Wicks That Whisper - Sifting The Slush Pile And Production

Week 4

It has been a busy busy week here at Whispering Wick. Pre-orders launched, our website has been updated on several accounts, new art has been developed, our social media accounts are running daily posts and are as active as ever, reviews are being developed and written, and production has finally begun. Production itself has been the biggest journey for this week that is for sure. While keeping in line with pandemic protocols, David and Tamara have gotten together and purchased all the materials needed. Thanks to Nate the printer was already in their possession as of last week, Rebecca handed off her beautiful and unique covers over to David, and Grace worked tooth and nail in order to ensure the chapbook formats were up to par and looking amazing. Because of all this hard work, as of Thursday the 29th, printing has officially begun. There have been some hick-ups along the way, such as printers not printing, ink smudging covers, and paper jams. All in all though, things have been running nicely.

As mentioned, pre-orders are now available so don’t forget to check that out! We are all very excited about our first publication run which features three separate titles written by our very own staff: a short story titled Senescence by David Stevens, All the Things That Hide in the Woods, a collection of short stories by Grace Regan, and a poetry collection by Rebecca Gruszka dubbed Trying to Choose Joy. Although we will be publishing at least one work from almost everyone on our team, Whispering Wick was not developed to solely publish our own writing, after all we are a press developed by writers for writers. Since submissions opened, our Chief Editor has been going through the exciting number of submissions and selecting those he thinks would make a great fit for our team to work on. While going through submissions he had this to say:

"As an editor rejections are a reality of the job and knowing when to send them is an important skill. As a small press editor, I am lucky enough to have the time to thoroughly read submissions more than once, a factor that I very much enjoy, instead of reading the first few lines which is common practice in large publishing houses. Instead, I get to admire the author’s writing and to fully understand if I would be the right editor for a piece. A very important skill is knowing when you are the right person for the job. The writing equivalent would be to ask if you are the right person to tell this story. Because sometimes you may not be, regardless of how much you love the idea or the piece.

One of the tasks of being an acquiring editor is understanding your limits as an editor and being honest with authors. Those that know me as an editor know that I will not deny my authors my honesty and at times I can come off as harsh because if I feel that an entire short story or poem needs a complete re-write, I have no issue stating such. This isn't to be rude or harsh, I do try to come off as gently as I can, but it’s my job as an editor to help my authors to the best of my ability and I will do as such."

As for the newest member of our team, Faizal, he has also posted his first review, as of Monday the 26th, on the literary magazine Broken Pencil just in time for their announcement of the BP Zine Awards winners. In it he analyses each aspect of the newest issue (#88) and what makes it so unique and appealing. So take a look and if you like it, hold out for more to come from Faizal!

Our Promotions and Design departments have also been hard at work keeping the world up to date on all our social media platforms. Ensuring daily posts are taking place with new exciting imagery. Grace has also been working on getting an amazing newsletter going which we hope to have up and running shortly. We must say we're rather proud of all her progress considering the technical difficulties she's been facing all week with her computer. We all know how that feels I bet, but regardless, she has been an amazing trooper.

As that is it for us this week, we'd all like to send you off with another one of Nate's dad jokes:

"Inspecting mirrors is a job I could really see myself doing." - Nate