Still talking hats: Wayside Press

I’ve been waiting to post about this new hatted position until the website was up and running and I could send you to it. But we have postponement.

I feel a bit like an astronaut whose flight was aborted, but this is another test in patience. Still, I’m going to put up the ready-to-go post and then link to the new website when it releases.

Some very talented people are working on a logo for us. Can’t wait to see what comes out of those creative minds. In the meantime:

NEW EXECUTIVE EDITOR FOR WAYSIDE PRESS:  C’est moi!

Wayside Press is the newest imprint of Written World Communications, 

and I’m Written World’s newest editor. (Though that news flash may already be dated, as it looks as if Kristine has also hired someone for Timeless, the magazine/imprint for the over-fifty crowd.)  Until Wayside’s launching, WWC had a place for everyone except the rest of us. Christian writers could craft fantasy or romance, speculative or young adult. Even children’s writers could make a dent, and poets found their work on the pages of one of WWC’s three magazines.

But for those who write crossover works for the general market? Nope. No room at the inn.

That has now changed, and I get to stand at the helm as the change emerges. If I were younger or more nimble, I’d turn cartwheels.

Why did Kristine Pratt, WWC’s CEO, invite me to head up this line? Probably because I’m the pickiest editor she knows. My husband calls me a grammar nazi, and I suppose I am. I began editing professionally back in the 1970s, which, I’m afraid, does date me. But don’t worry. I read eclectically and always have, so I doubt you’ll scare me, even if I am older by decades.

I know you’re out there, lurking, hoping for a home for your literary fiction that forgot to start with a bang, but whose language compels a thoughtful reader forward; the cozy or even uncozy mystery that is all about story; the romance that hangs on the romantic and not the sexual; the humorous, the satirical, the sublime, anything that makes me smile and forces me to sit up and take notice…all because you have something wonderful to say and your writing sings.

Why does the publishing world need another general market line?

Now, I grant that this is merely my opinion, but I think a lot of writers feel left by the wayside. Their work isn’t steamy enough or violent enough or sweet enough or prosthelytizing enough to fit in the CBA or the ABA. They’ve searched the Indie publishing market and found few outlets for the sort of thing they write. And, to be truthful, many of us are disappointed with the quality of works on the shelves.

We at Wayside want to change that. I’ll be looking at submissions soon. In the meantime, leave me a comment and tell me what you’re working on that might fit into Wayside’s line. Let’s make a difference together.

For a sneak peak at some of the changes going on over at WWC, read what Kristine has to say on Facebook.

Harry Potter, A poker hand, and a whole slew of bookstores….