Welcome to our Underground Lair...

For this, our first official blog post, we thought we might take you on a tour of the facilities. Would you like to see what the headquarters of Common Deer Press looks like? No? Too bad! (*Dr. Evil laugh*). We're going to show you anyway.

Upon entering the deer den, which is well off the beaten path, you will be welcomed by... very little that looks bookish. That's because our herd leader, Ellie, is also a music nerd (she named that sassy fellow leaning against the wall "Waylon" because he can really wail. Trust us!), and music stuff is what greets you.

Once underground, turn right and you will see the editing desk. This is where submissions are read, contracts are signed, editorial thoughts are had, e-books are made, and lunch is eaten. You might notice something missing from this image. Yes, that's right, there appears to be no computer on this desk. Well, that's because most of the reading is done on our e-readers, and structural notes are made (GASP!) by hand in a notebook. When we get into the finer details of editing, we do it either by smoke signal or laptop.

If you turn left, you will be faced with this, the design and layout area. This is where all of our edited manuscripts are transformed from boring old Word documents into fully designed books. That's a big computer screen, no? (You know what they say about deer with big computer screens... They make big BOOKS!) This is also where all of our images, promotional material, and covers are made.

Here is the view from the editing desk if you look right:

Here's what you'll see if you look left:

The Common Deer den is not huge, but nor are we a huge herd. Down here it's cozy, the distractions are few, and, most importantly, we are surrounded by books (and awesome bookends, the buying of which is a weakness).

Thanks for visiting the den! In our next post, we will start taking you through the process. Instalment one: what happens when we receive your manuscript.

Butts to the wind!

Herd