From The Editor: Dear Submitters

First: my thanks. The level to which all of you have responded to this lark of an idea of mine far outstrips any hopes I may have had for it. I've been asked if I take ReviewYourOwnBlog seriously. Well, if I wasn't sure before, the seriousness with which each of you has bought into the concept has made me sit up and take notice. It is a seriousness not stodgy, but vibrant. Some with self-deprecating humor, some with a sober and contemplative approach, each of you has stepped back and taken a crack, and the results are something I think people will want to see.

Second: my apologies. I do have a limited amount of time to spend on this venture. My own blogging efforts are quite demanding. Just last night I posted forty-four poems on my poem-a-day blog. Added to that, my primary vocation of songwriting, my dabbling in oils, the several uncompleted genre screenplays that I've been aggressively shopping around, my extensive auditioning of actresses to play a choice role in my upcoming wedding, and my job itself - totally unrelated to any of these pursuits - all leave scant time for this newest blossoming. So I appreciate your patience with my absence of feedback to submitters. I may not send updates, but if yours is picked to go I definitely will send the acceptance notice, complete with the date it is slated to run. If you haven't received that yet, it doesn't mean you won't be picked!

Whatever time constraints I may have, for ReviewYourOwnBlog at least, I've come to see them as a blessing in disguise. First, the level of 'buy-in' to the concept from all my submitters is so strong that it has freed me up. I can basically step back and let you run the show. All I have to do is pick one that meets the standard, and post. Second, I believe the 1-a-day update, while originally a matter of necessity, is a good thing. The interval gives each reviewer/ee their own day in the sun, and the regularity gives readers a reason to keep coming back. Also, the commitment prevents me from lapsing into my usual mode of twenty updates at once followed by a yawning silence.

In closing, I want to say a few words about the standard for publication: I felt from the start that this was a concept that if taken just a little seriously, would end up being a lot more fun. So far, you folks have bought into that notion, and how. I wasn't sure what I'd do at first if all I got were jokey or biased submissions. Publish them anyhow? What would it matter? But based on what I've seen so far, I can answer that question - and it does matter. It matters because every reviewer/ee on here now has a stake in it, and everyone submitting has a stake in it, and everyone basically wants the same thing: that a certain quality be preserved, to be observed.

As Editor, it falls to me to keep the standard high for what's posted. It falls to you the submitters to do an honest job, and to be impartial. Not everyone is a professional journalist, and that's not what the standard is. The standard is simply this: that the review should be interesting, and that it should read well, and that it should seem informative and objective.

My thanks to you all, for all of the above.