Letting others do the work

It has been a challenge to let some things pass into the control of others while I spend my time being controlled by Oona.

One important project I had to release my vise-grip on was another UpStart Press publishing project, the ongoing student-driven If I Knew Then...St Lawrence College Students Interview Business Professionals. What started out as a way for me to prove to my students how important and valuable their work was has turned into a college-funded, annually published textbook, required reading for first-year business students. I have always had a student volunteer to act as project manager to help make it happen, but this year, I applied for and received funding to hire a project manager to not only organize submissions, the editorial board, book launch, and so on, but to act as editor. I handed everything over to her. And walked away.

Last night, I left Oona with friends for the evening for the first time so Darryl and I could go out "on a date," and leaving the book with a new editor/project manager sort of felt the same.

This week, the files for the book cover and layout landed in my mailbox. About six weeks ahead of schedule. Which is also about four months earlier than I ever managed to get everything ready.

It looks awesome.

The interior is even better.

Not only has Ashley managed to get everything done on time (actually early) and with almost no information or guidance from me, she has done it without breaking a sweat and has also created a manual for future editors and project managers.

She graduates this spring and, through the grapevine, I have heard that she already has multiple job offers. Whoever gets her is very, very lucky.

Finding Our Feet

In a fit of enthusiasm mid-Publishing Certificate, I started UpStart Press as a one-woman show before I had even met my future husband (who, luckily enough, turned out to be a writer and graphic designer who designed, of all things, books!), and now it has become a partnership, and best of all, a partnership with a vision.

More about us and UpStart Press.

UpStart did enjoy a brief but frustrating stint as a vanity press. The least said about this, the better. This video might give you an idea of how it felt.



And UpStart serves If I Knew Then very well as its publisher, but vanity publishing and business textbooks isn`t what UpStart is really all about.

What it is really about is a project that is just starting now--an anthology of writing by members of what has to be the longest-running writing group in history. The Ban Righ Writing Group formed from a creative writing course that Bronwen Wallace was teaching in the early 80s. When the course ended, the group continued to meet in Bronwen's home. Eventually the group moved to Queen's campus, where it still meets weekly. Some members pop in and out; some stay for years. And one has even stayed since the very beginning, making her the Ken Barlow of Bauder Lane.

Many of the members publish widely and have built up excellent reputations, and still the little group soldiers on, meeting rain or shine, writer's block or not, without any recognition or attention.

Which is all about to change because UpStart Press has found its "project"--an anthology of fiction, poetry, and memoir and a testament to thirty years of dogged hard work, Bronwen's inspirational influence on other writers, and a stellar example of community.

Feelers are being sent out, an editing/production schedule is being drafted, and costs are being considered. Stay tuned.