Our First Anniversary!

I keep saying being a book publisher is the second hardest thing I’ve tried— right after marriage. But even that would be close. Does it get easier? I hope so! At least, I am looking into project management software to create fancy charts that might help me feel better about the many interlocking pieces. My creative brain really struggles with some of the essential pieces of being a publisher: budgets, time lines, cash flow, cash, budgets, spreadsheets, budgets, forecasting, cash.

Here’s what we’ve accomplished:

• We have published three beautiful books, all very unique. We’re heading into the sweet spot we want to be at with poetry in collaboration.
• I’m getting sharper on book design issues, paper choices and understanding budgets, but we’re definitely still not even close to getting our books at a decent production cost.
• We’ve had a few stellar events and are looking forward to hosting some more!
• We’ve lined up an exciting group of project for 2017 and am learning why lead times are so long…we’re actually pretty sure we have our 2018 work lined up now.

Here’s what we’ve not even gotten close to:

• We’re still building a community around our books and press. This is going to be key to success.
• We’re still lacking a distributor and are not ready to go national, whatever that is going to mean.
• I’m still learning confidence to say, “Yes, we publish poetry and BUY a book.” The making of books easy. The being in love with your collaborators and believing strongly in their work, no problem. The walking up to complete strangers or, even worse, booksellers and asking them to carry our books, OH DREAD AND FEAR BEYOND BELIEF!

People keep asking me, Do you enjoy being a book publisher? and the truth is, I am not sure. What I enjoy is having my brain taxed every single day with something new to learn. I love working with so many talented people. I like bringing that vision to life. But with so many difficult pieces, I can’t say “joy” is the emotion I feel. A steely resolve seems somehow a more fitting emotion for the upcoming year. That, and a bit of pride.