Submissions
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 (See below). Generally we prefer experimental fiction, prose poems, off-beat memoirs, poetry with punctuation, occasional essays and especially translations with facing original texts ("dual-language editions"). This year we would like a translation of a little-known or neglected European writer from the 1920s.
Please note that we tend not to publish science fiction, historical novels, romantic novels, religious reflections, erotica, humor, children's literature, textbooks, self-help, local history, ethnic interest, drug experiences, encounters with extraterrestrials, sexual lifestyles and politically motivated writing.
Actually, we never publish children's literature or poetry without punctuation.
Xenos Books publishes only whole books, not single stories, poems or pamphlets.
If you cannot find a publisher
to take your work, consider the 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. And when the doors of the publishers are
closed, what can you do?
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 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 the mass-media
entertainment complex, is to join with other small publishers in trying
to keep original literature alive. But we are only one small house, and
our contribution is small--a few books a year at best. Had we the resources
we would accept many of the submissions that come our way; a great many
are really talented. But realistically we can accept only a very few.
Karl August Kvitko,Editor
kvitko@xenosbooks.com
Vorona Weiss, Editorial Assistant
vorona@xenosbooks.com