Do you have a manuscript ready (or just about ready) to be published? Are you looking at the options out there for getting your book into the hands of readers? We hope you will consider submitting for The Watershed Journal Literary Group’s (TWJLG) long-form publishing arm. We are looking for a wide variety of styles, perspectives, tones, topics and backgrounds.
Our 2021 selection will receive professional editing, layout and design at no cost to you, the author, and we will put all of our networking and marketing power behind your book. You’re on the hook for a minimum 25 books at print cost and receive 100% of the profits from your direct sales as well as 50% of the profits from online sales like on Amazon or BookShop.
All manuscripts must be complete before submission, no longer than 100,000 words. Submitters must live in or write explicitly about our region of the state defined by the following counties: Jefferson, Clarion, Clearfield, Cameron, Elk, Indiana, Mercer, Venango, and Forest.
We are open to publishing poetry, fiction, historical fiction, general nonfiction, memoir/autobiography, short story collections and hybrid work. We are most interested in work that explores the cultural themes important to defining our region – however that is defined by the author.
Our selection committee is a mix of backgrounds and publishing experience, but we all are dedicated to inclusive, local publishing as a representative of our neck of the Pennsylvania Wilds. The committee includes Jess Weible, Executive Director of TWJLG and author of Dead Letters; Philip Terman, English professor at Clarion University and author of multiple collections including This Crazy Devotion; Tony Vallone, associate English professor at Penn State DuBois and CEO of Mammoth Publishing; John Miller, owner of Artfunkles in Clarion and author of What Else Do You Want; and Sarah Rossey, Creative and Managing Director for TWJLG.
We will select from the manuscript submissions based on the following rubric:
- Literary Quality: Does the submission meet our standards of quality and taste? (text complexity, author’s purpose, narrative voice, etc)
- Project Readiness: Is this manuscript ready for publication with reasonable editing and design work?
- Regional Focus: Does the submission do anything to contribute to our collective regional identity, either by representing a local author or promoting cultural themes within the region?
- Marketability: Is the submission marketable to our readership and distribution channels?
- Financial Feasibility: Can TWJ afford to do necessary editing, layout, marketing and design as well as match print costs to publish this submission?
Last year, we published Wayne H. Swanger’s Fields of His Heart. Swanger worked closely with the committee during the stringent editing and exacting layout phases of the publishing process. We printed locally and are blown away by the sales we’ve seen in the store and online. Swanger is an excellent networker and promoter and we were grateful that he partnered with us heavily in bringing awareness to the book.
The selection was unanimous, but it was not an easy choice. We received amazing manuscripts in our last call to submissions and frankly wouldn’t mind seeing them again! There’s a lot of writing going on in our region and we hope many people send in their manuscripts for consideration for publication through TWJLG. Contact us with any questions!
