1. Hail Saten
2. Market Listings
3. Signing Etiquette For Writers
4. Final Note
Hail Saten
So, in case you haven’t heard, my wife — author Mary SanGiovanni — and I are opening a genre bookstore early next year. You can find all of the details about it here. What I’d like to do here in this space is talk about how that will impact Jobs In Hell.
One thing I’ve definitely noticed between JIH’s original incarnation back in the late-1990’s and early-2000’s versus now is the speed at which market listings and industry news happen. During the original Jobs In Hell’s run, we were the absolute fastest way for those kind of things to travel. Email was then a brand-new thing for most homes, and email newsletters were the fastest way of disseminating information, because social media did not exist yet.
These days, by the time I get the information to you once a month, you have probably already seen it elsewhere on Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter) or a dozen other places. Thus, the question becomes — how do I overcome that?
And the answer is, I don’t.
Were we not starting the bookstore, I could probably devote my time to overcoming that endeavor. Possibilities do exist, after all. The newsletter could go daily, for example. But to go down that path, while simultaneously trying to balance both a writing career and running a bookstore, plus still being a good father and husband, with all of the time and presence and investment that those things entail — that would kill me. Full stop. I’m 56 years old. The original Jobs In Hell was two and a half decades ago, and while I had the stamina and health to do it then, I no longer have that capability.
So, what I have decided is that Jobs In Hell will cease publication next March. Why wait until then? Because many of you paid for a full year’s subscription in advance, and I want to make sure you are served.
Between now and then, I will still endeavor to find market listings that you may not have seen or been aware of. But come March 2024, JIH will end so that I can focus on those other things. So, please don’t renew your subscription. (If you are so inclined, put it towards the bookstore’s GoFundMe instead).
And so, with that in mind, let’s get to this month’s market listings, which include a few upcoming deadlines you should take note of.