Our Mission

Post 9/11, has you brain been in turmoil trying to understand why America is hated in much of the world, rather than just buying into the Bush Administration’s simplistic rhetoric of retaliation and preemption? Are you tormented by nagging doubts when Bill O’Reilly explains American society to you, thinking that a complex community of over 300 million people can’t be that black and white? When wandering the local mall, do you appreciate that the diversity you witness is actually America’s greatest asset and the founding principle of our society since the first Americans crossed the Bering Strait? When watching a gay couple’s affection for their adopted child on TV are you more moved by the love this family displays than by worries for the kid’s future? Our heartiest welcome! – you’re a Cosmos and Polis Press reader. Please, read on and browse through our portfolio of titles.

Does all the above apply to you, yet you have realized that we still have a long way to go till the protection of human dignity and diversity in all its facets is globally enshrined? Do you want to take an active stance in this debate rather than just watch it from the sidelines, and do you have a unique, offbeat, inspiring, or leaving-the-audience-on-the-edge-of-their-seats experience or story to contribute? Have you sharpened your writing skills over years in dozens of not necessarily published but widely read and critique-welcoming venues? Are you willing to go the whole ten yards and give your last shirt for your book to break through? Our heartiest welcome! – you’re a giant step closer to becoming a Cosmos and Polis Press author. Please, read on, and if you’re on the verge of keeling-over in excitement about what we’re offering, proceed to our submission guidelines.

We live in dangerous times. Times in which the much-belabored clash of civilizations is about to become a tragic reality. Times in which we are witnessing a resurgence of narrow-minded nationalism, religious fascism, and scapegoat-seeking xenophobia best summed up in the malignant phrase, “Who’s not with us, is against us”. But also times in which the opportunities and shortcomings of an ever accelerating globalization widens the gap between the haves and have-nots. While bringing us closer to our fellow blogger in Taiwan, it estranges us from our next-door neighbor.

Cosmos and Polis Press wants to be defined as the very antipode of “Who’s not with us, is against us”. There are as many truths out there as there are individuals inhabiting this planet, and none of us holds a monopoly on what is right or wrong. This individual difference is the fundament of mankind. It enriches society and appreciating it is the essence of cosmopolitanism. As the German sociologist Ulrich Beck put it, cosmopolitanism is:

    - “Acknowledging the otherness of those who are culturally different.”
    - “Acknowledging the otherness of the future.”
    - “Acknowledging the otherness of nature.”
    - “Acknowledging the otherness of the object.”
    - “Acknowledging the otherness of other rationalities.”

To better acquaint their readers with this otherness is what Cosmos and Polis Press’ authors strive toward

Every year you, revered reader and book lover, are deprived of a good dozen literary gems, heart-melting fates, swashbuckling heroes, and stirring plots. Every year the political discourse in our country is blunted by the failure to publish indispensable, impetus-giving, tolerance-promoting, and thought-provoking contributions that would have enriched our multifaceted society. And amazingly, this is a deficiency George Bush can’t be blamed for.

It is a loss brought about by, and inherent to the Catch-22 today’s publishing industry is. Promising novices frantically search for a path to break the vicious cycle: most publishers refuse to deal with debut authors, the majority of literary agents consider only those with an obvious portfolio of published titles, the Lilliputian budget of indy publishers restrain them from risk-taking, while vanity presses voraciously circle them like vultures. Consequently, new authors continue making the rounds until their book warning of Islamist fundamentalists striking American soil is published five years after 9/11. Or, more likely, never.

Cosmos and Polis Press is resolved to throw itself into that breach for debutants missed at society’s loss with a unique, revolutionary new publishing model. We’re not only interested in, and encourage new authors to submit their manuscripts; we only publish debut titles. After contracting, we will provide our authors with all the professional services of a major corporate publisher – from typesetting and editing to hiring a professional publicist for a nation-wide PR campaign – we will also pay you a symbolic advance of $.01, yet will deduct all these expenses against the book’s net profit until we break even. Once that has been achieved the author gets the 7.5 percent of the retail price standard in the industry as royalties on every copy sold. This unique, new publishing model allows us to be more venturesome than our competitors and to act as a launch pad for new voices; the dozen or so annual rough diamond manuscripts; the ravishing square pegs in round holes escaping the notice of the trade publishers’ army of gatekeepers; the bold provocations considered too risky; the daring approaches non-compliant with designated fashion; and the wrongly labeled as niche products up and coming genres. That’s it, as simple as that!

Making it clear one last time has to suffice: we are not a vanity press or author mill. As our author you won’t pay a single dime to get published; as a publisher we’re as hell-bent on making your book a hit as you – like any trade publisher we’d go bust if we failed to – and together we will avail ourselves of the appreciation offset-ever-POD-never trade publishers like us are met with by the book industry from distributor to brick and mortar store. You should consider our publishing model as a zero-interest, pay-back-conditional-upon-success credit we allow the authors we deem worth it in terms of quality and salability.

Hands down, we are a publisher with a mission: to promote cosmopolitanism and intercultural understanding. We won’t publish a book that doesn’t somehow contribute to our objective of advancing the society we live in one book at a time; our unique publishing model requires us to be highly selective – only manuscripts that receive as many thumbs up as there are heads on our panel go forward – yet once you’ve passed that threshold, you can rest assured your entry into the literary world will take-off with a great bang, and major corporate publishers will be grasping for your next title!