Anders Monsen
Sunni: How hard is editing the newsletter? Do you have more reviews than you have room for, and get people mad at you for not including their reviews? Or is it a mad scramble to get good content?
Anders: It's a bit of both, really [laughs]. I never really know from issue to issue what the next one will look like. I like to plan ahead by a couple of issues as to what I'd like to see it look like, but the final product always surprises me. And I'm slowly expanding the number of pages from eight to 12, then 16, and now 20. I don't know whether that will last, as I tend to work on the newsletters a little each day, and 16 or 20 pages turns out to be four times the work of say 8 or 12 pages. That means I'm always looking for content. For a while I tried emailing every person I knew who had written something online or in print about liberty and literature or film. I don't always receive a reply. My goal is to maintain the same quarterly schedule with 20-24 pages of content. I know there's enough out there worth writing about to run in each issue, but finding the stories can be tough, especially when it's easier for writers to go directly to the public by writing blogs or printing essays and reviews online, instead of the old-fashioned way.
I've never had people mad at me for not including reviews. I did make someone mad at me for an editorial that I wrote, many years ago, and someone else wrote me an angry letter because I mailed him a free copy of the newsletter in my attempts to gain readership. I won't dredge up the details.
One of the disappointments I have after each issue is the lack of feedback from readers, either good or bad. I generally hear good comments, but I'd like readers to get more involved. Although one time someone complained I had too much art in the issues. At one point I wanted cover art for each issue, maybe from someone like Scott Bieser, but I don't know when that guy sleeps. He's taken on some massive projects lately, and I read the new installment of Roswell, Texas each Friday. Perhaps the only option is to move Prometheus online and welcome comments? I did think about an LFS group blog, but that's not my decision to make, so I write my own occasional comments as an outlet for stuff that doesn't get into the newsletter. Also, I'm just more comfortable designing for print than web, and as a reader I still prefer holding something solid rather than staring at electronic bits. Moving Prometheus online would require time, planning, and also would remove the hard deadline I deal with every quarter. Without deadlines I'm not really that good. I don't always meet my deadlines in the same place that we agreed on in advance, but we're not too far off. A webzine is like a blog, but requires a lot more effort. My blogging is sporadic at best, and the entries quite slim. Every now and then I throw in a long note, but those are rare.
Sunni: I know what you mean about deadlines, Anders. And if my experience online is any indicator, jumping from print to web doesn't necessarily guarantee more feedback, although the Salon features aren't open to commenting. [pauses] Doing Freedom! was, though, and comments were rare there, too.
Anders: Hmm, yes. Perhaps it's just the regulars at certain sites. I'm more of a lurker, myself, so I understand most people who don't comment. I always marvel at the number of people who swarm posts at Reason's Hit and Run, though.
