{"id":4598,"date":"2013-05-17T00:01:56","date_gmt":"2013-05-17T07:01:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/?p=4598"},"modified":"2013-05-11T12:10:06","modified_gmt":"2013-05-11T19:10:06","slug":"lord-high-editor-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/?p=4598","title":{"rendered":"Lord High Editor, Part I"},"content":{"rendered":"

Once upon a time, I was the editor of a computer magazine. I should write computor<\/em> magazine, because it was called ComputorEdge<\/em>, a weekly publication available in San Diego from 1983 through 2007.
\n
\nI wasn’t always the editor. The magazine wasn’t always called ComputorEdge<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Back in 1984 I was just a year out of college. I wanted to be a writer, so I was writing stuff all the time and sending it hither and thither. Fiction was my first choice, and I was on the cusp of success.<\/p>\n

In February 1984, I joined fellow online friends for a parachute jump. (That’s another story.) On the road to Perris Valley, one of them handed me a copy of a local computer magazine, The Byte Buyer<\/em>. It was like a PennySaver<\/em> or Nickel’s Worth<\/em>, but specifically for computers. They were looking for writers.<\/p>\n

Being eager, I wrote up an article for The Byte Buyer<\/em>. It dealt with how computer users in those days loved to one-up each other. To my surprise, it was accepted and published in the April 13, 1984 edition. They wrote me a check for $75. Instantly I was a professional writer.<\/p>\n

\"The

The Apri 13, 1984 issue of The Byte Buyer<\/em>, with my article on the front cover.<\/p><\/div>\n

Like most budding writers, I did the first thing that came to mind: Wrote more articles for The Byte Buyer<\/em>. Surprisingly, they accepted pretty much everything. They even asked me to write more articles and features.<\/p>\n

Eventually, in about 1986 or so, the magazine put me on a monthly retainer to write regularly for them. I had my own column, in which I wrote funny things about computers or nerds or PC culture.<\/p>\n

Around that time I was working as a ghost writer for a computer book publishing house. I had acquired a literary agent and was seeking to write my own computer books. So my career was in a good place — even though I still dreamed of writing fiction and being a respectable author.<\/p>\n

After I left the computer book publishing house, I experienced the terror of being self-employed. Wanting something more stable, I started sending out resumés, looking for a full time position as a technical writer.<\/p>\n

As luck would have it, The Byte Buyer<\/em> was expanding. They needed a full-time editor to handle the growing editorial tasks. The publisher asked me if I was interested. I accepted.<\/p>\n

I didn’t know squat about being an editor. I couldn’t even spell. Magazine publishing was alien to me, although I did have plenty of experience with book publishing.<\/p>\n

For the first time in my life, I had a job I thought was really cool. I was an editor<\/em> of a magazine. Or, as I fashioned myself, Lord High Editor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Once upon a time, I was the editor of a computer magazine. I should write computor magazine, because it was called ComputorEdge, a weekly publication available in San Diego from 1983 through 2007.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-main"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4598"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4626,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4598\/revisions\/4626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}