A Day in the Life of a Small Press CEO: Emails, Edits, Meetings, and Everything in Between

If you’ve ever wondered what a typical day looks like for the CEO of a small press, the short answer is, there really isn’t a typical day.

Some days are spent editing. Others are spent working on covers, marketing, contracts, acquisitions, or putting out unexpected fires. And then there are the days when I somehow manage to touch almost every part of the publishing process.

Today is one of those days.

5:30 a.m. (Yes, my brain woke me up early this day). 

Start with email

I roll over at 5:30am, a time when most people are still sleeping, and realize it’s going to be one of those days where sleeping in isn’t possible. I grab my phone on my nightstand and the day begins. The first thing I do, like every morning,  is check my email. Six emails are waiting for me.

One is from an author with updates on their edits. Two are from my cover artist regarding the most recent mockup for our March release. The remaining emails are updates from our distribution partner.

Nothing is on fire. Nothing requires an immediate crisis meeting. I sigh in relief. That’s a good start.

I make coffee, grab a little breakfast, and start spreading out everything I know I’m going to need for the day. I require a lot of space to work, so I make sure I take over a room that won’t be used later by my family. Time to dive in.

6:30 a.m. — The command center is open

By 6:30, both laptops are running.

Pens? Ready.

Notebooks? Ready.

Coffee? Definitely ready.

I also make sure I have plenty of water and other refreshments nearby because once I get focused, I don’t like constantly getting up.

I spend the first half hour doing some minor corrections to a book. Nothing dramatic, just the kind of little things that need to be fixed before the next step in the production process like checking the ISBN number and metadata listed on the copyright page.  Once those corrections are finished, I upload the revised file. Once those process in Ingram later this morning, I’ll have to go back in and order proofs.

Then it’s time to switch gears. Today is a writing day. For the next two hours, I work on blog posts, Substack articles, and our email automation for the month. I want to make sure we include more links this time, as my mentor has been encouraging. I’m hoping to increase our click rate. 

Writing for the business is a completely different kind of work than editing a manuscript. I’m not thinking about characters, pacing, or dialogue. I’m thinking about readers, authors, marketing, publishing, and what information will actually be useful to the people who follow us. And, of course, I’m thinking about how to say all of it without sounding like I’m trying to sell something every five seconds.

9:00 a.m. Mentor meeting

At 9:00, I log into my first meeting of the day with one of my mentors.

Running a small press can be isolating. There are a million decisions to make, and sometimes you need someone outside the business to look at what you’re doing and ask the questions you aren’t asking yourself.

I have several mentors that help along the way. I schedule meetings whenever something comes up that their expertise would prove useful. Today, my meeting is with Jon who assists with cashflow and business structure decisions. A small press is a business and if we’re going to survive, I need to treat it that way. I enjoy my mentor meetings. They are one of the places where I get to step back from the daily workload and think about the bigger picture. Where are we going? What needs to change? What are we doing well? And, perhaps most importantly, what am I spending time on that I shouldn’t be? This is a big one as I know I have an uncanny amount of squirrel moments. My mentors keep me focused.

10:00 a.m.  A quick reset

After the meeting, I take a quick break. Then I’m back at my desk around 10:15. I order books through Ingram that we need and start preparing for my next meeting.

This is one of the things people don’t always realize about publishing, there is an enormous amount of administrative work happening behind the scenes. Books don’t simply go from manuscript to bookstore.

There are files, metadata, orders, distribution, production schedules, proofs, invoices, contracts, emails, deadlines, and approximately seventeen other things that seem to appear when you’re least expecting them.

11:00 a.m.  Author meeting

At 11:00, I meet with one of our authors. Today we’re talking about marketing for her book, the blurb, and the cover. These conversations are some of my favorite parts of the job because we’re looking at the book from the reader’s perspective.

I have to guide the meeting toward the important questions. It isn’t simply, “Do we like this?” Even though I know that’s what authors want. They want to like their cover, like their blurb, but they are thinking artistically. I have to think from a marketing and business perspective. As I lead these meetings, I have to keep both in mind because we want authors to be happy, but we also want to put best practices into place so our books are visible and readers are happy. We switch gears to “Will the right reader understand what this book is, what kind of experience they’re going to get, and why they should pick it up?”

That’s a very different question. A beautiful cover can still be wrong for a book. A great blurb can still fail to communicate the story. And a wonderful book can still struggle if readers don’t immediately understand what they’re looking at. Those details matter. And it’s up to me to make sure both sides agree on what’s best for the book. 

Noon Lunch, sort of

At noon, I finally stop for lunch. I say “stop” loosely. I eat while thinking about the videos I need to make. I’m always thinking about something.  Because apparently running a publishing company wasn’t enough. Now I also need to be a writer, editor, publisher, marketer, content creator, and occasionally a person who remembers to eat. I make a mental list of the videos I need to record. Then I remember my lunch in the toaster oven. Food. I’ll worry about the videos later.

12:30 p.m.  Contracts

At 12:30, I dive into contracts. I finish one, review it, and send it off. I’m excited about this book. She had me at dragons.  There’s something satisfying about getting a contract completely finished. It’s one more piece of the puzzle in place.

Then I check my email and realize I need to respond to queries. I dread this  part. Not because I don’t want new authors. Quite the opposite. The hardest queries to reject are the ones where there is clearly talent on the page, but the book isn’t right for us. 

Running a small press means making choices. We have limited slots and specific genres and markets we’re looking for. We can’t publish every good book that comes through the door. That doesn’t make saying no any easier. Sometimes a rejection is not “this isn’t good.” Sometimes it’s “this isn’t right for us.” There’s a big difference. Still, hitting send on those emails is never my favorite part of the day.

3:00 p.m. Shipping time

By 3:00, I’ve had enough sitting at my desk for a while.

I pull out the shipping supplies. There are several books that need to go out this week, so I start getting everything together. This is another part of the job I don’t particularly enjoy. Boxes. Labels. Books. Packing materials. More labels.

This is another one of those jobs that makes the small-press experience very different from what people might imagine. Yes, I spend my days working with manuscripts and authors. But I also pack books. And order books. And check files. And answer emails. And work on spreadsheets. And deal with distribution. And make marketing plans. There is no “that’s not my job” when you’re running a small press. If it needs to get done, there’s a good chance I’m doing it.

4:00 p.m. The afternoon slump

At 4:00, I glance at the clock and yawn. That’s when I know I’m reaching the end of my productive window. I had planned to make some videos today. I look at my setup. I look at the clock. I look back at my setup. Nope. The videos can wait.

One of the things I’ve learned is that not everything has to happen every single day. Sometimes the smarter business decision is recognizing that you’re tired and moving something to tomorrow rather than forcing yourself through it and producing something you’re not happy with. So I save the videos for another day.

Instead, I turn my attention to something I’ve been working on for a while: my marketing book. I spend the rest of the afternoon writing.

And that’s a day

By the time I finally close the laptops, I’ve fixed formatting on a book, uploaded files, written blog and Substack content, worked on our email marketing, met with a mentor, ordered books, met with an author, worked on a contract, answered queries, prepared shipments, and worked on my own book.

And that was just one day, tomorrow could look completely different.

There might be a manuscript that needs attention. A cover that needs another round of revisions (very likely scenario). An author question that needs an answer. A production deadline approaching. A marketing problem to solve. Or an email that lands in my inbox and completely rearranges my carefully planned schedule (this happens more than I like). 

That’s the reality of running a small press. It’s not glamorous. It’s not sitting in a cozy office reading manuscripts all day. It’s coffee at 5:30 in the morning. Two laptops. Stacks of books. Notebooks full of lists. Contracts. Deadlines. Marketing plans. Shipping boxes. Emails. Meetings. And a never-ending list of things that need to be done.

But there is something pretty incredible about watching a book go from a manuscript sitting in an author’s computer to an actual published book that someone can hold in their hands.

That’s what makes all the little things worth it.

Even the shipping labels.
Even the contracts.
Even the rejection emails.

And, yes, even the 5:30 a.m. coffee.