Since taking over the editorial reins a month ago, my life has been fraught with scheduling problems. Due to the turmoil of the last couple of months, particularly the departure of Bob Schreck and moving our offices, a significant number of our books have fallen way behind.

We all hear the grumblings about publishers and their late books, and believe me, no one hates to hear those more than the publishers. Late books aren’t any fun – for any of us. While your shelves are sitting empty waiting for the latest Jay and Silent Bob and Grrl Scouts, you aren’t making any money, and neither are we. In fact, it means my time is spent making phone calls, reorganizing schedules, and generally worrying about future issues that are way behind before they are even started. It takes the focus of my job away from what it should be – making great comic books – so that I can deal with the fall-out from the delays.

So, I am publicly going to make a promise to all of the retailers, fans, and myself to do everything in my power to get all the Oni books back on track. Joe Nozemack and I have been assessing the company’s past mistakes, seeing where we have jumped the gun and why certain decisions haven’t been in the best interest of the books. We hope to learn from those mistakes, and once we get our books back on time, we want to keep them on time.

You may be wondering why I am choosing to make this commitment in this forum. I believe for Oni Press to continue to be a successful company, we need to keep the lines of communication open between ourselves and our supporters. It was important to me that everyone understood that we don’t take late books lightly. Also, by making this public statement, it means I have to live up to it. I could fail – it’s happened before – but if I fail this time, you all will be watching and will know it. Can you think of a better incentive than that?

Sincerely,

Jamie S. Rich
editor in chief
Oni Press