Nice Mommy~Evil Editor

Quartet Press has closed.

Let’s just get that out of the way for anyone who hasn’t been around for in the past 24 hours. I can’t write about the details of the why it happened, partly because I’m still a little puzzled and confused about the choice made and wasn’t involved in any part of that decision, but also because I’m still under 48 hours of finding out myself, rather abruptly and without warning, so I’m still processing. Plus, I’m not willing to say anything about it if I can’t be honest, so instead, I can only talk about my personal experience and feelings, I’m sorry.

To say I’m sick, and sad, and shocked (and other “s” words you can think of that might be appropriate) and, yep, angry might be putting it a little mildly. Who would have expected this? But as with my joining of Quartet Press, it’s abrupt closure has caused a lot of speculation, some general nastiness and lots of disappointment, and I know people are looking for some sort of answers that I’m very sorry I can’t give publicly. At the same time, the offers of support and well-wishes have been more overwhelming than anything. Thank you.

Publishing is a business, and like any other business, the chances we take and the choices we make aren’t always going to work out how we planned. Though I didn’t leap into the decision to join Quartet, and spent weeks negotiating with them, agonizing over my decision, long conversations with my husband, and working out contract details, it only shows that even the most carefully thought out decisions and plans can still crumble. It happens. I made a business decision, a choice, and I own that, if anyone expected me to say differently, you haven’t been paying attention to who I am. So, in looking back and Monday morning quarterbacking my decision…I know that I was careful, I didn’t make a precipitous, foolish or sudden decision and I can’t say I’m sure I would have done it differently. And if the opportunity comes in the future for me to work with Kirk and Kassia again, I would be eager to take it, because they’re two of the smartest people I know and I only wish osmosis worked so I could soak up some of that and share the brilliance and ingenuity.

The difficult part of this now is moving on. Moving on to something new and different. Moving on from the speculative comments suggesting I was secretly working for Quartet for months while working for Samhain (I wasn’t, my official start date at Quartet was mid-August and came only shortly after we finalized negotiations. There is no unofficial start date), that I did something unethical or horrendously wrong in making a business decision for myself and my family, or that I somehow got what I deserved for daring to do try to do something different with my career. Moving on from the guilt that I feel towards my husband and daughter, and the people, both friends and strangers, who supported and believed in the project, the authors and editorial candidates that committed time and energy. Moving on to continue to prove that digital publishing IS viable, despite this happening because what happened had nothing to do with the viability of digital publishing. Nothing. And, yes, moving on to the next project I believe in. Because, in the end, I believed in Quartet Press and I still do think it could have succeeded and been an asset to the digital community. That it came to this still has me reeling in shock because, truthfully, the plans were in place, deals were made and we were well on our way to launching and becoming profitable. I’m just so disappointed, you can’t possibly imagine.

So, moving on. Of course it’s not always easy, it’s not always fun but it’s what we do and I’m going to throw myself into that because I’m not the type to be content to sit around. That’s how I ended up in digital publishing in the first place, because I love to work. What am I going to do? I don’t know yet. I believe I have a lot to offer, both in my skills as an editor and in my knowledge of digital publishing. Hopefully some smart publisher out there will recognize that and call immediately

In the meantime, I’ll look at this as an opportunity to make new plans, do some reading and get some sewing done. When you go from tremendously, overwhelmingly busy to…not so much…you realize all the things you’ve been putting off “until you have time”. I guess that’s now!