What's In a Job

What’s In a Job?: A Year In the Life Of an Editor-in-Chief

In the fall of 2012, I was the second-longest serving member of The Fieldstone Review editorial team.  I had worked as the copy editor for two issues of the journal and had no idea what an editor-in-chief was supposed to do, but I volunteered anyway.  After eleven months and one successfully launched issue I have generated a trio of desirable D’s, characteristics that I would look for if I were interviewing for my replacement. 

•   Delegates well
•   Decisive
•   Detail-oriented

The way The Fieldstone Review is set up, the editor-in-chief stands at the top of a pyramid as the tyrannical administrator who sets deadlines, delegates work, does whatever falls outside others’ job descriptions, and keeps the journal running smoothly.  The website and copy editors keep in contact with the editor-in-chief during the later stages of the journal’s year, and the portfolio editors (fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction and reviews) set their own deadlines internally and delegate work to their readers.  I possess exactly one of the three D’s listed above; I like detail work.  So I know that it is not necessary to be a decisive, detail-oriented delegator by nature to be a good editor-in-chief, but these are significant parts of the job and someone who takes this position should be capable of assuming these roles.

It’s a good idea to start with a meeting of the editors, because many details ought be taken care of in the first few weeks.  To name a few, new editors need pictures and biographies for the website, e-mails need to be assigned, a call for submissions needs to be created, and a submission deadline needs to be set.

After that, it’s time to write that call for submissions and send it out, determining where it should go and sending the appropriate e-mails and posting on the appropriate sites (NB: this is time-consuming grunt work).  Promoting the journal may also include such things as visiting university classes to talk about the journal and creating a list of suggested texts for reviews.

Once the submission period ends, life gets busy again with deadlines and communication with the other editors.  I was surprised by how long everything took to get from end-of-submission-period to launch-of-journal-issue.  Some of the things on my end that, for some reason, I wasn’t expecting, were: double-checking the copy editing, writing the editor’s note, and reviewing the web copy for glitches and missed mistakes – and there are always a few – before it went live.

I’ve enjoyed my year as editor-in-chief, and hope to return in that capacity for the 2013/2014 season of The Fieldstone Review.  There are periods of hard work – notably in the first and last months of the journal’s cycle – but for someone willing to take a leadership role and put in the effort to put out a successful product at the end of the season, it’s a great opportunity to get an inside look at the world of publishing.

Shakti Brazier-Tompkins