Our Story
I came up with the idea for Pubmission in 2008. I was staring blankly at a massive soul-sucking spreadsheet I’d made to track all of the writing submissions I’d sent out to publishers and agents over the past year.
There were well over a hundred submissions listed, but I’d only received a handful of responses, even after months of waiting. A number of them were e-mail queries, but there was also a lot of postage, paper, and cash invested in my quest to get published, not to mention time, energy, and heart.
I’ve also spent the better part of my 16 years in publishing on the other side of the submissions process. I’m well-acquainted with the slush pile and that feeling of hunting for a needle in the haystack. Much of the mail I opened had nothing to do with what we published. And there was all of that wasted paper…
But I’ve also experienced the feeling that comes from discovering a great new writer in the slush pile and the excitement of offering that lucky person a contract.
So on that day, while sitting in front of my submissions spreadsheet, I decided to do what I could to make the submissions process easier and less about luck or who you know. I would create an online community where writers and publishers could find each other quickly and easily. I’d give both sides some simple, common-sense tools, along with an online community, that enabled them to have more control over what can be an overwhelming and dreadful process.
Whether you're a writer or publishing professional, I hope you'll take a moment to learn more about Pubmission and help us spread the word about a new way to think about the submissions process.
Thanks!
Wolf Hoelscher
Owner/President
Kelly Gunzenauser — Editor-in-Chief
Immediately, after creating Pubmission I asked Kelly, my editor-in-chief, to come onboard. I’ve known her for more than a decade now, and she is one of the best editors out there.
In addition to making sure that there are no dangling participles on the site, Kelly manages our staff of freelance editors, keeps me in line, and writes entries for our blog.
She’s been working in publishing as both an editor and writer for 13 lucky years. She started her career as a writing instructor and then found a job as an editor in educational publishing.
After 9 years of helping authors find success with their writing, she decided to move over to the author side of things herself. Kelly says, “It’s been a real treat to work as a writer after having so much experience as an editor. Seeing both sides of the coin helps me anticipate all kinds of pitfalls and questions that an editor would have. I am finding that it works for me as a writer, and also as I mentor others.”
Drew Hannush — Web Developer
Drew helped make Pubmission happen. Thanks to his expertise, Pubmission works flawlessly. It's also easy to navigate and simple to use. In the early stages, Drew and I spent hours hashing out every detail of how the site would function, and the turn-around time was amazing.
Drew is the owner of Hannush Enterprises, a strategic social and web marketing partner based in Greenville, SC. He's also created a QR code tool called LynxTo that can greatly benefit the marketing efforts of authors and publishers.
Our Editor Reviewers
Jennifer Weaver-Spencer is a professional with over 13 years editing, proofreading, and acquisitions experience in educational publishing. She has edited educational and trade activity books, teacher resources, and storybooks, among other things. She holds a Master of Arts in English from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with a Concentration in Writing and editing.
Rose McLarney is a published poet, writing instructor, and slush-pile guru. Four Way Books will publish her book, The Always Broken Plates of Mountains, in 2012. She's a finalist for the Ruth Lilly Fellowship, her poems have won Alligator Juniper’s 2011 National Poetry Prize, and her work has appeared in publications including The Kenyon Review, Orion, New England Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, and many other journals. She earned her MFA from Warren Wilson College. She's also worked in trade publishing and marketing.
Melissa Berry is a contributing freelance writer to national publications for Cultural and Performing Art with a home base in downtownA dedicated wordsmith, Mark Bloom has contributed to five published books as a writer, including “A Writing Life,” published by Allyn & Bacon in 2001. He worked at Lark Books, a small publisher, for three years, honing his editing skills.
Toni Rakestraw: "Editing is my life. I've been writing and editing for over 15 years, working on magazines, newsletters and manuscripts. I have a history with theatre as well as literature."
A.D. Reed has 30 years writing and editing for publications, corporate clients, and writers. He has experience with fiction, nonfiction, journalism, marketing, and other writing styles.
Ingrid Carson honed her skills as a slush-pile reviewer at Front Street Books, a Newbery Award-winning publisher of children’s books and young adult fiction, where she learned to recognize publication potential in a manuscript. As an editor for Metabolism magazine, she reviewed poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction.
Caroline Mercurio is the Founding Editor of Hunger Mountain, The Vermont College Journal of Arts & Letters, and served for eight years as Managing Editor. Mercurio taught writing at Warren Wilson College and now works as a freelance writer and poet. Publications include Vermont Magazine, Louisiana Literature, and Asheville Poetry Review.
Margaret Marchuk has worked as a freelance writer/editor specializing in public relations for more than 20 years for publications,corporate clients, and authors. She's also a published author of nonfiction, national magazine articles. Her specialties include general fiction, self-help/inspirational nonfiction, alternative/integrative health careand art manuscripts.
Gabe Robinson spent five years as an acquisitions editor at HarperCollins, editing both fiction and nonfiction. He learned the trade working with the editor of several NYT bestselling authors, and personally edited a number of acclaimed authors for his own list (NUMB by Sean Ferrell, UNDER THE MERCY TREES by Heather Newton, BRAINS by Robin Becker, GHOST COUNTRY and DEEP SKY by NYT bestseller Patrick Lee, among others). He does mainly developmental and line editing.
We're always adding more names to this list, so if you have experience managing submissions for a publishing house or magazine, let us know.
The Blog
Sure, every business needs one now. But our blog is more than a marketing gimmick for us. It’s a learning tool. We’re passionate about publishing and writing, and the upheaval in the industry right now is both frightening and exhilarating. The blog gives us a chance to interact with those who are trying to save publishing with new technologies and forward thinking. We hope you’ll follow our posts and share your stories with us, too.
Thanks and good luck!
Website developed by Hannush Enterprises