ometimes I compare the similarities of being editor of an automotive magazine to playing in a rock band—one of which I’ve done, and the other I still do. In a band situation, you work (also referred to as “playing,” but essentially, it’s a lot of work) with a few other musicians who have similar taste in music, possess equal or better talent than yourself, all with a common goal to create great-sounding music that you hope appeals to as many people as possible. In the magazine world, working relationships are similar as far as talent and interests go, with the idea to put together a magazine that appeals to as many readers and enthusiasts as possible who share interest in the subject matter delivered in the magazine pages. Some of us “play” with cars with the intention of making them “work.” They don’t make music but instead make a bunch of noise—which to many of us is considered a very sweet sound.

In a band, the players build a cohesive unit and in time learn to work together to refine a sound that’s all their own. When doing a magazine, the idea is similar in that of surrounding yourself with the most talented and experienced writers and photographers to build a solid foundation. Of the utmost importance is having a talented art director, copy editor, and managing editor, as those key elements play an important role in putting together a great-looking, cohesive, successful magazine, and one that each participant is proud to have taken part.

So, building a high-quality monthly magazine requires every person involved to work in harmony (not in the singing harmony. No one in our little magazine world can carry a tune.), be on the same page, and can perform their job at the highest level possible all while meeting strict, recurring deadlines. But here’s the tricky part: We all work on different deadlines and similar ones at the same time. For example, the editor may be putting ideas together for the June issue while at the same time reading articles that were submitted for the May issue while also approving layouts the art director and managing editor have turned in for the April issue. So, essentially what’s happening is that there are three different magazine issues in production at the same time. That’s why working with an experienced staff who are the best at what they do is so important.

With all the mechanical aspects of building a magazine happening at the same time, I often have to step back and look at everything from a 30,000-foot level and put my personal taste aside to make sure that the content we include is relevant and has wide reader appeal. The questions that go through my mind are “Is the car in this feature good enough quality so our readers will appreciate it?” Or “Is a certain car so high-end that our readers cannot relate to it?” I don’t always have the correct answer to those questions—that’s where you decide by either buying the magazine from the newsstand or investing in a yearly subscription.

As a band hopes to have at least one hit single per album, we here at All Chevy Performance aspire to have every article in the magazine hit home with the largest number of readers possible. We know not all car features will fit the taste of every reader, just as it not being likely an LS build will strike a chord with a big-block engine fan. But, if one of the many tech articles we publish gets you motivated to start on or get back to your project, we’ve done our job.

Yeah, working on a magazine is like playing in a band, except in the magazine world we are most productive on Red Bull, Coca-Cola, and coffee as opposed to a rock band that may operate better on bottles of beer and shots of whiskey. I don’t know what it’s like to be a rock star, but I do know that no one involved in producing this magazine “gets money for nothing and their chicks for free.”

You in?