A Day in the Life of a Small Press CEO
People sometimes ask what I actually do all day. It’s a fair question. “I run an independent press” sounds either very glamorous or very vague, depending on who’s asking.
The honest questions is: it depends entirely on the day, and almost every day surprises me.
6:45 a.m. - Coffee and the inbox
I check email before I’m fully awake, eyes half open. This is a habit I haven’t broken. On this morning there are three author emails, one with an editing question, one with a cover feedback request, one that’s just a kind note (those are the ones I save), a newsletter from a publishing organization I’m a member of, and a design issue from our cover artist about our January release (yes, I’m that far ahead). That last one becomes my first task of the day.
8:30 a.m. - Production specifications
I spend about forty minutes going back and forth on the special edition for our current bestseller. This project has given me fits for over a year and I’m determined to get it right. I found a new distributor and printer for this project so I have somewhat of a learning curve. I decide on sprayed edges and a ribbon marker. The jacket file I have doesn’t upload properly so I contact the cover artist to get it adjusted. Twenty minutes later and it’s all adjusted and I approve the final design. Now I wait for the proof because nothing goes up for sale unless I’ve held the physical copy and inspected it. By 9:15 I figured out how to proceed with future special editions and have a solid direction.
10:00 a.m.- Manuscript review
Our submissions are still open and we have a large number of them still in my inbox. I block two hours for reading. Today it’s a romance. A debut author, strong premise, pacing issues in the middle. I take notes as I go. The decision isn’t just about whether the book is good, it’s whether it’s right for our list, our schedule and our capacity. I’m thinking 2028 before I’ve finished the first hundred pages.
12:30 p.m. - Lunch, kinda
I eat at my desk (which alternates between my living room, great room, and bedroom) and check on our new website. Wordpress wasn’t giving me the look I wanted to achieve with my minimal website design knowledge so we switched to Squarespace. There’s a mobile layout issue on the Books and Author pages I’ve been troubleshooting. I spend twenty minutes on it, making a small improvement, and decide the rest will have to wait.
1:15 p.m. - Marketing work
This is the part of the job that’s grown the most over the past few years. Today I’m drafting blog posts, Substack articles, and email sequences for the summer months. I’m also updating our outreach list for our September release and making sure I track responses so I know who to contact for our next thriller releasing in January. I’m also thinking about award submission deadlines. BestThrillers.com has a September 30 cutoff and I need to have materials ready well before that.
The marketing at a small press is genuinely never done. Every title needs a living strategy, not just a launch plan.
I’m well into my plans when I get a message from my Social Media Manager. He wants me to make videos to help our brand. Great idea. I put it on my list.
3:00 p.m. - The unexpected
Today it’s a question from a prospective author about contract language I need to look up, a call with my SCORE mentor to prep for (I make notes on what I want to cover), and a wholesale inquiry that came in through an email. None of these were on my list this morning.
5:30 p.m. - End of the day (not really)
I close my laptops (I work off a Dell and a Mac for different applications) and open my Dell twenty minutes into The Big Bang Theory. I remembered something about the fall production schedule. I make a note and close the laptop again.
Running Creative James Media is the hardest thing I’ve ever done. But it’s the work I’m most proud of. On the days when the inbox is overwhelming (I currently have over 500 unread emails) and the to-do list larger at 6 p.m. than it was at 8 a.m., I remember why I started. Stories matter, and someone has to do this work with care.
Today that someone is me.