Gather 'Round, Take a Knee

Our Publisher has something to say.

Wyrd West received one hundred and seven (107) submissions. Of those 107, we picked ten, so ninety-seven authors didn't make the cut for one reason or another. Stick a pin in this fact—we'll get back to it.

This specific week at Raconteur Press, we are doing the initial read on submissions for one anthology; we are copyediting a second anthology; contracting a third; and building and formatting a fourth anthology for publishing.

On top of that, we are maintaining marketing, social media, building our website, and improvising, adapting, and overcoming speedbumps that keep popping up.

In the wider general view, Raconteur Press is in the Building Phase (Pre-Deployment for the veterans out there) for publishing novels in the next some months. We are making sure that the foundations of this venture are stable and solid, so we don't fall on our faces.

Raconteur Press is also building an imprint—Fox Cubs Adventure Club—to publish boy's adventure stories in the next several months. Again, we want to have this thing stable and secure before we launch.

On top of that, Raconteur Press is launching a second imprint—CrossFox Concepts—to re-release previously published non-fiction. We don't want CrossFox Concepts to be any less solid than RacPress and Fox Cubs.

Let's put another pin in this one, too. It'll be brought up in a bit.

To my shame, I cannot pay the Raconteur Press staff enough to keep food on the table. I just can't at this time. So, everyone who works for RacPress has a job that keeps a roof over their heads, or is seeking education to further their ability to put food in their family's mouths.

Everyone who works for Raconteur Press is a creative with their own projects to work on. I've got Fuzzy Yeet Cow stories to write. Rita has East Texas Witch stories, Cedar has her own press, Jonna has sewing that just can't wait, so on and so forth.

That's the Ten Thousand Foot view: everyone is working on four current anthologies at one stage or another; everyone is building foundations to make sure our expansion doesn't explode on us; everyone is helping with social media, marketing, and our new webpage, everyone has their own writing or creating to get done...somewhere in the middle of all that.

To steal a metaphor: we may look like ducks serenely gliding across a lake, but under the water, our little legs are going ninety-to-nothing.

"So, LawDog, what's your point?"

I'm an author. I know, and I understand how important feedback is to an author—especially one who is new to the industry.

However, to mangle one of my father's quotes to the head-shed: "We're up to our gonads in gators. Anything that doesn't involve draining the swamp isn't a priority at the moment."

There are ninety-seven (97) authors from a single anthology who would like feedback. Those 97 are on top of the other authors who didn't make it into one of the other anthos we release every two weeks. Ninety-seven responses —even if only a one-line email—is a chunk of the day in which that editor isn't working on something else with a deadline.

If one of the RacPress editors sends you feedback, yay! Take it as a gift, but I'm here to tell you that getting feedback from us is probably not going to be a thing in the future. Matter of fact, if an editor asks me whether or not they should be giving feedback, my response is going to be a gentle "No."

We simply do not have the time, as it is, and that's before all the extra work coming down the pike in 2025.

I am sorry, but that's the way it is. I have to concentrate on publishing, and anything that doesn't involve getting these books published isn't a priority at the moment.

Don't take it out on the editors. It is my call, not theirs.

Ian

(Cross-posted to The LawDog Files.)

**EDIT: You may notice some missing comments below. We don’t take kindly to trolls who insist that they have a right to be abusive. So they’ve had their comments removed, and won’t be welcome here anymore.