Spindle State of Mind
It’s kind of hard to believe it’s 2008 already and that Spindle‘s official launch is less than 36 hours away!
I spent a lot of time this weekend preparing the content for Tuesday’s update, sending off the last of a handful of acceptances and rejections, the latter of which have gotten no easier since the first one — though my basic rejection letter has gotten a lot nicer, if more impersonal — especially when it involves people I know personally. One of the biggest differences between running a reading series vs. a publication is that the latter is less welcoming by definition as there is no open mic. Whatever I accept for publication is not just a reflection on Spindle and myself, it’s also a reflection upon everyone else whose work I accept and I want to ensure that Spindle is viewed as a quality outlet for a variety of work and not someplace that publishes just anybody. It’s something I take very seriously and can make for some awkward moments when rejecting people I know and respect.
Some acceptances and rejections happen immediately upon first reading, and some I come back to several times over a few weeks, or more. Most are purely my call while some poems get passed on to my editors for their opinions — and some, eventually, will come directly from their own solicitation efforts — especially when it comes to certain forms as I am not a big fan of formal poetry. Or rhyming. That said, I bring the spirit of the open mic to my reviewing of submissions, being as open to everything as I reasonably can be, and have already published a few poems that at first glance I wouldn’t have thought I’d liked.
All in all, the “soft launch” has worked out better than I hoped it would as the past six months of tweaking the site — first behind-the-scenes and then, as of September 12, 2007, live with regularly updated content — have paid off not only in it being ready for primetime on January 8th, but in there being more strong content already posted than I imagined I’d have at this point.