By Eric on 2006-05-14

Publishing GR. Some insights.

3. Leeway. Give yourself some because, you’ll be late anyway.

This photo is a preview to GR42. I took this shot of Martin tagging candy while we were near the end of deadline. Wendy peers with a smile in the background.

Making a publication, especially when you’re on your own deadline takes discipline. There was a time when I think it took months of hands on work to make an issue, but not anymore. So much goes into publishing, and no matter what you do, and no matter how much you plan, when you say an issue is going to be done Jan 1, you’ll end up starting too late to make the deadline. If you say it’s Jan 7th, you’ll start one week later instead of just starting earlier. That said, in the 42 issues of GR, I think we’ve actually made the true deadline just a few times. A day late, maybe 5-10 times, a few days late, 20 times, a week late, maybe 5-10 times, two weeks late, it’s happened way back when. Is there a point to being exactly on time for us? A week late isn’t great now that we’re bi-monthly, but a few days is fine.

Print shops want the work, and if you’re late, they’d be idiots to penalize you. If that happens, move to a new shop! When we’re running late, I put in a request for them to move faster. Shave a few days off please! If I don’t call that request in too often, they seem to actually do it. Would we sacrifice quality for being on time? No fucking way. My opinion, is if being a few days late will make a much better publication, then go ahead and be a few days late. Ultimately, you have to live with what you make, and I wouldn’t want a bad issue next to my name.

I don’t have experience with a daily or a weekly publication. I assume those need to be exactly on time. I suppose if we were in a cookie cutter mode to do a publication like that, it would be no problem at all.

I did say I would write one publishing tip a day. This is the third day and the third tip. Made the deadline again.