Television Sky Editing: Active Client Census

Post-Crisis Triage

(Portrait of the Editor by Simon Stalenhag)

Television Sky Editing: Active Client Census

I’m doing an active client census and project records reconciliation this week. Wow doesn’t that just sound fuckin’ fun?

The move, the crisis of the move, the aftermath of the move, the housing/legal fallout, a personal medical disruption, and a family medical emergency directly afterwards all turned into a perfect storm resulting in a real and severe disruption in my workflow, communication rhythm, and project tracking. My editorial records are currently more scattered than I am comfortable with across email, files, payment records, invoices, drafts, contracts, and private correspondence.

This is a huge issue.

So I’m consolidating everything into one clean active-client board before taking on significant new work. I lost too much working time to the move and its aftermath, and I have to rebuild the queue in a way that is visible, accurate, immediately actionable, and useful.

For now, if you query me for new work, short stories and short work only. Existing paid work comes first.

If you currently have an active paid editorial project with me—manuscript edit, short story edit, you’re in my founders tier, a coaching arrangement, consult, retainer, partial pass, delayed pass, or anything where I owe you work or a formal next step—email me directly (emilottoman@gmail.com) with the subject line:

ACTIVE PROJECT CENSUS - [YOUR NAME] - [PROJECT TITLE AND CLASS DEV/FULL LINE AND DEV/RETAINER, ETC. PICK APPROPRIATELY PLEASE]

Examples:

ACTIVE PROJECT CENSUS — JANE DOE — NOVEL DEV EDIT

ACTIVE PROJECT CENSUS — JOHN DOE — FOUNDERS TIER STORY

ACTIVE PROJECT CENSUS — NAME — RETAINER / CONSULT

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Please Include:

• Project title

• Approximate date you retained me, especially if no contract was drawn

• Type/category of work: developmental edit, full line and developmental edit, short story edit, founders-tier story, retainer, consult, coaching, etc.

• What I owe you next

• Last and most complete file or draft you sent me, and where we left off

• Any deadline or timing concern I need to know about

• Best current email address for correspondence

If your project has already been completed or we are in communication very regularly (M.P. Fitzgerald et al) you do not need to email unless there is an unresolved follow-up. If you are contracted and we are already in regular direct communication ( Ian Patterson et al), you also do not need to email unless you want to make absolutely sure your project is listed correctly. And If you do send one anyway, I would appreciate it. The point of this is not to create more noise. The point is to make sure the board is accurate.

Moving was traumatic, it was followed by a cascading failure of systems and a medical crisis. This is rectification of dues owed.

It is an administrative reset, not a disappearing act. I am rebuilding the board, confirming active obligations, and prioritizing existing paid work before taking on new bookings beyond what is absolutely necessary to keep the bills paid and the lights on.

If you are waiting on me, send the email with the subject line above. I’ll use your responses to verify the queue and send direct status updates from there.

After you send an email, please allow one to three business days before following up. I’ll be in touch.

-Emil