Welcome to VerbNoire
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's)
Who are you?
Mikki Kendall has had a love affair with fiction since she first understood language. As a child, she told herself her own bedtime stories and escaped to live in faraway lands regularly. In many ways, she's still living in those dreams. A creative writing class at the age of 9 set her on a path of writing fiction as a means of expression. As she grew older, she discovered fandom in all its dubious glory and learned that there was more to a good story than whether or not it was on a bestseller list. Now, prompted in part by many discussions about speculative fiction and its impact on society, she has turned attention to trying to carve out a niche in the market for people who look like her. No longer content to imagine having Rapunzel's long blond hair, she wants to give her children and all the children of the world princesses who fight for themselves and princes who don't always have to slay the dragon to be a hero.
Jamie Nesbitt Golden has had a love affair with the written word itself since she picked up a TV Guide at age three; at age eight, she started writing her own stories on her first electric typewriter. Years later, she found herself telling other people's stories for a living as a journalist, something she wants to continue doing — in a different way — through Verb Noire. A woman violently protective of her bookshelf (on which you'll find everything from Stephen Carter to C.S. Lewis), she has been known to finish entire books during dinner parties. She is also quite pithy, which is why her biography ends here.
What are you doing?
We are creating an e-publishing company that will focus on works by (and about) underrepresented groups in genre fiction. Our specific criteria can be found in our submission guidelines.
Why are you doing this?
Everyone has a story.
Verb Noire was created to intrduce these stories to the world. Stories that are generally overlooked or ignored by the mainstream because they don't come in the same generic package as the rest. Stories with heroes and heroines from all walks of life doing all sorts of fantastic things.
That sounds very nice, but why are you specifically doing this?
Because someone has to make the first move, and as it stands, mainstream publishing isn't likely to do it. So, we've decided to leap in. Catherynne M. Valente explains the need for representation beautifully.
How can I help?
You can submit your work if it meets the criteria outlined in our submission guidelines. You can donate to help with start-up & convention attendance costs. You can tell everyone you know about us. You can buy e-books. Please feel free to help in whatever manner suits you.
Are you always going to be a two-person staff?
We hope not. But right now we're doing this on a shoestring budget while we both work at other jobs. For the moment, our readers are all volunteers who are doing this in exchange for resume credit.
What if I want to volunteer?
Right now we have 60+ readers, so that list is closed for now, but we can always use people to pass fliers and info out at the cons we can't attend.
Where else can I find you on the web?
We have a LiveJournal community and a Facebook page.
What formats will you publish in?
Currently we publish in PDF, and we have plans to publish in MobiPocket and MSReader. If we're missing a program, please tell us about it. We want to make our authors as accessible as possible.
Where is the donated money going?
Everything we need to get Verb Noire off the ground, ranging from new equipment to safely store the submitted work, to lawyer fees to make sure our contracts are fair, to covering advertising and software costs. We're also registering copyrights for our authors.
Where can I meet you in person?
This year we'll be attending WisCon, WorldCon, and DragonCon. Feel free to come check us out!