Self-Publisher FAQ: What the Self-Publishing List Moms Do

I originally wrote this after BEA 2007, after we had a lovely "LIst dinner" at the Sheba Restaurant. The questions were asked by Caroline Howard-Johnson (and I've had them asked before). Here are the answers, sorta.

o How do the List Moms Moderate?

All posts must be approved before they are posted to this List. That means John, Marion or I must actually go into the List Mom area and read each post and decide to click on "Approve," "Delete," or "Reject." [Yahoo picked these
designations. Personally I wish the "Reject/Bounce" message was renamed "Request for Edit"--which is a lot less threatening and judgmental, and would accurately describe what we are doing/asking for.]

Sometimes we approve stuff we shouldn'ta oughtta. Occasionally we delete a perfectly valid point. We are all human-- occasionally under-caffeinated and/or distracted. We each have very busy businesses and we're doing the
best we can.

We NEVER delete a post we dislike. Again, it might happen by accident (and more than once you have seen (usually me) post "will the person who wrote about such and thus please repost. I accidentally deleted"), but we all believe you have a right to know why your post needs editing. That's when we hit the "Reject/Bounce" key. If you don't see it within 24 hours and it didn't get bounced, you are more likely to have an e-mail glitch than a grumpy List Mom.

However, we do kill off spammers ya'll never see. Marion and I were comparing notes this past weekend. We each throw off a few dozen spammers a week (these are the "increase your [body part]" and "write here to become a
millionaire in 2 hours" folks).

o How many posts do we each handle and how do we divvy up the task?

The answer is, it depends (does that sound familiar?). Whoever gets to the posts first, handles them. I am last up, since I'm in Pacific time, (both Marion and John are on East Coast time) so I rarely am first on the board (though once, when I couldn't sleep, I was editing the board at 2:30 am). I think Marion probably handles more than John and I put together. She is our darling over-achiever. Many times, I'll have her approve posts I'm working on, right from under me. It's kind of a race.

After the initial block of morning mail (or evening, my end), which can consist of 25-50 posts, we each check in about once an hour... Or whenever our schedule permits. There are anywhere from 4 to 25 posts, depending on the topics of the day.

o Why do we bounce posts--and is it all of us or just one grumpy mom?

Most of the bounced posts clearly bend or outright break the List Rules. Those are easy, and whatever List Mom is doing the task, handles it his- or herself.

Sometimes, there is a post that is in the gray area, or we wonder if it is leaning a bit toward a flame (heated debate, for those new to this stuff). We realize that we are not infallible and our mood may affect how we are reading the post (e-mail is actually a lousy communication method. It is hard to gauge "tone" and what people will take from a certain word-set). So we ask the other Moms' opinion. We can spend all day passing the note back and forth, deciding who will write the "bounce" notice (or not), and how it is phrased. The task is lengthened by our busy schedules. More often, one of us will write the others "what do you think about post so-and-so?" And another Mom will just go in and approve or bounce.

We have bounced nearly every single regular poster on this List. Yes, even the "Big Names." And gotten heat for it, too. We have each bounced each other's posts--for being too heated, or thoughtless or just plain out there (Marion once wrote me on one, "Did you drink your coffee before you wrote this?").

We have bounced a post and then, after the person who originated the note protested, allowed the post thru. But usually, the other Moms hold the line, not from stubbornness, but because we feel there was cause to bounce.

We have each had occasion to question the other List Mom's sanity in approving a post.

We've had some really great people leave the group because a post was bounced--and usually for a pretty innocuous note (maybe it just had 30 lines in the signature block or something). That's one of those times I think "Return for Editing" would have done better than "reject/bounce."

o What do you get from this?

Mostly just good karma. Goodness knows, the pay really bites (we recently had a 30,000% pay raise from our boss, Scott Flora (who owns SPAN, the organization that hosts this List-Serve). But that times $0 is, um, $0. (Look, Marion! I did the math there all by myself!!)

Marion and I decided last year that we are simply Answer Pigs. We were the annoying kids in school who knew all the answers and always had our hands up. In this case, we know a lot of answers (but certainly not all, and for every case), and these answers could save others money, make them money, or help them make critical decisions.

In my case, I started out knowing next to nothing about 8 years ago. Just about everything I know I learned from backing up to some pretty prickly cactus/reality. I have the sort of personality that makes me want to help people avoid that kind of pain.

Marion really knows this business. But she also just likes helping people (which would be why she is List Mom for 4 other groups (not all publishing)). John's been in the biz forever and he likes to share what he knows.

And we all seem to get along. We've been working together for 3-4 years and it's sometimes rather fun.

o Do you guys talk about us Off-List?

Not so much. Sorry. We all have businesses. We have things to do other than talk about ya'll.

o How do you guys handle so much mail?

John has his e-mail delivered to folders in his in-box.

I'm not sure how Marion does it. Probably by multi-tasking her multi-tasks.

I get the whole discussion in Digest. Hey, there are just so many hours in
the day.

Before you ask: go to http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/Self-Publishing and click on the "Edit My Membership" link beside your name.

Here's one Caroline didn't ask, but I've heard rumblings:

o Do you guys have a political bias?

Sorry, no. There are three of us with three different opinions about politics. No one view holds sway here. Civility and focus on publishing are the aims. Not politics. And the List is not ours. It belongs to SPAN, and they want things run the way they are. We're just doing our jobs.

I hope this answers some of the questions out there about what the List Moms do.

Jacqueline (JC)Simonds
on behalf of the List Moms
John Culleton and Marion Gropen

These reminders include:
--contact information for the listmoms
--our requests with respect to copyright violation and libel
--the list rules
--how to manage your subscription

TO CONTACT the listmoms (John Culleton, JC Simonds, and Marion Gropen) you may send an email to self-publishing-owner AT yahoogroups.com . Of course, you can also send an email to any one of us individually, at the addresses that appear on our posts.

WE REQUEST that you:
First, please respect copyright on list. In other words, don't use large chunks of someone else's words in your post and don't send someone's posts elsewhere without the author's permission.

Second, please be careful about the wording of any negative comments about any one or any company. There have been more lawsuits lately for libel over the 'net. If you are making a negative comment, please stick very closely to provable facts. We'll do our best to read between the lines.

THE LIST RULES:

1.) Please snip. This means cut everything from the previous post that isn't necessary for context when posting a reply.

2.) Signature blocks are limited to six lines, including blanks and your name.

3.) Use meaningful subject lines, i.e., when responding to a digest please delete the digest number, etc. and type in a topic. If you are starting a new thread, make sure and type a topic in the subject line.

4.) Don't cross-post, that is, don't put more than one list in the "to," "cc," or "bcc" fields. If you do that, then you can crash the software running the listserv when people reply.

5.) Be considerate. When you approach an area likely to evoke emotional reactions, do so with care for your audience.

6.) Extreme behavior which harms another list-member, even off-list, may lead to banning from the list.

7.) Messages with the following will be rejected or deleted:
--Advertising
--Attachments
--Incivility (cursing, flaming, excessive sarcasm, . . .)
--Newsletters
--Press Releases, Product or Contest Announcements
--Articles
--Jokes
--Chain Letters
--Virus warnings (They tend to be hoaxes.)
--Banned subjects:
Politics
Religion
Pornography

Please remember that we moderators are fallible human beings. Sometimes a post containing an infraction will slip through.

Persistent offenders against list rules may be warned and/or banned, at the discretion of the listmoms as a group.

TO MANAGE YOUR SUBSCRIPTION:
--To unsubscribe, please choose one of these methods:
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--To change your email status (separate mails, digest, no mail, . . .), log into the yahoo groups site above, then go to "edit my membership."
--If you post requesting changes to your membership status, you will usually get an answer back at the top of the reject notice.
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Follow instructions on that page about joining.
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Let one of the listmoms know if you have trouble.

Enjoy the list.

The moms:

John Culleton, Wexford Press
Marion Gropen, Gropen Associates
JC Simonds, Beagle Bay, Inc.