The Print Editor’s Desk: How To Be a Print Editor

For the very first “how-to” of the print editor’s desk, I’ll be discussing what exactly it means to be the print editor of a student-run, college literary magazine, as I’ve defined it through my two years in the position. It’s important to note that not everyone’s experience in this role is the same. It can be tailored in a number of ways, most of which comes down to the level of involvement any print editor is willing to take on. For example, some print editors leave the design work of the print issue to hired on graphic designers, and some, like myself, prefer to be completely hands-on and do the design work themselves. There’s no right or wrong way, but my main point here: the print editor position is tailor fit to each individual print editor. This will be a brief overview of each branch of the print editor position, all of which will have their very own in depth how-to articles in the near future.

First, the print editor position is one of leadership, of course; the different aspects of it involve being a leader to whatever team happens to have been assigned to you. Unlike the publisher position, you aren’t facilitating every single branch of the team (for us, we have the podcast team, website crew, and the person in charge of communication/social media/events), but more-so guiding everyone along the process of creating the print issue. Meaning, trying to explain your vision for the issue to everyone in a way that helps you get a desired result, trying to explain what it is that you’re looking for, what makes a good piece or a bad piece, and encouraging effective communication between the whole team when it comes time to discuss/decide on the submissions. While I can’t say what’s right or wrong of a print editor to do, I firmly believe that the very last thing you want to do, especially when it comes time for in-depth discussions as an entire team, is stifle anyone’s opinion or point of view. If I’ve done nothing else as a print editor, I hope I’ve at least allowed everyone to have a voice and feel heard throughout the time in their respective positions. It is, however, equally important to make sure that your voice is being heard as well, and the way to find that balance is going to be a different journey for everyone.

Before the semester even really gets going, what I’ve always been encouraged by my instructor to do first is create a production calendar. This is your overview of the entire semester, your collection of deadlines. At the very least, it should include the following: poster deadlines, the soft deadline for submissions, the hard deadline for submissions (if you plan on having an extended deadline), the date which you want all decisions on pieces to be complete, the date which all accepted contributors need their biographies submitted, and your first, second, and final pass deadlines for the print issue. I cannot stress the importance of holding yourself accountable to being on time with these deadlines. When you’re in charge, and I have fallen prey to this, it’s easy to give yourself a little extension on deadlines… but being in a leadership position, your team will watch what you do, even if you think they aren’t. If you don’t hold yourself accountable, it could incite a collective feeling among your team that makes it seem acceptable that they don’t hold themselves accountable to their deadlines either. Even if this doesn’t happen, a good rule of thumb, always, is to lead by example. Hone in the characteristics as a leader that you would like to see in your team.

The submission process is what’s going to take up the majority of your time in this position. This is what I believe to be the bare minimum portion of hands-on involvement from a print editor. In fact, the entire position revolves around this process. When I say submission process, I mean outsourcing to solicit submissions, to get as many as possible from as many different groups of people/majors as possible; I mean creating the comment spreadsheet where your team members vote on pieces, if that’s how you decide you want to do it; I mean leading those discussions where there’s clear indecision among the group on a certain submitted piece, or where one voice wants to be heard and fight for or against a piece; I mean being there to answer questions from potential submitters and your team members, and leading this process from the time submissions open to long after they end, once every single piece has been voted and decided on. The submission process is, by far, the most imperative part of the print editor’s job, and how involved and on top of things you are will determine exactly how smooth that process goes.

In the past, being hands-on when it comes to being the sole designer of all things poster/social media advertisement has been left to whoever wanted to do it, or when it came to creating the print issue, solicited graphic design majors. Due to my interest and experience in design (with posters, knowledge of Adobe Creative Suite, etc.), I took on that role in my print editor position. My first year, I created all of the poster advertisements: for the soft deadline, hard deadline, one that included all of our social media accounts, and for the launch party. This year, I’ve given the bulk of that work to my assistant print editor, Maggie, since they also have an interest in design. It leaves me with more time to focus on the submission process and creating the print issue, and also gives them something to do. So, I would say the poster design creation part of the print editor position is optional, given there are others who are talented and willing to take on the role.

As for the creation of the print issue itself, this is also something that, in the past, has been optional. As I’ve mentioned, previously, we’ve solicited graphic design majors to create the print issue for us. However, once I stepped in the role, I was adamant about creating it myself, even with limited pre-existing knowledge of InDesign. It’s my personal opinion that if someone is going to take on the print editor position, they should have at least some semblance of a design background and be fully hands-on in the creation of the issue, along with the submission process as a whole. While I understand that not every new round of team members will have someone who qualifies, I think it’s extremely beneficial to assign the role of print editor to a person who’s able to do all of that, or at least willing to learn. Not to say that outsourcing and getting a graphic design team on board would be a total loss, because if anything, I think it would only strengthen an already strong team… but there is no better feeling than working tirelessly to create something that will potentially withstand the test of time, and holding it in your hands, knowing that you are responsible for putting this tangible piece of art out into the world.

Needless to say, the role of print editor isn’t easy. Sometimes there are disagreements that you feel will never end, or there are decisions the team makes that you find frustrating. Sometimes you’ll have to rush to meet a deadline, or have to send twenty e-mails just to get all of your contributors to send in their biographies. Sometimes you won’t leave the office until 2 a.m. On the flip side, sometimes you’ll have days where everyone is agreeing with each other and on the same page, sometimes you’ll create a poster that comes out a lot better than you thought it would, or you’ll get more quality submissions than you know what to do with, or someone will congratulate you on all of your hard work. Like with any leadership position, it comes with stress and a heavy work-load and many responsibilities, but at the end of the day, it’s always worth it.