I wanna start a magazine... - Writers Forum

DrummerFry · 10-18-2007, 01:51 PM

but I don't know how to start,lol. I bought this book How NOT to Start A Magazine by B. Ann Bell. I think I can handle how to go about printing and technical stuff but I still have more questions, especially from the viewpoint of an editor-in chief and the creative aspect. I'm not a writer at all. I only write in my journal, I don't know if that counts. I've been told I'm a good writer or that I have great writing potential (English prof. said that). Anyway, I guess I should ask some of the questions I have to start.

1) How do I get writers to write for my magazine?

2) How do I pay these writers? (do I?)

3) How do I get people to work with me on other tasks?

4) I hardly have any writing experience, so should get a co-editor in chief?

5) How do I give assignments? or how do I create a writers guideline, and what to put in it?

I have more questions but I can't think of them right now. Somebody please help me answer some of these very frustrating questions. Thank You!

Damian_Rucci · 10-18-2007, 03:39 PM

Well I can only answer several questions because I have no experience with this sort of thing. To get writers for your magazine post on websites which is totally free and people will contact you. You should pay the original writers between 5 and 10 cents per word, that is what I have seen going around. That is all I can say for now, if you want me to write for you I will do it if I find the topic of your magazine interesting. Just pm me on this site

StephenP2003 · 10-18-2007, 04:06 PM

1) How do I get writers to write for my magazine?

- Your audience -- who is it? You need a demographic. Is it kids? Is it the 18-25 demo? 18-34? High school? Parents? Sports enthusiasts? Retirees?

When you have that, you'll have a good idea of the writers you want. I am the editor-in-chief of a weekly magazine that targets the 18-25 demographic in my city. Obviously, I employ college students like myself. They can write to the audience we want. We cover entertainment, music, sports, local news, and we have fun humor columns. So, I hire people who have knowledge of these specific areas, and I even contribute 2-3 articles per week, usually relationship advice and an editorial. We normally have 40-45 original pieces per week, and two or three syndicated articles (Daniel Negreanu's poker column and filmcritic.com movie reviews)

How much start-up money do you have? The best way to find writers is to advertise in other publications -- and hey, even on facebook! It will be hard to get "good" writers at first. I have writers knocking on my front door for a chance to work at my mag, but of course it wasn't always that way.

Get you a team of about 10 reliable writers to contribute to your first couple of issues.

2) How do I pay these writers? (do I?)

- That depends on how much start-up money you have. I hope you are familiar with the marketing side of things, as far as advertising and sales go. This will be the only way you will make money. If you are hoping to merely sell subscriptions to your publication, you should rethink your strategy. There are tons of free magazines and papers that will offer more than what you can initially offer when it comes to content.

Under ideal conditions, you will have a team who can lightly contribute their writing for free, just for the sake of getting published. This means, you will have inexperienced writers who are eager to break into the field but perhaps aren't quite good enough to be paid for their work yet. This is certainly not a bad thing. The magazine I write for does not pay a lot at all (we start writers off at $15/article). However, these are all new, eager students who want to use this paper as career experience. And believe me, I have discovered some VERY talented writers who will move on to great things.

My advice is to first talk to people you know, and see if they are willing to be a contributer for free. Of course, free articles is only a temporary thing. No one will write for free for very long, but you can start paying if the mag is successful.

When/if the time comes that your mag is making enough money to start paying writers, you should pay them on a freelance basis. You pay them per article, and this is not per article written, this is per article PUBLISHED. You can retain exclusive rights of your writers' submitted articles at the same time, so when you do publish something really great, they aren't allowed to sell it to someone else. This is called 'work for hire,' where the copyrights are transferred to you, the publisher, once you've paid the agreed amount for the writer's work. Get this in writing, obviously.

I wouldn't worry too much about paying writers just yet, because you will need more than writers. You are going to need people to help you with sales and marketing, and you're going to need a good graphic designer. In my opinion, design is one of the most important parts of a publication. You need someone who can layout your paper in a clean, professional, and presentable manner, and someone who can design ads. Because you start getting advertising clients, you will find out that many of them are going to need someone to actually design their ad. That's where your services come in. At my mag, we charge extra to design a client's ad.

3) How do I get people to work with me on other tasks?

Again, you need to start with people you trust, and people who are willing to help you. This isn't going to be a one-man show. If your magazine ends up a huge success, you will soon find that you can't be the editor-in-chief anymore. You will be the publisher, and you will have a manager under you who manages the sales/marketing staff and design team. Under the manager will be your editor-in-chief who manages content. You're a long ways away from that. Of course, you know that huge publications have quite a few editing positions.

And be sure to find someone who knows his way around a camera and owns a nice one. If you're targeting a young demographic, photography will be more important than text.

4) I hardly have any writing experience, so should get a co-editor in chief?

This gives you a disadvantage, as you are going to need a trusted individual who can act as both a mentor, a content editor, and a copy editor. At that point, you might as well make this person the editor-in-chief, while you take the position of publisher.

You're going to need to know your audience like you know your own birthday. That will be where your experience comes in. You have to know what your magazine will cover, or else you are essentially handing the reigns over to someone else to control your idea.

Your "co-editor" should have a knowledge of AP style and own a copy of the stylebook. While you can write your own style guide, the best way to get this magazine going is to follow a previously set and widely followed style.

5) How do I give assignments? or how do I create a writers guideline, and what to put in it?

You'll know your audience, so you know what they like to read about. So you cover the current events in your area that your demographic cares about.

Ideal conditions would bring you a team of trusted individuals who also know the demographic. At my mag, my writers are very knowledgeable about their respective topics of coverage. Our staff meetings mostly consist of them telling me their story ideas and what they plan to cover this week, and me handing out one or two ideas of my own, but rarely will I be delegating. I'm their manager, their guide, mentor, editor, go-to guy, etc. You probably won't have that luxury at first, so you will have to start trying to find calendars of events for your city and being persistent in getting interviews. However, the topics you cover greatly depends on the frequency you plan to publish. Are you weekly, monthly, quarterly or yearly?

There's much more to discuss when it comes to running a publication, so if you have any questions, feel free to post em.

flashgordon · 10-18-2007, 04:23 PM

This is a complex question that involves much more than a simple post. However, I think you need to think outside of the box. What kind of magazine do you want it to be? Informative, full of ads, etc.

I know someone who started a magazine that currently has hardly any content (the editor just interviews people and then calls that an article), is paid for by all of the ads in the magazine (which he has hired a bunch of people to call and email 24/7 begging/demanding for ads), and then puts them out all over town for free. He does 30,000 of these six times a year. Is it working? In terms of his idea, sure, he has a job, bought a house, etc. Is the magazine working? I can't get through an issue with all the ads, no content, etc. However, he keeps getting people to put ads in and printing issues, so it "seems" to be working.

Long story short, think outside the box. If the guy I'm talking about actually had a business plan and tried to get some capital for this mag. it would not fly. However, somehow he keeps it going.

StephenP2003 · 10-18-2007, 04:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by flashgordon

This is a complex question that involves much more than a simple post. However, I think you need to think outside of the box. What kind of magazine do you want it to be? Informative, full of ads, etc.

I know someone who started a magazine that currently has hardly any content (the editor just interviews people and then calls that an article), is paid for by all of the ads in the magazine (which he has hired a bunch of people to call and email 24/7 begging/demanding for ads), and then puts them out all over town for free. He does 30,000 of these six times a year. Is it working? In terms of his idea, sure, he has a job, bought a house, etc. Is the magazine working? I can't get through an issue with all the ads, no content, etc. However, he keeps getting people to put ads in and printing issues, so it "seems" to be working.

Long story short, think outside the box. If the guy I'm talking about actually had a business plan and tried to get some capital for this mag. it would not fly. However, somehow he keeps it going.

I hate those types of magazines, and what pains me more is that all those clients think because he prints so many and has existing advertisers, that means the publication is good.

We stick to a strict 60% ad, 40% content rule. Our page count depends on the amount of ads we sell, but we never let content suffer for the sake of an advertiser.

DrummerFry · 10-21-2007, 03:20 PM

Thanks a lot esp. to Stephen. An editor in chief is exactly the person that I to want hear from. As far as my mag goes, it'll be targeting 18-34 African-Americans, but the more artsy, urban Afrocentric type. I was thinking about posting flyers around my college or to African American studies department and like you said, just going to some people I already know. Ok I have another question.

6)What should I be worrying about first. Getting writers and the magazine content together, or all the technical stuff like getting printing quotas, publishing software, etc?

7)Besides me having part-time job, (I'm a young college student too) how else can I get money for such a big project like this? Dare I say loan? : (

DrummerFry · 10-21-2007, 03:50 PM

Oh and I plan on publishing bi yearly, with newsprint(nicer newsprint), black and white and with a color (probably kinda glossy) cover. and maybe 28 or 32 pages. It that a good way to start?

Damian_Rucci · 10-21-2007, 09:26 PM

Well I think bi yearly is too far apart, maybe bi monthly or quarterly would be better

JohnN · 10-22-2007, 05:54 AM

Forget it. That's right forget it.

Printed media is on its way out. Have you read about job cuts at the LA Times, magazine closing down left, right and centre. If you want to make money or have any impact at all go online.

Online is the best place because thats where more and more people spend their time. It would have to be free and you would have to make money from ads initially but its the best way to make any impact. Trust me.

Talia_Brie · 10-22-2007, 07:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DrummerFry

but I don't know how to start,lol. I bought this book How NOT to Start A Magazine by B. Ann Bell. I think I can handle how to go about printing and technical stuff but I still have more questions, especially from the viewpoint of an editor-in chief and the creative aspect. I'm not a writer at all. I only write in my journal, I don't know if that counts. I've been told I'm a good writer or that I have great writing potential (English prof. said that). Anyway, I guess I should ask some of the questions I have to start.

1) How do I get writers to write for my magazine?

2) How do I pay these writers? (do I?)

3) How do I get people to work with me on other tasks?

4) I hardly have any writing experience, so should get a co-editor in chief?

5) How do I give assignments? or how do I create a writers guideline, and what to put in it?

I have more questions but I can't think of them right now. Somebody please help me answer some of these very frustrating questions. Thank You!

I don't know the answer to any of those questions, but I know that Valeca (WF Manager) and Selorian (WF Admin) have run a journal for a little while. You could probably get some advice from them.

StephenP2003 · 10-22-2007, 10:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DrummerFry

Oh and I plan on publishing bi yearly, with newsprint(nicer newsprint), black and white and with a color (probably kinda glossy) cover. and maybe 28 or 32 pages. It that a good way to start?

I would go quarterly or more, or people will quickly forget you exist.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DrummerFry

Thanks a lot esp. to Stephen. An editor in chief is exactly the person that I to want hear from. As far as my mag goes, it'll be targeting 18-34 African-Americans, but the more artsy, urban Afrocentric type. I was thinking about posting flyers around my college or to African American studies department and like you said, just going to some people I already know. Ok I have another question.

6)What should I be worrying about first. Getting writers and the magazine content together, or all the technical stuff like getting printing quotas, publishing software, etc?

7)Besides me having part-time job, (I'm a young college student too) how else can I get money for such a big project like this? Dare I say loan? : (

Worry about your finances first. Figure out what you can spend on printing and design, and then what you can spend on writers. Get the technical obligations out of the way, first. But at the same time, you should have tons of ads to find writers right now.

You aren't going to get a loan to start a print media business. Those are usually built from the ground up, with the money being self-produced. Besides, JohnN is correct in that print media is dying, and you're not likely to get a loan for that. If you're set on a print magazine, you'll have to do it out of pocket.

DrummerFry · 10-23-2007, 01:39 PM

Wow everybody is saying "go online" and I was seriously considering that as well. Is it also cheaper to start online?

lin · 10-23-2007, 02:26 PM

Start out online. You may end up staying there, but it's a better place to shake down than out there where publication costs money.
Cost of getting a domain and having it hosted...about $100 for the year. Beyond that, it costs nothing but time.
Compare that to printing costs....

If you do go print, remember this: your big need isn't editors and writers---it is advertising salespersons. If you get to that point with awebsine, you're ahead of the pack.

Webzines get cut a lot more slack on payment, especially as startups. Young writers like having a place to link to their stories (so be sure you archive them)

You can learn how to do a webzine quicker than how to do a print zine, believe me. Also, for the mechanics of it it's not hard to find some young hotshot who is dying to be able to say he's a webmaster for something. Just don't let them get all crazy with flash and gimmicks that bog down your site. Some of the most successful webzines are very subdued and simple.

Yes, create a submissions/guidelines page. Study other such pages to figure out how. While you are studying other zines to see how they do it.
(Remember, you can View, Page Source Code, to see how their design works at that level)
This should be the first page you put up....while you are getting work together before your first issue. Put it up, get some feedback from writers on forums, etc, while you are getting submissions.
Have a blank "Splash page" that says Coming Soon or whatever, with a link to your guidelines page.

If you have buddies who are into web design, writing, art, etc. consider doing this as a group effort. Just figuring out what subject matter should show how weird that gets.

There are a jillion generic literary mags out there, by the way. If you do something that fits a new niche where there is interest you will be more successful. I think, for instance, there's a big niche right now for a magazine about making little videos and putting them up on the youtube and such. This is the garage rock and roll of the era. And theres is ALL THIS STUFF out there to include. Links to hot vids, how to articles, interveiws with hot animators and people with huge viewings on youtube, etc. It's hot and people are dying to contribute for recognition alone.

Webzine's allow you to start forums. This is a HEAVY traffic builder...which means attrative to advertising. It is also a totaly pain in the butt to police, moderate and keep from being hacked. But it could put your site on the map.
Notice how "Realms of Fantasy" magazine has subsidiary web forum, for instance.

That's just one example. There are sub-genres of music, sports craziness, movie genres, all sorts of niches for mags.

General interest magazines, of the Post, Life type that ruled the 30's through 70's in the US, are dead. The best formula for a national magazine is something that addresses a field of interest in which there are lots of products and services to be sold. The quickest way to get a hot mag off the blocks is attaching to some new fun product like skateboards, jetskis, etc. The biggest category of magazine in the US is auto club magazines. Because local AAA's subsidize them.
Your easiest way to financial success in print is to find somebody who will provide free distribution: somebody with a subscription list like the AMA or season pass holders to the Jets or residents of 50 huge apartment complexes.

Sorry you asked yet?

Start small, slow and careful. When you figure out what you want to do, register the domain (satanicmag.com, bungyfucking.com, whatever) or register mymselfpublications.com right off. This will cost like $10-15 dollars on a credit card, per year. You can host it later (which will cost like $7-9 bucks a month)

By then you will have learned how to create the files.
Start a folder in your computer for your mag now. The main page will be called index.html Start building from there. You can view your mag on your screen just like it was on the web. When you are ready get a ftp program like filezilla (which is free) to upload your files to the website.
Learn how to avoid being hacked meanwhile.

If you can run a good, solid webmag for 6-12 months and see some advertising base, you might be ready to try going print. Or publishing a POD book of anthology.

God luck

lin · 10-23-2007, 02:36 PM

BTW I see your nick name is Drummer

That is a good niche for a magazine, I think. The whole street drumming, hand-drumming, firedancing, digerido, djembe scene.

Not a huge ad magnet, but people like Remo drums are very big on supporting the drum community. Not to mention all the small makers of drums, Indian flutes, afro-culture retail, etc.
And online sales like Lark In the Morning and such.

And you'd have lots of input that doesn't cost time or take much ability: schedules, lists of sources, mp3 downloads, history or drums articles, how tos, etc. You'd be BOMBARDED with free graphics and artwork.

I think this could be a very cool thing on a manageable scale.

DrummerFry · 10-27-2007, 02:00 PM

Thanks Lin. I'm just wondering, will people really want to subscribe online? Or are people really spending that much time online that they don't even care about a tangible magazine. Sorry it's just hard believe that something like print is going out of style. Eh, people are lazy, I guess,lol.