Whisper House Press

Notes from the desk of the editor are offered in the interests of personal posterity and transparency for writers and other potential editors who wish to learn from my experience

the editor

First up: Submissions for Dread Mondays are going well. I’m responding to everyone within a few days at most. We’re at about 175 submissions in the first 28 days of the call opening, which is great to see.

I’ve changed up the language of the canned response a bit to clarify when I’ll begin reading (TLDR: as soon as the call closes but after the extended call deadline). You can read that full canned response here.

My plan is to skim through October and November for immediate “no thank you”s and save all the ones who are more or less on target with theme and tone for December 1st. I want to ensure that all perspectives are included in the evaluation process, so waiting for selections feels important.

Next, the challenges of running a press on a shoestring budget while priding myself on putting out an award-worthy product and paying authors respectable, professional rates. We’ve run into some difficult circumstances in the family (death of a close family member + emergency dog vet costs = thousands of unexpected bills this past month). These challenges are putting me on edge in terms of budgeting. It’s all a very close-run thing in the best of times, so I’m keeping an eye on finances. I want my press to be as self-sufficient as possible, but in the end there’s truly no separating personal and professional expenses at this early juncture, and I don’t want my family to suffer for it—at the same time, I aim to keep all of my professional promises (or I wouldn’t make them at all). So if push comes to shove and book sales at the Southern Utah Book Festival aren’t all they’re cracked up to be, or if the Kickstarter lags in Jan/Feb, I may be delaying the ultimate decision process so that I can pay what I promise as soon as contracts are signed. We’ll see where we land come December. I won’t have to make that choice until January, and I’ll keep you all informed.

This blog, from the start, has been about total transparency wherever legally possible, and that won’t end with just the good news. I want every would-be publisher to learn from my mistakes, and having just spent the $3,500-4,000 that might have gone toward publishing may not have been a mistake, but it was at least partly foreseeable, and that can teach me something. Have more money, I guess. Half-joking. Makes me think of the ending of Burn After Reading, one of the great pieces of American Cinema from the last twenty-five years—and chock full of cynical wisdom.

Third: The Kickstarter pre-launch page is live, and there are currently 17 followers—wahoo! The number of launch followers (clicking “remind me” on this page will help us a lot) makes a difference in Kickstarter’s promotional algorithm. I attended FanX in Salt Lake City this past week/weekend, and I didn’t attend any panels but I did spend about 15 hours talking about Whisper House Press, the Dread Mondays call, and the Costs of Living production and kickstarter pushes. Please spread the word about this publishing effort.

Fourth: I’m ready with a test printing and will soon have ARCs (advance reader copies). I am working assiduously to check through the physical testers (a required step in the process, for you would-be publishers out there) for any errors that have stuck around through at least two rounds of editing and two rounds of proofing (as well as authors’ eyes on their own work following my edits). Costs of Living is a beautiful book, and I’m already proud as hell of it. I’ll try to remember next time to report about the ARC and review process.

Last but certainly not least: we’ve got our first few author interviews up! I just finished editing one with Sam Weller, who’s been a very positive and helpful influence on the Costs of Living project from the start. Please check out these interviews and follow the youtube page for Whisper House Press.

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