Current mood:

excited

Game ON
*snicker*

As I wrote previously, editing the CA has, for the last six months, been a lot of work with nothing tangable to show for it. Frustrating. That is, until yesterday.

I submitted my quarterly report to the BoD, and Patrick (President of the SCA) asked me to give him a call to discuss a few things. I have not yet managed to get the finer points of what goes in what section of the report, and he straightened me out on a few things. I had also reported that there are five, count 'em FIVE issues of the CA that are close enough to being done that, God willin and if the crik don't rise, will all have been submitted to the printer by the middle of the first month into the next quarter. IF this actually goes this way, and IF I don't kill my art director having to lay out all of these things (it will help that there are actually three manuscripts and not five, but two of them are both long enough and logically able to be split into 2 volumes), we will be caught up on all of the late back-issues and right on time for Third Quarter 2008. Yay!

Patrick was rather skeptical about this. Actually, he was pretty darn certain that I was not going to actually be able to meet the publication schedule that I laid out. He said no one has ever been able to make this happen and didn't think it was going to happen this time. So sure he was in fact, that he told me that if I can get five issues to the printer this quarter, he would fly to California and take me out to dinner.

To him I say...

Game ON

After our phone conversation it had ocurred to me that my report actually scheduled FOUR issues to be at the printer by the end of this quarter, not five. So, I sent him an e-mail upping the ante on his end. If I can get 4 or 5 issues to the printer this quarter, he takes me and Joyce both out to dinner.

*snicker*

Ok, so whether he would actually do such a thing or not is debatable, but the banter with him has definitely gotten me revved up. The idea of sending him an e-mail with every issue we send to the printer reminding him to book his flight will keep me chuckling if nothing else.

So the sitch is this. I have one two-volume issue on hygiene and manners that has been reviewed and the author is making some requeststed changes and adding a few photographs. Once I get her finished version, which I expect at any moment, Joyce will have four weeks to get both volumes laid out.

I have a LONG single volume issue on turnshoes. It's going to be a good 80 or so pages long by the time it is laid out, so it will be a whopper. It can't logically be split in two issues so it will stay as a single large issue. It has gone into review today and review closes on 4/18. The manuscript is good. It's excellent. It is the best I have seen at this stage of production. It will come together very nicely. The reviewers are top notch. The author is motivated and reliable and will have 2-3 weeks to get his final revisions done. Then off to Joyce it goes. Issue #3 of the five done by the end of May.

The kid's issue is slated to be pulled together and in layout by June and one of the two volumes will be at the printer by the end of the month. The second will follow two weeks later. There's four and five.

JUST IN CASE something doesn't quite go as planned, I have a manuscript on the History of Mead that went into review tonight. Commentary is due back to me by the end of April. The author is very enthusiastic and fast. It's likely that her manuscript will be finished this quarter and can back up one of the other issues if needed. Heck, I may have the rest of this year covered by July.

So, while nothing is certain, I think I stand a fair chance of getting four issues to the printer this quarter with a 5th early next...

...as long as Joyce can keep up. This really is a lot to ask of her, but we had a planning meeting earlier this week and she seems ready for the task. I may need to learn how to use Creative Suite to help her out before this is done.

Patrick, all I can say is that this better be one heck of a dinner.

One of the things I'm trying to do to help speed up CA production is build a larger staff and get software that will allow us to review and edit manuscripts online. I'm looking at PleaseReview and am hopeful about this one. I have a request in with them to talk to them about the product and whether it will meet our needs and be within my budget. The big problem is that I asked the SCA corporate web person to look it over and it appears to require a Windows server. She thinks all of the SCA servers are Linux. I know we can have the application run on the seller's server, but that will cost us a monthly fee in addition to the cost of the software. Depending on how much it all costs, I may go for it anyway. Trying to review manuscripts by e-mail is just insane, and this application looks pretty easy to use. I just hope it turns out to be a viable option both financially and technically.

I am feeling very excied about all of this. Seeing so many manusripts coming together on top of this little bet with Partrick has definitely given me a renewed energy and enthusiasm.

*heeee!*