On Starting a New Writing Magazine by Wendy H. Jones

 

For the past three years I have been an editor for an online magazine for women; for the last six months I have been the Editor in Chief and Publisher. I enjoyed every minute of that experience but increasingly my passion for helping other writers grew and I knew it was time for pastures new. Therefore I retired the previous magazine (the last issue was published today) and a brand new magazine will emerge blazing on to the scene in August this year; that's 2023 in case you are reading this in the future. I am excited about my new venture and thought I would point out a few things I have learned along the way. 

Choose a Title

Choosing a title is a lot harder than you think. Seriously, every single thing we came up with was already taken in some format - company, instagram handle, twitter handle, Facebook page - you name it, every single name was gone. Four stressful days and hundreds of names later and, rather than turning to the bottle, I turned to AI. Whatever you think of AI this is one of the ways in which it comes into its own. I asked, give me five names for a writing magazine that is not already being used for a company, book, magazine or social media handle. A second later I had five titles and the name Writers' Narrative was chosen. I checked everywhere, no one was using it. Hallelujah. At this point I would advise you to do what I did, produce a logo and claim every single social media handle everywhere. Also, tell the world about the name so it is out there in the universe. Following this, my stress levels returned to normal. 

Pull an Editorial Team Together

I was fortunate in that I already had a team of editors, graphic designers and social media manager, all of whom caught my vision for the new magazine. They re all as excited as I am and we are looking forward to August when the first magazine comes out. You will need an editor in chief, commissioning editor assistant editor, editor, magazine designer and marketing and promotion manager. Seriously, this is not something you want to do on your own as a lot of work goes into bringing a magazine out every month.

Publication Schedule

Decide how often you want to produce the magazine. We decided on monthly but everyone has to be willing to put the hours in for that to happen. We require submissions three months in advance and the cut off date for submissions is 7th of the month. So for example cut off for August is 7th May. Part of the publication schedule is working out what themes you would like each month. Often, that means working out what is happening in specific months - National Memoir Writing Month is May. Work out your schedule for your themes as far in advance as possible. 

Submissions

Be clear about the submission guidelines and publish them in each magazine, so everyone knows what is expected. Again, be clear about how people should submit and what you will accept. Stick to the cut off date - you may need to be strict about this. Whilst you might want to include something that appears late in your magazine, save it for another issue. Late submissions are unfair on your editorial team.

Distribution

We decided that this would be an eMagazine, at least to start with. We are distributing through Issuu, Amazon, Kobo, Apple Books, Nook, Smashwords and all other ebook distributors. We have also made it available to libraries. 

Cost and Payment

I made the decision to make the magazine free. The reasons for this are numerous but I want it to be a resource that will help all writers and will be available to all. At this point you are probably thinking, I don't have time for a labour of love - me neither. I will be selling advertising in the magazine which will cover costs and, ultimately, give me the funds to pay contributors, even if it is a small amount. Obviously, this will be different if we move over to print as we cannot give print magazines away for free. 

My final point is that whatever you do have fun and enjoy it. I hope you have found this useful or at least gained some insight into the process. 

If you would like to submit an article for the August magazine, this is the one deadline which has been extended because we were concentrating on getting the last issue of the previous magazine out. Submit to writersnarrative@gmail.com This is a general magazine as it is the first one, with no theme. 

About the Author

Wendy H. Jones is a multi-award-winning, international best-selling author who writes adult crime books, young adult mysteries, children's picture books and non-fiction books for writers. She is also a writing and marketing coach, partner in Auscot Publishing and Retreats, and the CEO of Authorpreneur Accelerator Academy, as well as the president of the Scottish Association of Writers and host of The Writing and Marketing Show podcast. She is currently writing a series of historical fiction novels based around the life of a 19th Century Surgeon in the Royal Navy. She is also a founding partner of Auscot Publishing and Retreats.

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