Diary of a Mad Editor

People send me stuff all the time: zines, chapbooks, gossip, links, etc. Some of it, like the review copies of books and the zines are cool. But then there’s the stupid shit. The links to lame websites, the requests that often accompany it. People wanting free publicity, a backlink, a mention on this blog or on my mailing list. When I know the person or I think the information/website/whatever has some value, I don’t mind, but most of these requests do not have value. For example, a few weeks ago, when I went to the post office, among several new submissions, was this small envelope containing a business card. There was no accompanying note, no name or address — just a web address printed on the card. Admittedly, I was somewhat curious about the website. I mean, when some random stranger sends you a card with a website address, you’ve got to wonder who sent it and why they sent it, what the hell they want you to do about it and why they didn’t just email the fucker to you with a proper message in the first place instead of wasting the stamp.

Well, although I intended to satisfy my curiosity and check out the link, I’ve been so busy with other things over the last month or so, that I just plain forgot about it until yesterday evening. So I go to this website and discover that it’s barely even a website. There’s no copy on the site other than the title and 2 links: the “mailto” link to a Google mail address and a link to a PDF file. Needless to say, without more information (and a more thoughtfully designed website), I was not curious enough to download and read its contents. I’m wondering to myself, is this person mailing this link to a lot of people besides me? Is this how this person is promoting what I presume to be an ebook of some sort? If so, that’s just about the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. How many people are even going to bother visiting that website? And of the ones who do visit the site who among them are going to bother to download and read the file? Without any information about the file or the author. Without any copy on the website. Without a single reason given why anyone should read the file, who will bother? This person may have written the greatest thing since Shakespeare wrote Hamlet, but who will read it under those conditions?

A mysterious little card might catch the attention of an inquisitive, naturally curious fellow like myself, but inquisitive, naturally curious fellows like me expect our curiosity and inquisitiveness to be rewarded with a hell of a lot of information and a little courtesy to go along with it. So instead of a link to your website, you get a complaint about your website.