You Like Us. You Really Like Us
It’s funny what you don’t think about when you start a new enterprise. As the first reading period for the Los Angeles Review got under way, the new editorial board thought a lot about creating a good product and pleasing our publishers, Kate Gale and Mark Cull. Whenever we received an unexpected submission from a “big name writer” or one of us came across a piece that we “absolutely, positively, have to accept before anyone else takes it,” we danced around our virtual editorial office with glee and imagined how good our final product might be. But for some reason, it never occurred to me that other people would have an opinion about our baby, or, if they did, that they would share that opinion with anyone else. I know that doesn’t make me sound like the sharpest pencil in the drawer, but there it is.
My first wake-up came from our contributors. Due to some strange snafu, many of their copies went missing someplace between the Red Hen office and their home mailboxes. I liked to imagine dozens of letter carriers with purloined copies of the Review hidden in plain brown wrappers–and some of the contributors did mention that their postmen and women seemed more literate than usual. Trying to sort it all out and get copies where they belonged gave me an opportunity to interact with writers whose poems and prose appeared in LAR. Many of them e-mailed back to let me know they’d received the Review and commented on its attractiveness or how pleased they were to be in such distinguished company.
Later, Google-stalking our contributors for website tidbits, I found this site that mentioned bunch of them altogether. “What a strange coincidence,” I thought. A check of the link led me to Mitzi McMahon’s lovely blog called Life in Wisconsin and her January 31 entry “Great read.” To the best of my knowledge, Mitzi is not related to any of us by blood or marriage nor did we send her an advanced reading copy. She just went out, saw Mark’s gorgeous cover and turned over some of her hard earned cash. And she liked us!
This past weekend I received an e-mail from Becky Tuch, creator of The Review Review, giving me a link to her very cool website. I have to admit that my finger hovered over the touch screen for a moment before I decided whether I wanted to risk a possible bad review. I’ve since learned that visitors to the site can search the archives by clicking links called “overwhelmingly positive,” “so-so,” “better luck next time,” and “in the grammar gutter.” I am pleased to report that Vince Corvaia’s read of the LAR put us solidly in the first category. Vince specifically singled out Tai Dong Huai, Liz Prato, Lydia Davis, Rachel Mehl, and Nik De Dominic, but I bet he had a hard time choosing among so many outstanding options.
As the next issue goes to the printer and the reading period opens for number eight, the pressure is on. We now know people are watching. With the wonderful submissions that have landed in our inboxes, I have no doubt we can deliver.