Yesterday I posted a collage under the title Scott C Holstad: 5 Decades in Letters which was essentially nine pics of me in various stages and places of my writing career dating from 1988 to the present. It was easier to choose photos from some decades because those were just partial decades as opposed to others where I wrote constantly. That was fun to make and post and thanks to those who took time to view it.

Today I decided to try to do something similar but found it much more difficult. Today’s post is titled Scott C Holstad: 5 Decades of Writing & Editing because while I’ve had a diverse career and done many things, first and foremost I’ve been a writer (and editor and publisher) in nearly every capacity for so long and not only have I had the good fortune to have a number of books published but I’ve also contributed to many more in a variety of ways, from ghostwriting, collaborating, technical writing and editing, journalism, publishing, editing, and as a contributor to anthologies, textbooks and the like. So I’ve also helped put out books for companies as a production manager, copywriter and editor, indexer, translator, etc. All said, I not only have no idea how many books I’ve had published under my name or by people using my name (without my knowledge or permission, believe it or not), but also in other professional capacities for companies as an employee, contractor, consultant, collaborator, etc. I mean, just in terms of my own stuff, I’ve run across books, contracts for books, print proofs of manuscripts, etc., for many more books than I take credit for or even knew/know about! Between my info on Goodreads, this website (where part of the tagline reads “5 decades & 125+ books“) and various other sources, my bio usually states I’ve authored between 50-65 books but after spending a long time (years) trying to get a fairly accurate estimate, using all sorts of stuff to piece things together, I wrote the following on this website’s My Published Books page:

So basically I have no idea how many books I’ve had published or was a part of. Some I didn’t list here and I think I can account for at least 60, maybe as many as 70-75 books. But when you add all of the rumored, alleged, unknown or unconfirmed books published here and in other countries/languages (I found out just last year that I was paired and featured with Bukowski for a small co-written collection in Scandinavia, which kind of blows my mind because I can’t think of any other poets he shared or was co-featured in a double small collection!) my guestimate is then that the total is approaching or has surpassed 100 books, anthologies, textbooks, etc. Published broadsides would increase that total, as would collaborations with specific artists. Hell, maybe 120+? Add my professional books I wrote and edited, largely in the technology and science fields, and I go over 150 books at that point, with no end in sight.

The point of all this is while I had a rather easy time choosing 9 photos of me from the 1980s through the present to represent various stages of my writing career, choosing photos of 9 books was goddamned hard as hell! I wanted to include some of my own as well as anthologies and textbooks I contributed to and ideally maybe other projects I worked on in related capacities. So I made hard choices and didn’t include everything I would have wanted to but I generally like the mixture and the first five represent my work before 2000 while the last four have been published in this century, which seemed the logical thing to do. I’m not listing the titles or info — the titles are visible and info on those and others can be found all over, including this website obviously. Now I’m just tired and ready to post this collage. Hah! Thanks again to those of you who glance at this and thanks especially for those of you who have read and otherwise supported me and my career over the years. Cheers!

• Scott