I have to say that sometimes all of this wee poetry press stuff can be aggravating. I don’t just mean for the poets who have to deal with me, wondering what I do with my time, but here too, when things seem to take forever that 99/100 times are easy and yet also peasy. And then aren’t.
As an example, the last week has been a bit chaotic. It always is when the Cult boxes are going out – a lot of organising of materials, foldy cardboard boxes, the correct number of books and pamphlets – oodles of Sellotape and stickers, tissue paper and Ibuprofen – all has to come together, and then you get the paper cuts. Man, I hate the paper cuts.
Of course then it all has to be typed into the Royal Mail web site, stuck together and taken to the Post Office (a bit further afield these days as they all keep closing) and and and…
So quite the distraction, and then there are the books themselves of which there are always many in the air at any one time.
As I type this, I am aiming to finally get things back on track so that next year can be a little more simple. To do that, I need to err, publish 50 more books and pamphlets of one type or another and at the start of July, it is safe to say that I am quite a way off. But get there we will, I think, I just have to keep ticking along and not get distracted.
Unfortunately, on top of the Cult posting extravaganza, my laptop died this week, so that was a mad panic getting everything running on a new one – always a joy – and then I lost another lot of time trying to get new books set-up with Nielsen who for some reason weren’t playing nice, and then there was Lightning Source who we use as a print-on-demand / distributor these days, who didn’t like the new version of some fonts that were on the new laptop and not embedding properly in the PDF and then, then…
Well, it was almost a relief when I put unleaded in the better half’s diesel car and spent five hours waiting for the AA not able to do much at all.
So for the poets with the nearly finished books, wondering why the last 2% is taking so long, I’m sorry – watch your inbox today/tomorrow.
For the ones who are meant to have been started, I’m on it – honest I am – and to anybody else that is wondering where I am, what I am doing or, or, or…
Excellent blog, Mark. We can all see the dedication that goes into parcelling up our Hedgehog bundles. Such a joy when they arrive.
And I also empathise about the Royal Mail typing in etc as I’m going through that now with the signed copies of my latest novel.
I hope you do catch up but give yourself a realistic target so you’re not beating yourself up all the time.
Remember! You’re doing a brilliant job and we love you for it!
On behalf of all the hoglets in hogland.