Long-Form Publishing Serving Regional Authors
We have been thrilled to collaborate with some key players in the local literary scene to make this happen. Our cooperative press is run in collaboration with Jess Weible, Executive Director of The Watershed Journal, Sarah Rossey, Office Manager of The Watershed Journal and Tony Vallone of MAMMOTH books in DuBois.
Submissions Process
We accept submissions including full manuscripts, a brief author bio which includes the author’s connection to our region, and a brief summary of the work. Manuscripts should be no more than 100,000 words.
Submitters can email thewatershedjournal@gmail.com with eligible submissions. Once all submissions are received, TWJLG’s Publishing Committee will select a manuscript and begin working on editing, layout and design. Then, before sending it to the printers, we will collaborate with our selected author to make any other necessary edits or revisions.
Who is Eligible to Submit?
We draw submissions from western, PA counties that include Venango, Warren, Forest, Clarion, McKean, Elk, Cameron, Clearfield, Indiana, Mercer and Jefferson. We hope the books we publish will represent a combination of the region’s character and diversity. The 2021 selection will be distributed through TWJLG at Watershed Books, on BookShop, Amazon and the organization’s cooperating retail locations.
Whether it be fiction, nonfiction, poetry or hybrid writing, we want to hear, share and preserve local writers’ books for several reasons: for the sake of their artistic value; to encourage and foster a more expansive literary community; to create a shared space for writers and their audience, which creates better communication for the region as a whole, and can lead to further invaluable artistic explorations.
Cooperative Publishing
Our cooperative publishing model relies on a close relationship with our authors to enhance the quality of the work and optimize our marketing and distribution efforts. Selected authors are expected to pre-sell at retail price or purchase at printing cost an agreed upon quantity of books.
Then, through The Watershed Journal Community Publishing Fund, the publisher will match or exceed that quantity of copies. Authors retain profits from their book sales and the profits from the publisher sales will go back into feeding the Community Publishing Fund for future projects.
Selected authors will also get, at no cost to them, our editing, design, layout and marketing services.
A Collaboration Passionate for our Region
We feel it is essential to expose our region, which we call the Western Pennsylvania Wilds, to publish writings that reflect the depth and breadth of voices that reside in western Pennsylvania and that are often less represented than those in more urban areas. Long-form publishing is the next step in pursuing our mission to empower and elevate regional authorship.