Earlywood: 10 Biggest Mistakes Lost Art Press Has Made

Publisher’s note: Hello! Welcome to Earlywood, a free excerpt from one of the thousands of pieces I’ve written since 1996. Sometimes it’s from a magazine article. Or a book. Or (in this case) a blog entry from 2022. Each entry has been updated or annotated with some modern context or point of view. Enjoy!

As Lost Art Press enters its 16^th 18^th year of operations, I am amazed we are still here. We have made so many errors – some of them nearly fatal. Likely the reason we are still operating is that we are too dumb to quit. If I had to “make” every LAP book with a photocopier and a stapler, I’d probably do that before closing our doors.

If you run a small business (or hope to), some of our mistakes might serve as helpful warning flags for you. Here’s a partial list. The complete list would be as long as a book.

1. We trusted a FedEx salesman as to what …