About us

Please do not send any submissions, whether electronic or hardcopy, without first making an inquiry by e-mail.

In your e-mail, please describe your work in one paragraph and then include a few lines about yourself in a second paragraph. Entitle your e-mail "Proposal for Xenos Books." Send to kvitko@xenosbooks.com

Keep in mind that we are a small publisher with limited resources. Therefore, appeals to your work's potential as a mass-market best-seller will be misdirected. Likewise, appeals to its potential for sales among a specialized social, cultural or professional group will also fall outside of our range, as we cannot advertise to particular groups. If you think your work has mass-market potential, then you have to go with a big, mass-market publisher. We seek only a small corner of the world where readers and writers prefer highly original works with intriguingly fresh perspectives.

Check our catalog to see the kinds of things we do. Here is a general list: experimental fiction, thoughtful prose poems, off-beat memoirs, grammatically correct poetry, occasional essays, and especially translations of little-known poetry and prose with facing original texts ("dual-language editions").

In the attempt to create a distinct profile, we tend to exclude science fiction, historical novels, romantic novels, religious reflections, metaphysical meditations, erotica (unless very good), humor, children's literature, textbooks, self-help, local history, ethnic interest, drug experiences, encounters with extraterrestrials, sexual lifestyles and politically motivated writing. Repeat: We do not publish children's literature or religious/metaphysical works.

Xenos Books publishes only whole books, not single stories, poems or pamphlets.

If you cannot a publisher to take your work, remember that there are other options: publishing in e-zines, self-publishing and joining or starting a local literary group. Our Links page offers some starting places. There is no shame in self-promotion or so-called "vanity" publishing; many prominent authors launched their careers by these methods.

Xenos Books, micropublisher

The word xenos in ancient Greek has a double meaning, both "stranger" (as in the word xenophobia) and "guest." We chose the word for our enterprise back in 1985, bearing in mind that many readers and writers are obliged to wander the wide and often inhospitable world as strangers and unbidden guests.

Xenos Books is a micropublisher with a mailbox in Las Cruces, NM. We have no publishing house with thirteen storeys, no offices, no secretaries, no mailroom, no mailroom workers, no publicists, no business experts, no accountants, no chain-store connections, no advance payments, no book-signing tours, no friends in the media, no flunkey reviewers, no kickback channels, no greased palms, no casting couch, no movie deal in advance of publication, no business lunches and no ghostwriters. We survive (break even) thanks to eleemosynary grants, for which we are most grateful.

Our mission, in the midst of mass-media entertainments and cynically calculated conditioned reflexes, is to join with other small publishers in keeping original literature-the imaginative spark, the individual perspective-alive. A new way of looking at things, an unexpected turn of phrase, a real experience-that's the reward.