Indie Publisher Notes: Wearer of Many Hats

When you operate your own publishing company you really are wearing many hats. You have to be nimble in your thinking and you have to learn to strike a balance with the time you have available so that each hat gets worn long enough to do all of the necessary work that is on the schedule. In truth, time is not often kind--especially when you're not able to put in at least a full 40 hours on the work of publishing and editing. (I'm lucky to get 20.)

To switch the analogy to another familiar cliché. You do have to get rather skilled at juggling. For me that's been quite a task at times. As the sole 'man behind the curtain' I'm the guy pushing all the buttons and pulling all the levers the majority of the time. If I'm not designing and formatting the books, I'm processing the direct sales we receive. If you write Founders House Publishing, I'm the one most likely to answer all of the customer and author e-mails. I'm spending time on the never-ending task of improving the website. Some days, I'm just trying to find smart ways to promote all of our current titles or I'm considering new projects to development. Or I'm hauling books or magazines to the post office to ship.