Diary of a Mad Editor

“It is almost like you aren’t even the same person. Maybe you’re not. Maybe personality #9 or 10 was at the helm.” — Sydney Elle Testa

You know what? Being a small press publisher is a lot like having a split personality disorder. Some writers I deal with imagine I have a staff of magic elves that come out at night and do all the work. Unfortunately, I don’t have a staff. I can’t even afford to pay myself a salary much less hire a staff and pay them. This is the case for many small press operations.

And of course, when you are the one and only guy holding the bag, you are the one they all point fingers at when things don’t go smoothly. Admittedly, I’ve been dropping the ball a lot lately. Missing deadlines. Falling behind with submissions (and this from a guy who once had the most efficient turnover in small press history). Every time I make even a minor error, I have to hear about it. Anytime someone doesn’t like my guidelines or the way I word a rejection letter, I have to hear about it. Because there is no one else to pass the buck to. I’ll even admit that I’ve thought demoting myself and inventing a replacement so that when someone does complain, I can say to them, “Hey, man . . . I just work here. I don’t know nothin’.”

Just this morning I had to hear about another thing I’ve let slip lately — apparently I forgot to update the archive page for The 13th Warrior Review. Oh, I’d updated the original file, but never uploaded the page to the server. The back issues are pretty well indexed in the search engines, so it’s not like those two back issues were impossible to find. A minor slip-up, but one that didn’t sit well with one of the contributors to issue #10. I opened the file, made certain it was updated, and uploaded it to the server. Then I emailed the woman who informed me of my mistake to let her know it was fixed. No excuses. Sometimes I’m out to lunch.

Sometimes real life and too many responsibilities interfere with the proper order of things. The only thing to do is move on and try to do it better next time.

Right now, in addition to my own writing and writing this blog, I’m working on a second blog, trying to refurbish the homepage, putting together new issues of my ezines and serving as Web Master for my sister’s website. It’s impossible to keep all those balls in the air a hundred-percent of the time especially when lately Asterius Press has taken a backseat to my health concerns.

I am the Publisher, Editor-in-Chief, Managing Editor, Art Director, Webmaster, Web Designer, Assistant Editor, Editorial Assistant, Copy Editor, Proofreader, Executive Assistant, and the Wise-ass Intern who fetches the mail. I am my own staff. Needless to say, we hate our boss. We think he’s an asshole too.