There is no great mystery to what we look for when a piece of writing arrives at Yellow House Publishing. Before the biography, background or whatever else we may know about the writer, there is the work. Does it hold the attention? Is there something in it? Has the writer taken care over the language and produced something worth putting before a reader?
For us, that is where publishing starts. We are an independent press committed to openness, tolerance and free speech within the law, but openness does not mean abandoning editorial judgement. If anything, it makes that judgement more important.Three straightforward principles guide our approach: merit, excellence and intelligence. They are editorial principles rather than Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) criteria. We do not believe a writer should receive favourable or unfavourable editorial treatment because they belong, or do not belong, to a particular demographic, social, cultural or identity group. We believe in equality of opportunity: the door should be open, the submission should be read fairly and writers should not face discrimination. Diversity will naturally be present in a genuinely open literary culture, but it is not a substitute for judging the writing.
Merit begins with the work in front of us. A writer may be established or unpublished, academically qualified or self-taught, familiar to us or completely unknown. They may express opinions with which an editor agrees, disagrees or finds uncomfortable. None of this can turn poor writing into good writing, and none of it should prevent good writing from being recognised. There is no machine for measuring artistic merit; editing requires judgement, and good editors can sometimes reach different conclusions. What matters is that the judgement remains centred on the work. Excellence comes through craft, and craft continues after a manuscript has been accepted. Acceptance is not the end of the editorial process; in many respects it is the beginning. Yellow House Publishing provides authors with access to an experienced professional editorial team whose job is not simply to correct spelling mistakes. Editors work with structure, consistency, grammar, punctuation, syntax, presentation and house style. Copy-editing attends to the basics that allow the writing itself to come through cleanly and consistently, while good editorial intervention should strengthen a piece without replacing the author's voice with the editor's.
That relationship requires something from the author as well. Working with an editor means being prepared to listen, reconsider a sentence, defend a decision when there is a good reason for it and change something when the editor has identified a genuine weakness. It sometimes requires burying the ego. An editorial query is not an attack on the writer, and a suggested change is not an attempt to claim ownership of the work. Professional editing is a conversation about making the work as strong as it can be before it reaches the reader. Authors should also recognise the resources being made available to them. Editorial reading, copy-editing, proofreading, design, production and the less visible work involved in preparing a manuscript all require professional time and financial resources. We expect that investment to be treated with the same seriousness and respect that we give to an author's writing.
The best publishing relationships are therefore neither editor dictating to author nor author treating an editorial team as a public funded arts agency. They are working relationships built around a shared objective: producing the best book, journal or contribution possible.
Intelligence is important within that relationship. It is not intellectual display or the use of unnecessarily difficult language. It is curiosity, judgement, imagination and the ability to consider another person's reasoning. An intelligent writer should be capable of questioning editorial advice; an intelligent editor should be capable of explaining it. Neither needs to win every argument. What matters is that decisions are made for the benefit of the work.
At Yellow House Publishing we build our relationships with authors around what we call the 3Rs: Respect, Reasonability and Responsibility. Respect works both ways: for the author's voice and creative ownership, and for the professional judgement and time of the editorial team. Reasonability means approaching disagreements proportionately, listening to advice and finding workable solutions rather than allowing small editorial matters to become personal disputes. Responsibility means everyone taking ownership of their part of the publishing process the author for the manuscript and timely engagement with edits, and the publisher and editorial team for the professional standards expected of the finished publication.
That is ultimately what independent publishing should be: a relationship between writers and publishing professionals who take the work seriously. Merit may bring a manuscript to our attention, but the journey from manuscript to publication requires craft, cooperation and mutual respect. Merit, excellence and intelligence establish the standard; Respect, Reasonability and Responsibility provide the working relationship through which we achieve it.
Christoph Thackaberry
Free Press Publisher