Seeking an Office Mate!

Share a space with Entre Rios Books!

I am particularly poor at keeping our news on the site updated— focusing instead on keeping all the social media alive — and endless task that clearly needs to simplify.

For those of you that don’t follow us on a “platform”, it’s been rough but hopeful start to our fourth year. Like many of the smallest, new presses, ours started in our home and over the course of our first three years had completely taken over my personal time and then finally physical space with storing books. Perhaps over a year ago, I could see that we would definitely need some storage and that perhaps a better distinction between press work and the rest of my life would be a “good thing”. Having never used a storage space before, I was shocked to find out how much a temperature-controlled space would cost, so then thought it might well be more cost-effective to find a small office with some storage.

Early in the summer, we got notice that a space would be available in September in the Jack Straw building. To make this work on our limited finances, we would need to find someone to share the space. All summer, we wavered if moving out of the house would be the right thing to do. I’ve worked from home since 2006 as a free-lancer, so while the idea of a commute again intrigued me, signing a lease and dedicating myself to it was daunting.

And then our house caught fire.

Those that follow our social media know that the fire was not too large, but surprisingly disruptive. I had no idea. Our house was emptied of almost everything, which we won’t see again until perhaps this time next year. Luckily, our inventory escaped with no smoke damage and remains in hand.

I had expected September to be a challenge between setting up the new office and getting our next three books— all of them much more difficult than anything I have tried to this point— out to press. I had no idea how our month would actually turn out. It is now the last day of October and one book is out, one is very close, and the other remains, unfortunately too much of a mystery. I cannot recommend a house fire while trying to get books on press.

But I will claim that our office is now functional, and we are ready to find someone to share our space with.

Our extra room is $300 a month. We could go month to month, though I’d love to have at least a verbal commitment to try it for 3 months. It’s a clean, white box, 10′ x 7. 5′, but either its tragic element or best feature is that it has no window. So this is a room for someone who is looking for either dark space to work, such as a video editor or writer with distraction issues.

Our office comes with 24/7 access, janitor service, internet. Our shared space has a “lobby”— that is a few chairs and a work table for occasional meetings, a microwave, small fridge.

This would not be the right space for someone with lots of meetings, lots of phone calls, or the need to rock out— the walls are so thin, I even wear my headphones due to the office next door, but I’d love to meet anyone who thinks this might be a good solution for them. It is ready to move in now.