Gary Earl Ross
228 Highgate Avenue
Buffalo, NY 14215
(716)308-0807
http://www.angelfire.com/journal/garyearlross/
geross@buffalo.edu

The Writer's Den
A Cooperative, Non-Profit, Invitation-Only Press

The First Titles from The Writer's Den

For information on each title, or to purchase directly from the printer, click on the cover.

Nickel City Nights, Force Beyond Lace, and Sister Amnesia.






CALL FOR MANUSCRIPTS

The Writer's Den is seeking essays, letters, poems, remembrances, and possibly photos for a proposed book on the 2009 crash of Flight 3407 near Buffalo. We welcome work from the family and friends of victims, first responders, and journalists, as well as others. The tentative publication date of the book is February 12, 2010, the first anniversary of the tragedy. Love and Loss: Reflections on Flight 3407--to be edited by award-winning writers Gunilla Theander Kester and Gary Earl Ross-- is a not-for- profit venture whose proceeds will go toward a memorial for the victims of the crash.

Manuscripts should be submitted by email to editor Kester at gunilla@thekesters.net or editor Ross at geross@buffalo.edu. Please write Buffalo Anthology Submission in the subject line. The deadline for submissions is December 15, 2009.
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Books from Other Presses Recommended by The Writer's Den:
Rented Rooms (Stories), Thirst (Stories), Paloma (Novel),



Time of Sand & Teeth (Poetry), Walking Wounded (Combat Memoir), Searching for Tamsen Donner (Memoir)





THE WRITER'S DEN, A COOPERATIVE, NON-PROFIT, INVITATION ONLY PRESS

Publishing a story or book has always been a difficult undertaking.

For many years, publishing houses and magazines, both large and small, served as gatekeepers for literary culture. Editors determined what books, articles, and stories were worthy of seeing print. Traditionally, an aspiring writer sent an unrequested typed manuscript to a book publisher or magazine for consideration, even though the odds were 100 or more to one against a book or story being sold. This was called “over the transom”—the transom is the window above old-fashioned office doors. Such manuscripts ended up in “the slush pile,” where low level readers looked for something outstanding to send up to the next level. When (usually not if) the book or story came back in the mail, the author sent it to the next publisher and the process began all over again.

Today publishing is different. Most of the larger publishing houses are owned by a handful of international megacorporations concerned chiefly with profit. Likewise, the most widely distributed magazines rarely, if ever, publish fiction or poetry. That task is left to poorly funded “little” magazines and journals. Self-help books and articles, celebrity tell-all memoirs, scandals, and fashion news overwhelm creative writing as the basis for publishing. All this means that even though more books and articles are published, there is little interest in developing the literary writer.

Alternatives to these trends include online magazines and print-on-demand publishing (POD), which means that anyone can publish a book if he or she is willing to pay a modest fee. While the old publishing model kept many good writers from being published, it was also a safeguard against spreading the work of the irredeemably bad. Generally, online magazines still have an editorial structure but POD has no such safeguards, and online bookstores are getting cluttered with unreadable books from non-readers who can’t write.

Enter The Writer’s Den, spun out of the original Writer’s Den website. The Writer’s Den offers cooperative, invitation-only POD publishing. It seeks no manuscript submissions. Writers will be considered only if invited to submit or recommended by a respected source, or if their work consists of previously published short works or already staged plays. Then the Den will work with the author to develop the best possible book, from editing to set-up to cover selection. The writer will undertake the expense of the POD book but it will be vetted and sponsored by a respected publishing entity.

In the same spirit of cooperation, The Writer's Den also recognizes, endorses, and publicizes work by Western New York writers published by other presses.

The Writer’s Den—the next stage in the evolution of the book.