The Chaos Whisperer’s Guide to a Totally Normal Publishing Day

(Spoiler: nothing about it was normal.)

You ever have one of those days where you sit down with a clear plan, a full mug of determination, and the naïve belief that the universe will let you follow your schedule?

Yeah. Me too . Today. Again.

I started the morning with the noble intention of tackling my to‑do list in order. A simple plan. A reasonable plan. A plan that lasted approximately… seven minutes.

Because the moment I opened my email, the Publishing Gods spun the Wheel of Shenanigans and landed on “Surprise! Everything you thought you were doing today is a lie.”

Suddenly I was:

• answering an urgent metadata question

• explaining (again) why Amazon does what Amazon does (no one knows, we just accept it)

• gently steering an author away from a Very Bad Idea they learned in a Very Expensive Course

• and explaining what an A+ account is (and more importantly, what it is not)

• rearranging my entire week like a publishing-themed Rubik’s Cube

• and discovering that my coffee had gone cold while I was solving a problem I didn’t know existed ten minutes earlier

Meanwhile, my to‑do list sat there judging me like a disappointed Victorian aunt.

But here’s the thing: this is the rhythm of samll press publishing. It’s not a straight line. It’s a dance. A slightly chaotic, occasionally off‑beat, often improvised dance where you’re leading, following, and tap‑dancing around fires all at once.

And honestly? I kind of love it.

Because every glitch is a puzzle. Every interruption is a story. Every unexpected detour is a reminder that this work is alive, full of authors, ideas, and the kind of creative chaos that keeps me on my toes.

So no, today didn’t go as planned. But I got things done. Not the things I expected, but the things that needed doing.

And in publishing, that counts as a win.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to make a new to‑do list. This one will last… let’s say… five minutes.