I H8 Publishers

I really, really do right now.

What other industry can sit on something for -- I am not making this up -- three years and then give you surprise a 10-day deadline?

What other industry can insist that going over what was once a purely hypothetical deadline by a couple of days (not me going over, I might add, but others) is now a matter of life and death, even though the production schedule for the book says it will not be ready for ten months?

What other industry could get away with having someone resubmit a book proposal to them, sit on it for seven months, and then write back that they had decided to accept another book in the same vein that just happened to be submitted while they were holding up your proposal. Oh, and the author of said book just happens to be from the university at which the press is located.

I could go on, but won't. Let's just say that in the next month I have to:

Finish indexing one book.

Proof second set of galleys on that book.

Proof blue-line galleys on another book.

Make all final edits and decisions, write a style guide and do final editing on a third book.

Finish editing / galley proofing another volume.

Write 14 35-minute lectures on Science Fiction (but they can't be written in such a way I can read from them).

Turn 14 lectures into a course book.


Then by April 1 I need to write a book chapter / lecture.

Then by May 1 I need to write my Kalamazoo paper on Albert S. Cook and Cynewulf.


Oh. Also hosting Benjamin Bagby's Beowulf performance and giving a talk to the Wheaton faculty on Beowulf.


Probably some time before then I will be dropping dead.