Overuse of Em Dashes By…

On the joys of my first index

Whatever I’m writing at the moment is my favorite project. Which isn’t an attitude I’ve cultivated intentionally; it’s just there. My current priorities are a middle grade novel and the leadup to the publication of my craft book, Imagine a Door.

Since starting Forest Avenue Press in 2012, I’ve grown into the role of consultant and publishing navigator as a friend and teacher. Imagine a Door is my manifesto about being both of the industry—as a publisher—and outside the industry—as a writer and running a micro press far from hallowed New York hallways.

I started interviewing for this book, seeing a need for it, in 2016, and those early pages were stuffed full of other people’s perspectives and insights. All valuable, but they didn’t gel. Yet.

By the time I circled back to this project and won a Regional Arts and Culture Council grant (2023) to support its publication through Forest Avenue, I had realized my voice was the missing piece. My experiences as a publisher and an author weren’t just interesting bits and bobs; that perspective could be—should be—the glue.

I believe in kindness and community and that the value of writing shouldn’t be inextricably linked with acceptance for publication. The value is in the work itself. The thinking. The way putting words on a page is how we can explore and express and understand.

Spin the wheel of time ahead a few more years, and my project earned its own title, subtitle, and publication date, but it still needed a professional index so readers could find what they want in the pages.

I hired Alyssa Graybeal, pro indexer and author of Floppy, who meticulously went through the pages and subjects and author names, categorizing and building a reference in the form of seventeen pages, two columns per page. I printed the document so I could go over it in detail but also so I could marvel at the clarity she’s created out of my chapters and sidebars and case studies.

An index! My first index!

It’s like Alyssa has decoded my brain and organized it in a way that I could never in a million years see from the inside of the chaos. After all the years struggling with this octopus of a project, with all the facts and anecdotes and more than 75 original interviews,

Imagine a Door is for seasoned writers seeking insights into differentiating small presses or trying to overcome an emotional block, but it’s mostly for newer writers who are just starting to see themselves as real writers. That their commitment to pages is enough of an identity even before they start racking up publication credits.

Gentle is the word a new friend used to refer to my tone.

This gentleness shows up in the topics in Alyssa’s index. Solitude is one. So is success, defining your own. And genuineness. See authenticity.

Under Laura Stanfill the index lists (among other topics):

• as a community builder

• as a roller derby player

• overuse of em dashes by

• unpublished manuscripts by

Heh. I do love my em dashes and I’m going to press in January with a book that announces that tendency out in the world. On the page. In print. How great is that?

By describing Imagine a Door as gentle, I am acknowledging my view of the world. My belief in the value of real relationships and how our voices matter, even if the piece of work we wrote for the world gets rejected. But I’m also being gentle with myself. I’ve coined terms in this book. I’ve made up definitions. How my brain operates is all over every page—and it’s scary to definitively use my voice. To put myself out there.

But reviewing Alyssa’s index has helped me calm my nervous system. Whatever I’ve missed, whatever topic another publisher or editor or writer might approach in different ways than how I’ve done it, what’s in Imagine a Door is what I intended.

Authenticity. Defining success for yourself. Community for the sake of community.

So I will be gentle with myself in these pre-publication months. As best I can.

Imagine a Door is available for preorder at your local independent bookstore or on Bookshop.org. It’s forthcoming from Forest Avenue Press on April 1, 2025.

YOUR INVITATION: What are you reading in these last weeks of the month? Are you in escapist fantasy mode like I am or are you delving deep into nonfiction or heartbreaking fiction? Can you sneak some extra reading time in when you’re at your busiest?

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