Now Hiring an Editor!

This is a paid stipend and percentage position.

Trade Reading Order has been a one person operation for a long time, though we’ve had a string of amazing regular contributors to the blog and through the forums.

As you may have noticed, I’ve gotten way too busy in the past couple years to give this site the attention it deserves. Comics are my much loved hobby, but I just can’t manage it full time.

The database still requires my attention, I simply am anal about it and don’t trust anyone else (yet) to get updating it right. But we ARE hiring an editor to manage several things on the site.

I’m going to lay out all the details up front and very clearly in this post. Please don’t send me questions at this point, just information about you. I will be getting an insane amount of mail about this, so it’s important you read carefully.

• Post reviews at least two times a week.
  • These can be user submitted (and there are five sitting in the backend to start you off) and/or written by yourself.
  • They need to have images (ideally original scans) added.
  • They need to be tagged with the proper meta data and linked to the  book in our database. (data includes ISBN number, author names, etc.)
• Post a news article once a week.
  • Keep your eyes on the comics world and write a new article on a topic you choose.
  • Post user submitted articles after carefully editing and reviewing them.
• Post database update news once a week.
  • You don’t have to do all the updates yourself, but you need to do some, including:
    • Writing a few short descriptions of  characters of your choosing for their headers each month.
    • Adding some pictures to characters each month (users even submit these through the forum and adding them to the database is as simple as uploading them to a folder with the name of the character as the file name.)
  • Encouraging me to actually get around to doing the big database updates.
    • If the site gets active again I’d eventually like help with this, but for now it falls to me. I’m very busy with paid tech world work (which pays YOUR stipend income – more on that below), but just some reminders that I’ve promised updates will help – I’m basically asking you to manage me as if I was another unpaid site contributor.
• Moderate the forum and contributors.
  • Several users already have contributor access to the backend and it’s easy to set up more. Just check their posts and post them up.
  • Users also submit ideas for new content (like new reading lists) on the forum, just copy these into new posts and include them on the site once they’ve been vetted by the users.
  • Respond to some comments. This isn’t really necessary, but it’s fun and a nice thing to do. I’ll probably keep responding to them myself, I like actually using the site, I just don’t really have time to be the only one running it.
• Moderate the social media.
  • The site already posts new article to twitter automatically, but you can use this account to talk to other comics world people if you want. This is totally optional, but it’s been a lot of fun for me to interact directly with authors in the past. They tend to retweet it when you review their book! It’s a really friendly industry.
  • I have no real plans for facebook or anything else, but if you have an idea, this is something you can do.

That’s a lot! So you have to be really really really passionate about comics if you want to do this. It’s a good in to the industry and blogging in general and I will be always happy to recommend you strongly to future employers, even if it means you have to leave the site to take a job. I’ll even write you a recommendation on linkedin (this is mine.)

But I’m not an asshole. This is work, and I’m going to compensate you.

The site is not currently profitable. I’ve always supported it out of my own pocket as part of my comic book hobby. It makes about 100-300 dollars in Amazon and Ebay affiliate fees a month, and can sometimes cost more than that a month. I will continue paying for it because I believe it is a valuable resource for new readers and it’s a huge work of love. But I’m going to start by offering you this.

• A monthly stipend.
  • This will be out of my own pocket, be small to start, and we can decide on a fair number. If the site brings in enough to actually pay you, we’ll renegotiate.
• 50% of whatever the site brings in through affiliate links.
  • I am opposed to ever featuring banner adds or similar distracting content, but the in line links are actually useful to collectors as well as bringing in 4-10% back from the purchases.
  • The more content you generate, the more the site brings in. The more useful the site is, the more the site brings in. Want to make more? Make the site better.

You:

• A comic fan. Rabid comic fan.
• Highly organized.
• Internet expert with a love of dicking around (I expect to see a good facebook or personal blog, or something.)
• No ‘experience’ necessary. I’m sick of seeing job postings that require people to have a four year degree and 10 years of experience. If you are an internet generation person (and I mean someone who breathes internet because you were raised doing it) you are not going to have ten years at print papers. Fuck that. Just be good and reliable and nice.
• Reading comprehension. If it’s obvious that you haven’t read this whole post and the directions at the bottom, I’m just going to trash your email. Applying for jobs is very simple and I’ve hired enough people in my life to know that 99% of applicants can’t even fill out the form. It’s amazing. You want a job? Just get past that first thing at the very least.

Training: 

• This site is shoddily built on wordpress. I was in a rush when I built it and a lot of the functionality of modern wordpress wasn’t there yet. I’m continuisly refining it and will be redesigning at some point, but it IS functional and works great on the front end when cached. I’ll teach you wordpress.
• I’ll run you through the backend in a series of skype meetings and answer questions when I’m available.
• We’ll check in weekly, but of course I’m subscribed to the blog so I’ll see what your doing.
• You take the site down, mess up the content, or use the site for your harmful personal vendettas – I will hunt you down and kill you. This is a friendly site and a learning resource. It’s the internet so cuss all you want, but no porn, no personal attacks (outside of essays, maybe) and well, don’t be a jerk. I can get the site back up from offline backups and with my host, but it’s a big pain and.. why would you want to be so mean anyway? Just don’t.

Applying

Again, please don’t send me questions at this point, just information about you. I will be getting an insane amount of mail about this, so it’s important you read carefully.

• Apply by email to ian@tradereadingorder.com
• Use this email headline, without quotes: “I want to be an editor at Trade Reading Order”
• Literally use that exact headline. Just paste it. This is to see if you can read and follow simple directions and is really the only set part of any kind of interview process. 50% of people that send me something about this will literally frick this up.
• Attach a resume (but I am not going to deduct points if it’s not ‘designed’ or doesn’t have ‘a lot of work’ on it.) I’m just curious.
• Write a SMALL paragraph about why you love comics. (about three sentences.)
• Write a SMALL paragraph about yourself. (about three sentences.)
• Include a link to social media / your website. (Facebook is fine, don’t be surprised if I instantly add you – I’m curious. Feel free to block me in your feed, I post a lot and chat on there a lot and it can flood people’s feeds.)
• What you think you should be paid. This can be a joke, cause honestly I’ve already set a budget for the first few months and will be sticking to that, but I’m curious. I want to know what you think.

That’s it, really. Don’t expect a quick reply. Like I said, this is because I’m extremely busy. I’ll try to reply as soon as I can and intend to let everyone know individually when I’ve picked someone. But I want to take the time to really look over each applicant.

If you read that much, you’re qualified. Feel free to apply.

Thanks!

-Ian

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