Indie Editors Series: Annie Huang
“Writing (and editing) is also a discipline. There’s nothing quite like the tactility of physically sweating out a piece of writing. There’s nothing quite like using a different coloured pen to cross out and move things around on a piece you’re developing. There’s nothing quite like looking back, from a finished project in your hand to the first draft of what it was, knowing how and where you had started the thing you’ve finished.”
Welcome to our very first in a new interview series, where we pick the brains of emerging and indie editors across the Australian (and international) literary scene!
I’ve loved speaking with authors from all walks of life and bringing together some great answers to inspire, motivate and commiserate with fellow readers and writers, and it got me thinking, what about the other piece of the puzzle?
As a writer, something I’ve always struggled with is the process of editing and submitting - and who better to help shine a light and build better connections between the writing and editing process than the pros themselves: editors.
For the first in this series, I had the absolute delight of putting together some questions for Annie Huang, an artist, writer, editor and social media curator who leads Takeon Publishing with a focus on comics, art books and magazines.
Grab your notebook, get comfy and dive into Annie’s chat as she shares her work, creative philosophies, and some great advice about reframing the editing process of your writing work.
Let’s start with an obvious one - can you share a little more about you, your work as a writer and editor, and how you got started in the industry?
My name is Annie Huang, I’m most commonly online as @annieandthemotions, and I make stuff and think things! My current main projects revolve around community building and project management in comics, social media, plants and branding.
Both drawing and writing have been my main forms of expression since many, many different Annies ago. I was encouraged to keep both a journal and sketchbook as a child, which proved to be very useful once I managed to retain the habit of carrying notebooks on my person. Eventually, I ended up studying animation, attempting to combine all the different things I loved into one thing. Five years and many thousands of dollars later, I learned that, while I love animation very much, being an animator was not for me.
What’s an animation graduate to do when the animation industry is not for them? I landed in a few graphic design roles of various kinds, but with the Covid pandemic and entire design teams being made redundant in all directions, I found myself back in the land of freelancing. I made my first comic, 20/20 (here’s some nice things people have said about it), and my now business partner Siobhan Coombs approached me to work on a logo for her new business - Cockatoo Comics.
I became very emotionally invested in Siobhan’s ideas and joined her in crafting the future of Australian comics. A little over a year later, I’ve dived head first into independent publishing under Takeon Publishing, focusing on comics, magazines and a variety of other projects that are still secret. I publish both my own work as well as the work of others, and I don’t think I’ve loved doing anything else quite as much.
What inspired you to start Takeon Publishing, and what do you hope to bring together under this creative project?
All credit where credit is due - I started Takeon Publishing after working with my business partner Siobhan Coombs on Cockatoo Comics and getting to know the indie comics scene here in Sydney. I didn’t know much until I made my own comic (with my friends at Blueprint Comics), but the passion and the peer support found in comics at the moment are unrivalled.
However, my focus in publishing, and in my art overall, isn’t just on comics. I have a keen interest in a range of other things, genres, and mediums. Getting into indie publishing is also a new way of bringing projects that I would like to see happen into the world.
Back when I was in animation, the idea of producing was very appealing to me. Enabling others through collaboration to carry out their vision in a way that contributes to my vision is my way of trying to change the world. The journey has been extremely rewarding so far, so I think the destination will be fun to get to regardless of what measurement of success I might try to use now.
I was recently exploring your magazine, budlife, which brings together creative work under the themes of art, plants and philosophy (love!). A question I enjoy exploring in these interviews is different ideas of creative philosophy - do you have any personal ideas you try to lean into here or perhaps philosophies you’ve adopted from others?
Thank you for exploring Budlife! The philosophy explored there is often tied to the idea that plants operate at a completely different time scale. An example I like to use is the work of my friend and fellow Budlife founder, Evan Marsh, who is a bonsai master and one of the top bonsai professionals in Australia. Evan works with plants that need considerations spanning 5, 10, and 30 years of time. It’s very humbling to share space with something that is alive, slowly.
In terms of my personal philosophies when it comes to my artistic practice, much of my work is reflective of my personal internal development. I create in reflection of changes in myself and the world immediately around me. I focus on the big picture of my tiny existence in a world where a lot of everything - and nothing - matters. I’m not sure if there’s a name to this kind of philosophy, but someone’s probably called it something.
I guess I find it freeing to pursue the things that matter to me and the people around me, even if nothing ultimately matters. I’ve seen this kind of thinking be called Cheerful Nihilism before, and that’s pretty on the nose.
You’re pretty multi-talented with your creative pursuits, and I love when people stay open to where their ideas can take them and the different forms they might take. Do you have a preferred creative outlet at all?
This might be a boring answer, haha, but I don’t have a preferred creative outlet. I do have mediums that I’ll default to, like a native creative language that I use most comfortably. My most basic form of creative communication would be writing and drawing, specifically with pen and paper and linework.
There’s something about “taking a line for a walk”, as Paul Klees so eloquently calls it, that just taps into a foundational part of my brain. It’s where the majority of my work begins.
As a writer and editor, there are lots of ways the two processes overlap, but I often find that many writers find editing their own work a really daunting process. What advice would you share with emerging writers to help with this?
Oddly enough, I prefer the editing process over the writing one. I tend to edit as I write. But to answer your question more directly, my best piece of advice for anyone trying to create anything from nothing is this - carve it out with pen and paper first.
Digital word processing is a gift from a higher power for people who hate paperwork, but writing (and editing) is not paperwork. It’s a craft. As with all crafts, tracking your progress in a tactile way is really quite essential to knowing where you thought of what and how you got there. If you know how you got somewhere, you can try different ways of replicating that journey.
Writing (and editing) is also a discipline. There’s nothing quite like the tactility of physically sweating out a piece of writing. There’s nothing quite like using a different coloured pen to cross out and move things around on a piece you’re developing. There’s nothing quite like looking back, from a finished project in your hand to the first draft of what it was, knowing how and where you had started the thing you’ve finished.
Use pen and paper to start documenting your creative process. I believe in the power of pen and paper, and perhaps you should too.
The gap between submitting work to a press and waiting on a response can sometimes feel shrouded in mystery, which I think deters many writers from submitting their work more. What are some of the misconceptions you come up against as an editor?
I think people just have a lot to do! Response times, with social media skewing expectations, have probably always been a while but now feel longer, with immediate responses being the norm. As an editor dealing with submissions, especially in indie publishing where there’s likely only one person looking at probably up to 3000 individual pieces of work, you’ve got hundreds of hours of work lined up for yourself in attempting to put out a new issue of something, say, every couple of months.
I also think a lot of misconceptions could be rectified if everyone who wonders about what being an editor is like tries it out themselves. The easiest way to build a bridge towards understanding is to try and walk in someone else’s shoes, after all!
And as a follow on, what’s something you wish more people did more (or perhaps less) of during the submission/editing process?
I don’t quite work in the traditional call-out and response methods of submissions and editing, so there might not be much I can add to this!
I will say that everyone underestimates the power of a cold call, cold DM, or cold email. Reaching out to someone you think might be nice to chat with is underrated these days! If you want to demystify anything new in your sphere of knowledge, find someone who might have to answer and ask them if they might have some time to talk to you about it. You never know what you can learn.
Final question, what’s upcoming for you in the publishing space in the future - any submission call-outs readers should know about or other cool ways to work with you?
My publishing playbill is full for the next year or so, so keep an eye out for the currently quite empty (but not for long!) @takeonpublishing on IG for the new project announcements coming up in the next few months.
If you’d like to pitch articles that are in any way related to plants, nature, landscapes or leafy vibes for @budlifemagazine, DM us directly on IG, or email annie@studiokinaesthetic.com with “Let’s work together - budlife magazine” as the subject!
If you’d like to keep track of all the different kinds of things I work on, or if you’re curious about anything else I do, I’m most active on IG as @annieandthemotions. I’ll see you around!
Takeon Publishing is Studio Kinaesthetic’s independent publishing project. Annie Huang runs both those things, does the design/socials/business planning at Cockatoo Comics, consults on a number of other ongoing projects and is also an artist, writer, editor and social media curator. Takeon Publishing currently focuses on comics, art books and magazines, with budlife magazine being one of the main titles.
@annieandthemotions (main)
Elaine Mead is a freelance writer and book reviewer, currently residing in nipaluna (Hobart), Tasmania. She is passionate about the ways we can use literature to learn from our experiences to become more authentic versions of ourselves and obsessed with showing you photos of her Dachshund puppy. You can find her online under www.wordswithelaine.com.
