Like many writers, Snider began writing young.  “I first started writing when I was around age eight,’ she says, adding, “with the exception of one, all of my English teachers encouraged me to write, as long as I did the actual assignment as well. In high school, I discovered a talent for editing, too. I’ve been freelancing since then--about 12 years now.”

Snider has the good fortune to be able to work from her home which she shares with her husband, young son, “four neurotic cats, (one who seriously believes he is a dog) and a half Border Collie, half coyote mix who suffers from anxiety and ADHD. I have no normal animals,” she says. 

When asked about the current atmosphere in the publishing world, Snider is an adamant supporter of the small press.  “I will probably stick with small publishers,” she says, “unless I get a really good agent who can tolerate me. I figure it’s my name on the cover so the work should be up to my standards.” About Gardenia Press, specifically, she comments, “I worked for Gardenia Press as an acquisitions/associate editor.  Basically, I made recommendations on which submissions to publish and which ones needed more work first, as well as line editing manuscripts accepted for publication.  All my work for them was done via email and UPS, as Wisconsin was a bit far to commute to from Colorado. They shipped me the manuscripts, I bled red ink all over them, wrote a four-page minimum report on my findings and shipped the manuscript back to the house.  They took care of getting it to the author from there. 

“Unfortunately, the owner and president of Gardenia Press died late last year and the house is currently closed to new manuscripts.  However, we are looking for someone who would like to help carry on Elizabeth Collins' dream of publishing first time authors.  While the house is not accepting manuscripts for publication, we are still offering a valuable editing service by professional editors working in the industry.”

“Small presses are gaining in popularity -- not only with authors, but with readers, because there seems to be a higher quality coming out of small presses.  I attribute this to three things: 1) Authors and editors have more time to spend with each other.  2)  Editors don't seem to simply look at the name on the manuscript and decide it doesn't need to be edited.  (Maybe it's just me, but there appears to be a lot more basic mistakes not being caught in manuscripts edited by the big houses.) Finally, number 3 (and this could just be my perceptions again), more variety appears to be coming out of small presses.  Big houses seem to have the attitude that if an author is not already popular, or doesn't have an agent, then s/he isn't worth the house's time.  That's a mistake.  Not only does this limit what a house publishes, but I know many talented authors who have been publishing with small presses instead because of this perceived attitude.

“Publishing through a small press first isn't a bad way to go, but authors have to realize that most of the big houses may not pick up that title as they don't want reprints.  The way around this is to make your sales outstanding.  There is a catch to outstanding sales though -- leg work, and a lot of it.  With small presses, you are your marketing department for the most part.  The press will have at least one PR/marketing individual to help you and make suggestions, but most of the work is up to the author.  What most people don't realize is, from what I've been told and have read, this isn't much different from the big houses anymore.  Authors are expected to market themselves more and rely less on the house as new authors are being published every day.  The house, regardless of size, just does not have the time to be the marketing and PR department for each author, much less the manpower.  The point is -- if an author looks at all the things s/he's responsible for, whether publishing with a large house or a small press, there doesn't seem to be much difference between the two any more.  Unless you count control.

“With a big house, unless there is name power involved, the author many times doesn't see the final manuscript until it's bound and ready to be shipped.  As for artwork, the same thing is true.  The author may not have any say in what the cover art looks like, and the artist probably hasn't read the manuscript.  S/he's most likely working from that short synopsis the author sent in for publication consideration.  Granted, unless the author hires an outside person, the artist at a small press probably hasn't read the manuscript either, but the author has more say in how the finished product looks and can give the artist a much longer synopsis to work from -- sometimes as much as eight pages -- not to mention a paragraph or two of character descriptions for the main ones. 

True to her word, Snider is working on the sequel to For the Rank of Master, tentatively entitled Shadowfest, which she will market to the small press.  She is currently awaiting publication decisions on two short stories, and has five additional novels in various stages of completion. 

Does she do anything other than write and edit?  Certainly.  “I like quilting, hiking, driving around the country playing tourist, including stopping at the cheesy little tourist traps with the world’s biggest prairie dog-type things. I like going to events like the Parade of Homes because they give me ideas for my writing. Just about everything gives me ideas about things for my writing.”