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Wilson, Mary K.
Novelspot: By way of introduction--would you like to introduce yourself?
Mary: Well, I'm Mary K. Wilson, and I have been involved in the publishing world for many years. I started out with the Mercedes Lackey fanclub, Queen's Own, running my own ezines, both for fantasy stories and for Valdemar fanfiction. And then, I discovered the joy in taking an author's story and helping them craft the best work possible, and then offering it to a wider audience. Thus, I became an editor. Jupiter World Press has been open since the start of the year, though it's origins go back farther than that. I love speculative fiction. It's my first love, and so running Jupiter World Press is truly a labor of love.
Novelspot: Who else is involved in JWP?
Mary:Right now I am the founder, editor, webmistress, and general gopher for Jupiter World Press. However, in the future, we may be looking at adding editoral/copy editing staff.
Novelspot: What is your target market? What is your philosophy of writing/publishing?
Mary:My target market is science fiction/fantasy fans of all ages. I believe electronic publishing has a lot to offer, and I am always amazed that for a genre which focuses so much on technology and the future that electronic publishing doesn't have a greater presence even though science fiction/fantasy has a strong tradition of small publishers. My philosophy is take the best story possible, work with the author to make it even better, then package it with attractive cover art and offer it to the public at a reasonable price.
Novelspot: What brought you into the world of publishing?
Mary:Mainly my love of reading and of a good story. With our Jovian Pleasuers line, I see a void of good erotic science fiction/fantasy content, and thus, I strove to fill it. Same with our regular line of stories. Too many times I've purchased a magazine or an anthology and ended up only liking one of the stories. What if you could buy each short story individually? That is the thought behind selling short stories as stand-alone ebooks.
Novelspot: How did you devise the name Jupiter World Press?
Mary:Well, Jupiter has always been my favorite planet (next to our own, of course), and I could easily imagine a space station orbiting Jupiter, or even an outpost on one if its more hospitable (relatively speaking) moons, with a daily newspaper called Jupiter World Press. Kind of the Daily Planet for outer space.
Novelspot: What distinguishes JWP from other presses?
Mary: We publish stand-alone short stories as ebooks. We're not a magazine, and our focus is not anthologies, though we will be publishing one a quarter with our themed collections. We believe in electronic publishing, but we also feel that to introduce people to electronic publishing it is best to start small. We are the one of a few, if not the only, publisher releasing short stories as stand-alone ebooks exclusively in the science fiction/fantasy genres.
Novelspot: What are you looking for in a JWP author?
Mary:I want a writer with a vision able to tell me a short story that leaves me with a smile, or a twist, something that tells me that I've just read an awesome piece of writing. Of course professionalism, the ability to take editorial direction, and the ability to write clean, grammatically correct prose are also required. And, if you could make this author prolific and willing to write multiple stories for us, even better!
Novelspot: I see two content areas on your website: short stories and themed stories. Do you want to talk about your lines?
Mary:Jupiter World Press has three main lines. Our main line consists of science fiction and fantasy short stories. Short stories cover the word counts of flash fiction (up to 1000 words) all the way to novelette (15,000 words), though we prefer stories in the 2500-10,000 word range.
Our themed stories are simply stories suitable for our main line which happen to match our quarterly themes. Our themes are chosen because of their timeliness (such as our September "Higher Education" theme), or because they're genres of which I want to read more (such as our Space Opera and our Alternative History themes, but please no more stories about WWII or John F. Kennedy). These stories will be released as individual e-books like our main line, but also will be compiled into a print anthology.
Last, Jovian Pleasures, is our erotic science fiction/fantasy imprint. These stories are pure science fiction, or fantasy, and must contain erotic content. Stories for Jovian Pleasures should be as richly detailed in their speculative fiction content as stories for our main line, and the erotic content must be germane to the story and well-written. These stories are also released as stand-alone short story ebooks.
Novelspot: What can you say about your existing catalog and authors?
Mary:The one thing I love about our existing catalog is its wide variety within the confines of science fiction and fantasy. One of our lead stories, "The Clearance of Esseen," is a wonderful piece of military science fiction. "Life and Death at the Crystal Tower" by Anthony Addis is a brilliant set piece of high fantasy. We have authors such as John M. Floyd and Janet Brown who can take the ordinary and turn it into something fantastical. And we have authors such as Susan M. Sailors and Shelley Lesher who bring the reader into their fantastical worlds. And one of our recent releases, "The Thirteenth Labor" by Simon Kewin strikes me as a story which harkens back to the golden age of discovery and science fiction. We truly have a story for everyone.
Our authors reside all across the US and in the UK. We do welcome submissions from across the globe.
Mary: Thank you so much for this opportunity.
Novelspot: We are glad to have you.
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