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RockWay Press ® If Maxwell Perkins were alive, he'd want to work here.™ |
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HISTORY & MISSION
RockWay Press was founded by Alexandria Szeman, the award-winning and critically acclaimed author of
As a university professor of creative writing for over 25 years and an author with more than ten years of experience in the publishing world, Alexandria Szeman understands how difficult it is to get published in the 21st century — even if you have been successfully published previously, been awarded major literary prizes, been on the bestsellers' list, received good reviews in major publications, had a book optioned for film, or sold your book to publishers in foreign countries. Major Trade Publishers, most of whom are owned by corporations with other, more profit-making ventures, are often unwilling to take a risk on authors with unproven "best-seller" history, on genres that traditionally do not sell exceptionally large numbers of books (like poetry collections, short story collections, novellas, or creative non-fiction), on books whose topics have a select, appreciative, albeit relatively small, audience (such as Jewish fiction, Experimental literature, Holocaust fiction, Women's fiction, Christian literature, Trauma Literature, etc.), mid-list books, or on unpublished authors. These are exactly the types of books that RockWay Press is committed to publishing. RockWay's staff of experienced and talented editors and authors knows that there are many fine writers out there who cannot obtain non-fee-charging agents or who, if they do manage to obtain an agent, still cannot get their books accepted by major publishers because their book's audience is considered "too small." At RockWay Press, there is no such thing as an audience that is "too small." RockWay Press does high quality Trade paper format of some of the finest writing available in the world today, and we get our books out to the bookstores through national distributors who handle the distribution of small press books. We produce high quality books, with heavy paper, quality laminated covers, and perfect binding. Since we consider fine writing and good storytelling more important than making the bestsellers' list, RockWay Press doesn't remainder its books, sell its inventory to discount houses, or let its books go out of print. We also copyright & register the copyrights of our books in their authors' names. RockWay doesn't make decisions based on sales figures — we make decisions on good, solid storytelling; fantastic writing; lyrical language; and memorable poetic imagery that shows readers a new way of looking at the world. Additionally, RockWay Press sponsors annual writing competitions in all genres, to give unpublished authors or authors without agent representation a chance to have their work read by experienced editors. RockWay Press publishes only the finest books available, prints them in high-quality editions, distributes them to national bookstores in association with Ingram, Baker & Taylor, Amazon.com, Borders.com, Barnes&Noble.com, etc. To make it convenient for out web-site visitors, they can visit RockWay Press' Bookstore, where, by simply clicking a button, they will be taken to the online Independent or corporate bookstore of their choice to purchase RockWay's books. RockWay cares about its authors' reputations as well as its founder's. Editors from other houses, reviewers, agents, marketers, and publishers carefully scrutinize RockWay Press' choice of books (its "list"), how well our books sell, whether they receive favorable reviews or win awards, and how many times RockWay has to go back to press for another print run (which is a very good thing for the authors). All publishing houses are subjected to this scrutiny by
agents, editors, and reviewers. This is one of the ways, for example, that
agents decide which house to submit manuscripts to. Because of this
industry-wide scrutiny, RockWay Press is very selective in the books it
chooses to print. We want talented authors that we can be proud of and whose
work will reflect well on our founder as well as on our press. Are you frustrated by the "best-seller" mentality of many publishers? Are you tired of being told that your audience isn't "big enough" to warrant publication? Are you tired of having your books go out of print or not being distributed to bookstores on a national level? Are you tired of having your reading materials censored by conglomerate Trade publishers who are only looking for the next "bestseller"? Are you tired of the censorship practiced by corporate bookstores who only want to stock the classics, bestsellers, toys, games, and expensive coffee drinks? We are, too. Read these pages: Then "pitch" your book through a carefully written query letter (we give you our guidelines) to one of the editors at RockWay. Or, enter your manuscript(s) into one or more of our Annual International Writing Contests. Or, if you have a book that's been previously published by a Trade House, a university press, or a literary press, and been taken out of print, please send it to us for consideration of republication in our Out-of-Print Series. No queries are necessary for our out-of-print series submissions. However, self-published authors are not eligible for entry in this series. We don't know if you could be one of our authors, but we're willing to give you a chance. \
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