Back to basics

“Sadly, our school doesn't even have a literary magazine. I'm very interested in starting one, and I've already talked to my English teacher about it. She seems very enthusiastic about the idea. The only problem is that I don't know where to start. I understand that I'll have to advertise and recruit staff members. But to be honest, I've only heard the idea of a literary magazine - I've never actually seen one nor do I understand what it takes to operate one. I know this type of ignorance isn't preferred in someone who wants to start a literary magazine, but I'm trying to do research. Really, though, I'm so confused. And I'm sorry to hijack the post like this, but if there's just some basic information you can share, I'd really appreciate it.” -Lynda

        This comment left by Lynda on the previous post Magazine Staff-Revisited woke me up to the fact that we haven’t defined what a Literary Magazine is. Most of us labor every year in creating our magazines, but how often do you stop and think about what it means to be a literary magazine?
        My understanding of this genre is that we publish less frequently than a newspaper, but publish at least once a year. A Literary Magazine, or Literary Arts Magazine, should contain original student writing and student art. Think of them as an anthology of the best student work for that time period (Year, Half-Year, Quarter-Year). In my time as a lit-mag adviser and dealing with the state and national competitions, I feel that we are really publishing an anthology book, not a magazine. We publish once a year with a perfect bound book. That’s how the printer refers to it, and in turn how we refer to it. So are we publishing a book or a magazine?
        The push right now seems to be more of a book style rather than magazine. I mean to say that the competitions seem to look down on magazines that are published on thinner paper or newsprint. The binding can make a difference as well. I want to make sure that it is understood that this is the impression that I have of the system. I got his impression from an experience with a lit mag that someone was judging. I was looking at a pile of magazines for judging (I wasn’t judging them), and I came across a booklet that I thought was a state standardized test. I made a comment that the judge had a test mixed in with his magazines. He said, “Look at it again.” I was amazed that this, in fact, was a lit mag that was printed on newsprint, used grayscale, and looked like a test booklet. It included the bubbles for the multiple choice answers. It was great. I didn’t delve into the writing or art, but the overall appearance was neat. They didn’t have a lot of money, but they seemed to use that to their advantage. the judging ripped apart the quality of the magazine.
        Now that is an extreme example, and I am positive that there is not a lot of this going on, but it gives me pause. My hope is that there is more of a push for quality within the bounds of a publications means. Quality should always be the first concern of any publication. Building a magazine takes time. Quality is not always attainable in the first few years. You have to build the staff and knowledge of the new software. Quality comes with time.
        
        The last thing I want to talk about in this post is in reference to inexperience. We all had to learn at some time. I had the luxury of a co-adviser who had worked with our magazine for more than a decade. There are resources available to the new advisers. The best place to start, other then this blog (I know shameless promotion), is your state press association. I am a board member and future vice-president of the Pennsylvania School Press Association. I was brought on the board by my co-adviser, and co-contributer to this blog. He and I are working in PA to bring the lit mag presence in the state to the levels of yearbook and newspaper. PSPA has also started a mentoring program for our memebers. If you are a new adviser in PA and would like to participate, go to the PSPA website and look for the informaiton.
        We are also beginning to try and get a national presences as well. the National Scholastic Press Association also has a few resources. NSPA co-sponsors a national convention in the spring and fall (one on the west coast and one on the east coast). We are going to be at the fall conference in St. Louis. We are supposed to be speaking at the conference (I will put more info up closer to the dates). Conferences are a great place to find presentations on InDesign, Photoshop, and some lit mag stuff. They are also a great place to meet other advisers and form friendships.
        I also want to say that, no matter your level of experience, the fact that you want to start or started a magazine is a great start. As I said before, we all had to learn at some point. We all should still be learning something while working with our magazines or we’re not doing something right. If you need help contact your state organization. If that doesn’t produce results contact me. I will try to help you as best I can.


        P.S.        Here are some examples I found online. I will be working on getting some examples up of our magazine on the web somewhere. The links below are from the National Scholastic Press Association. The first link has several pages from the Pacemaker winner from 2006. The pacemaker is the premier magazine from that year. It is my understanding that they do not always have the pacemaker. The second link is to one of our staffer’s awards. It shows you a single layout from the magazine that year.

2006 NSPA Pacemaker Magazine Winner
Design of the Year/Layout of the Year Winner

Magazine Staff-Revisited

        So, I have spent a lot of time over the summer thinking about what I am going to talk about in the blog this year. Last year I wrote as we were going through things so you might notice a sort of progression of the ideas. This year there may be a progression in the end, but I actually worked on a list of topics for the year. They may or may not follow the year’s progression. I hope to get these posts out around the time that you might need them.
        I also want to encourage you, the reader, to interact with the blog. I look forward to seeing comments posted from readers. I had one person, who I have never met, post comments and start a discussion in the blog. I can’t even describe how exciting it was. It really encouraged me to keep up with this project. I want more encouragement. Won’t you please help me out.

        So on that note I am going to ask you to contribute to the first official post of the year.

        In one of the first posts to this blog dealt with the organization of a literary magazine staff (http://litmagcreation.blogspot.com/2007/09/organization.html). Boy, when I look back over it I see that there isn’t a lot there. So it’s a good thing that I start with this again. The organization of your staff may be the most helpful thing for a successful magazine. If no one knows what anyone else is doing then nothing gets done. The question that I have been wrestling with is, “Is there such a thing as too much organization?”
        We all know that there is definitely such a thing as not enough organization. A lot of us deal with this in our everyday lives. Little or no organization leads to so many problems that it is often enough to bring down an organization, group, or even a publication. Nothing gets done and things are rushed. The details that refine a magazine are lost in the mix. This is a sure way to turn out a mediocre publication. My concern is that I, personally, may fixate too much on the organization of the staff and not on what the magazine needs. This stems from the fact that I can spend hours developing a staff organization, but that certainly doesn’t guarantee that the jobs will be performed to expectation. As an adviser, I should be concerned with keeping the structure there, but I have found that by the end of the publication cycle for the year, the staff miraculously dwindles to a handful doing the work. This makes me think that we should whittle the staff down to the core of people that we are left with at the end of the year. This is where the idea of “too much organization“ comes from. I hate to see members get positions in on the staff, but not take initiative to get their part of the job done.

        This is the dilemma that I am going to pose to my co-adviser as well as the editor-in-chief for the coming year. How can we more effectively run the magazine? This is where you, the reader, comes in. I would like to know how you organize your staff? How do you get people to do what they sign on for?

Summer Message

I wanted to wish all of your a restful and rejuvenating summer. I am going to be working on the blog over the summer. I am hoping to get a post or two up over the summer, but I will mainly be working on a list of articles and topics to write about this coming year.

Sales

"I was wondering if your group sells copies of your magazine once they are printed to raise money? If you do, how much do you charge and how successful is it? In the past we've tried to sell some but never sold more than a few copies at graduation." -Lars

Yes we do sell the magazine. In the two years that I have been involved in selling the magazine we have sold it for $5 and then the following year $7. This year we are talking about selling it for $10. Our problem has been, and always will be, No matter what we sell it at we will never reclaim the cost of publishing. This year's price is an attempt to maximize the amount of money that we can get.
We print 200 to 250 copies of the magazine. We sell 60 copies on average. We feel that we can sell the higher quality magazine to the same 60 people at $10 instead of $5 or $7. In this way we can gain a little more revenue to put towards next year. This is only a theory. Time will tell if it works.

I can't remember where I heard the idea, or who mentioned it; however, there is an idea floating around about the possibility of selling the magazines on Amazon or eBay. We haven't seriously pursued the idea, but it is an avenue that we are going to be looking into. At this point in the game, we (As lit mag people) are going to have to come up with some creative solutions to this problem.

Unfortunately, I cannot ever see a high school literary magazine being published and paid for through sales. Sponsorships, patrons, and donations are always going to have to be a part of the equation. I hope that I will be proved wrong in the future.

Printing Time

So we have gotten to the time of year when the printer comes around. I would be interested to here from you how your magazine is printed. Do you do it yourself? Do you use an Internet printer? Do you use a local printer?
Our philosophy (The advisers) is to use a local printer. We feel it is important to keep our business in the area. In the past, we have had problems with a local printer, only to have another local printer come to our rescue. After that company was bought out we found another local print shop and we are now working with them for a second year.
We met with our account representative from the printer last evening. He came to the school to talk with us. We outlined our ideas with the rep and looked at samples. I cannot tell you how important it is to be able to have a face to face. We were able to see and touch actual samples of the cover stock and text stock that we wanted to use in this years mag. We were able to talk about the paper size and the colors we wanted to use.
The other benefit that we found, with our present printer, is the technological aspect of printing. We are able to work on our file in Adobe InDesign CS at school, burn it on a CD and send it to them. They pull it into their system and we have a proof in a few days. Now it's gotten better! The have an FTP site that we can upload the file to! That means that when we are finished we send it to their server and they pull it down. The amount of time that this saves us, from even two years ago, is staggering. Going from printing our magazine completely ourselves, to sending the file electronically, in less than three years?!

Find a printer that will talk to you. Better yet find a printer that will sit down and show you printing and paper samples. The printer has probably done this for a while and can help you with problems as they arise.