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Ally, Ally Oxen Free! or An Editor Attempts to Locate an Author

Here’s how it happens. I’m reading through one of the many print literary journals I subscribe to, and I come across wonderful work. A poem that haunts me, or a short story with characters I think of for days. Or, most often (for me), I read an essay with a voice so unique that I feel I must meet this author. I must publish this author. I will publish this author, I think, if only I can find her.

Twice in the past few months I've read outstanding essays in literary journals and have wanted to contact the authors to solicit work from them for Relief. But in both cases, no search engine on the worldwide web was able to sniff them out. I couldn’t contact them. I couldn’t publish them. This is so frustrating for an editor. Why, why aren’t you guys making yourselves easy to find out there in the writing world?

The two essays I’m thinking of were truly outstanding. Neither author had yet published a first book. What if a literary agent went through the same process I did and came up empty? Or an acquisitions editor?

It is foolish for the writer who hopes to further his career not to have a web presence. By web presence, I mean having your name and contact information up somewhere where an editor, agent, publisher, or fan can easily find contact information for you via an Internet search engine.

The most professional way to do this is to establish your own writing website by claiming (and paying for) your domain name. I grabbed up lisaohlenharris.com years ago, before I’d published much, because I read a horror story from Annie Dillard about some Internet smarty pants reserving anniedillard.com, putting up porn on the website, then bribing the author to redeem her domain name for a ridiculous sum. I doubt anyone would ever have thought to snatch up my domain name and post nasty pictures, but now I’ll never know. I pay about seven dollars a month to keep my lisaohlenharris.com G-rated, and there are cheaper deals out there. Having your own website is not the only way to be easy to find, though.

My friend and fellow writer Jill Noel Kandel opened a free blog account with Xanga.com in order to give herself a web presence with minimal expense and effort. She had a publications history and so was able to apply for Poets & Writers online directory. When she published a piece online, she included an email contact in her bio. When Jill gets discovered on the page, she will not be in hiding. Smart cookie.

If finances are too tight for you to establish your domain yet, and if you can’t stomach the thought of setting up a blog, do this: leave comments on the blogs you read. Leave comments on this blog. When you comment, include your email address as part of your signature. Do a vanity Google every few weeks to make sure that if I search for you I’ll be able to find you. It’s classier than writing your name and number on a bathroom wall, and when I read your work in a journal and want to contact you, I’ll be able to virtually find you.

Now about the public email address. Yes, I’ve heard that some writers are very private and don’t want their email address offered up to the demons of spam by publishing it on a website. That’s fine. Don’t publicize your primary email address. You can open a supplemental G-mail or Yahoo account for free, and the email software will sort your spam for you. Check the account once a week or so, and you may just be surprised. Maybe you’ll get an email from me, soliciting work for Relief. Maybe you’ll hear from an agent. Maybe you’ll make a new writing friend, one who will someday be as famous as Annie Dillard and will write a jazzy blurb for your book.

And when you do get those acceptances and have work published, use your bio to include a URL or email address, so I can find you!

Mixing Business and Pleasure while Relief’s Editors “Vacation”

Many of Relief’s editors have enjoyed vacation-like trips to neat places over the past week, though Assistant Editor Heather von Doehren would be quick to point out that none of us took vacations that didn’t include working at least part of the time.

Ben (Coach) and I traveled to Orlando, Florida so that he could attend Microsoft’s big TechEd conference. Before we left, Heather and I managed to squeeze in a meeting in which we used a high tech (see picture) method of discerning the order of work for the upcoming August issue, so while I didn’t attend the conference, I did make some serious headway on the layout between hammock naps, a spa treatment, and Universal Studios. I also had the pleasure to lunch with Britt Staton, a fan of Relief and hard-hitting Christian writing, and general kindred spirit. I’m trying to recruit her for a future anthology project, so stay tuned. Just for fun, I’m including a photo of our Technical Editor, Coach, go-carting.

Our CNF and Assistant Editor, Lisa Ohlen Harris, hit the mountains of Colorado with her family this week, but still managed to email back and forth with possible proofreaders, and of course, with us  For your vacation reading list, you might want to check out Lisa’s recent publications in the summer issues of The Journal , The Jabberwock Review , and Under the Sun . Congrats, Lisa!

Our Fiction Editor, Alan Ackmann, has been in Daytona reading AP exams for eight hours a day. Click over to his blog to read an interesting tidbit about the phrase “This is Sparta!” and how it is affecting his grading experience. Our Poetry Editor, Brad Fruhauff, has recently been in Louisville, Kentucky grading a separate section of the AP exams, scoffing at the idea that Florida beaches are somehow better than Kentucky, um… horses? Hills? Well anyway, we hope we get them back to reading Relief work instead of high school work very soon 

Where is my May Issue of Relief?

I wish I knew. Just kidding—it’s being printed as I type. We’re hoping to ship by the end of next week so get ready to check your mail boxes. Rest assured, though, that the August issue is on schedule so far, more so than any previous issue of Relief (Seventh times a charm?) so you should still be receiving it in August. Prayers help, so feel free to send them our way at any time 

Diner Editors--Go! 

The Diner Editorial Team through the magic of technology congregated to make some major decisions about acceptances from the short list. Not all decisions are made just yet, even though they did spend three hours connnecting from across the nation and around the globe (literally) to talk about what will be going into the second edition of the Diner. There were some tough decisions, some easy decisions, and some decisions that will be made later this week.