerse themselves in setting and dialogue and description and plot. When I can’t write, I often can’t settle to read either. A few days ago, I saw a tweet that mentioned 'reader’s block.' I hadn’t really considered reader’s block as a thing in its own right until then....

By Tamara M Bailey When my daughter was a month old, I decided it was time to start writing again. I'd wrapped up all other projects before she was born, so I was free to start something new. In the last four weeks, I've managed to write a chapter every single day. How? Well…persistence and determination have something to do with it, but I won't deny that I'm talking from a place of privilege. Not quite hired-a-nanny privilege, but I don't have to work at the moment, and I don't have another child to chase around. I'm well aware you...

Closed. Closed. Closed to submissions. If it seems to you that most small presses are closed to book submissions you're not wrong. A random check just now showed me 60-70% of presses are closed – usually including Improbable Press. There's a good reason for this: not enough staff to read submissions, and edit, proof, lay out, illustrate, and promote the books we already have in progress. So. What's a writer to do when there seems no way in? First, Know That There Is a Way In I can't speak for every press, obviously, but I can speak for a few,...