Another weirdly shortened week here at Candlemark & Gleam, partly because of that whole “no work between Christmas and New Year’s” thing that tends to happen in publishing. While we don’t take a long break like that, a lot of reviewers and other contacts do, so we have to put a bunch on hold!

Still, there was some forward progress!

Pressing Matters: Week of Dec. 31, 2012-Jan. 4, 2013

Editing

1. Still reading through sequel submissions. It slows things down to do a few reads, then edits on the second/third read, but it’s worth it to be able to go to an author with a contract AND edits in hand; speeds things up later on.
2. Got a status update on the umpteenth rewrite of Knight of Arrows, Knight of Swords. Looking forward to seeing this round!

Production

1. ARC copies of The Other Half of the Sky go out first thing on Monday, slated to arrive once people have cleared their desks somewhat from the post-break avalanche of mail and to-dos.

Reviews, Promotions, and Buzz

1. The annual Preditors & Editors Reader’s Choice Poll/Awards is open! Lots and lots of Candlemark & Gleam titles are up for honours. Take a few minutes and go vote, please! We truly appreciate your support (especially since the site is awful to navigate…)
2. A new rotation of titles is up on NetGalley, and reviews are starting to come in on these and other titles. Yay!
3. A great interview with Debris Dreams author David Colby can be found here.
4. Stevie Carroll took part in the New Year’s Eve Kisses party, contributing a first kiss from “Charmed by Prince Charming,” from A Series of Ordinary Adventures. The party’s over, but it’s still worth reading the excerpt!
5. Kaye Chazan (editor of Substitution Cipher and author of stories in that collection and (re)Visions: Alice) talks about “New Adult” and categorizing fiction.
6. Natania Barron (author of Pilgrim of the Sky) discusses why she doesn’t give writing advice.
7. Natania’s writing got you all fired up? Stop by North Carolina’s Illogicon next weekend, Jan. 11-13, and catch her on one of a slew of fascinating panels!

Sundries

1. Most of what we’ve been working on is accounting. Getting fiscal ducks in a row is never easy – the little buggers are known to attack, and the quacking is horrible, just ask Congress – but we’ve nearly got everything prepped for 2012 1099 forms (just have a few questions to call and ask the IRS…fun). Royalties can never be done until well after the end of the quarter, since we have to wait on reporting from our various distributors, but we’ll get that sorted as soon as possible. Sending royalty checks out is always the fun part of the process – we love sending moolah to our authors!
2. State tax reporting for 2012 is done! Phew.
3. Speaking of financials, we’re getting ready to sit down and do the business, financial, and marketing planning for 2013. We have a big year ahead of us, with a lot of great books coming out, but we’re also facing a bit of an operating cash crunch – growing pains will do that. Still, there’s a lot to look forward to, and we’re good at getting creative with solutions!
4. And speaking of creativity…wow. I can’t stop gawping at these Lego sculptures. I simply had to share.