"Crossed wires. I'm clueless. Got it!"

(Annals of an Editor, #79)

Typically the entries in Annals of an Editor are drawn from my correspondence with authors hoping to work with my small press. This time around, I would like to share an exchange that took place on Facebook.

An academic acquaintance of mine is the editor of a book  being released this week. I saw an announcement about the release, and commented, giving him the email address for our New England Review of Books. My thinking it would be useful for the publisher to have yet another contact for potential reviews coverage. Well, things got a little tense, if not quite outwardly antagonistic.

This spat of social media unfriendliness illustrates an important point. The lesson here might be for me to mind my own beeswax even if I think I'm being helpful. "Stay in your lane" also comes to mind. Wouldn't a greater sense of professionalism in my role as editor shield me from this kind of fracas? On the continuum between "helpful neighbor" amateurism, and "arch gatekeeper" elitism, I could perhaps stand to move a few increments away from the former and toward the latter. (Though not too far away from the former. As I wrote in my last Annals of an Editor entry, I really do think that "Kindness, in short, is good business.")

Without the unambiguous signals of profit and loss that I'd have steering my decisions in a for-profit setting, I have to rely on my own recognition of values to know when to engage and when to move on. Which is exhausting and perilous.

Or perhaps the less should be that social media is not a place for genuine connection, where trust and proximity enables network-building and mutual aid. Wait... does capitalism infest tech as it infects all things, commodifying the human and undermining social connectivity?  I T    D O E S.  (Or perhaps I was just being a testy prat. ¿Porque no los dos?)

Below is our exchange. I have edited slightly for readability. - ZB


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AN EDITOR I KNOW: (title of new book) will be released this Friday! I'm tagging people in this post in hopes they'll want to share this information online. (includes a link to the poster's personal website, where there is a page announcing the launch of the book.)

FRIEND 1: Pre-ordered.
FRIEND 2: Looking forward to it!
FRIEND 3: Honored to be a part of it! (This is an author; the book in question is an edited volume.)
FRIEND 4: no one in my family who are interested but me.
FRIEND 5: Pre-ordered...
FRIEND 6:  I’ll buy it immediately.
FRIEND 7: I can't wait for this one!
(etc: a good handful of affirmative replies from other Facebook users)

ZACHARY BOS: Feel free to add editors@nerobooks.org to the publicity list.

EDITOR: Who are they, and why?

ZB: (a bit irritated at the decision to reply curtly rather than looking at the URL before asking) A book reviewing venue; book reviews can help to drive sales.

EDITOR: Have you seen the blurbs for this book?

ZB: Nope! But they'd doubtless be included in the publicity pack? I only thought to invite you to send the NERObooks email address to the publicist, because (the listed publisher of the book in question) does not list a contact address or number -- for publicity or otherwise -- on their website.

EDITOR: Check them out! (links to book page on his personal website) One wonders if we need any more?

ZB: (thinking the editor is, with that last comment, calling into the question for more blurbs) By "reviews", I'm referring to post-publication reviews of the book, in critical venues, rather than pre-publication marketing endorsements (blurbs) solicited by the publishers/editors/authors.

EDITOR: Thanks. I knew that. Why would you think I need to solicit reviews?

ZB: I wouldn't think you do. But, I presume the publisher is doing pre- and post-publication publicity, with an eye toward obtaining review coverage? And re: "Thanks I knew that"... I didn't catch that you were being rhetorical, viz. "one wonders if we need any more (publicity than is represented by these reviews)". Truth be told, I have dealt with authors before who don't have experience in book marketing or publishing, and who have not known the difference between a blurb and a review. I had no reason to attribute that lack of experience to you, but I'm also not clear why you sent me a list of blurbs when I was passing on to a review venue with a particular interest in books regarding secular culture. Call it crossed wires. (smiley emoji)

EDITOR: Yes. Crossed wires. I'm clueless. Got it!

ZB: I can't account for the apparent tension here. In any case, you're welcome to pass the publicity contact on to your publisher.

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Maybe a secondary lesson is, don't work with publishers who don't list publicity contacts on their website? Shrug. The graphic at right is meant to underscore today's theme of miscommunication. Source unknown; perhaps The New Yorker.