Do You Want Your Articles Published In A Magazine
By pawilliams1
@pawilliams1 (51)
May 5, 2009 3:28pm CST
I have had a thought for some time that on sites like this one, Triond, Bukisa etc there are a great many good articles that could be printed in a magazine that could be of general interest to a great many people.
Before anyone else does, I will point out there are many completely boring, rubbish and nonsensical articles posted on these sites too - often badly written and in bad taste. But that does not detract from the point that there are a great many good ones.
The good ones could be shared in printed format for posterity. It also gives any aspiring writers the opportunity to say they have been published which is a foot in the door - or at least a toe!
The way I am thinking of working this is on the basis that the magazine is sold, by subscription and one-off sales and the revenue generated for each issue is shared between those whose contribution is used. This would be revenue from sales and advertising less any production and distribution costs.
Obviously the contributors would be expected to help generate a small number of sales of the issue in which their contribution appears but it would be heavily marketed over the net initially. Eventually, popular contributors could even write an article exclusively for the magazine which would help to drive sales.
What do you think? Would you contribute to such a magazine? If you would be prepared to contribute, would it be for the money or the kudos of being a published writer? Would you like to be a "guest" editor?
Let me know.
2 responses
@paid2write (5201)
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6 May 09
Print magazines are expensive to print and distribute. Would you want to mail copies out worldwide? Think of the postal costs involved, on top of paper, ink, and other production costs.
The advantage of publishing online is that everyone in the world can potentially access and read an article. It appears instantly and for no extra cost.
An article can still be found years after it has been posted online. Few people keep print magazines that long.
@pawilliams1 (51)
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6 May 09
Thanks for your comment.
I appreciate and agree with your points. I have calculated the cost of distribution and it will be included in the price of each issue or a subscription. In addition, I can get the magazine sold through a number of major retailers in the UK and online.
Circulation of magazines in general is still strong and I believe that the reason for this is that people prefer to read articles in these rather than on the internet. Good articles written on the internet can actually be quite hard to find - if you look for something using a search engine you often get the most irrelevant results way before the one you want.
Moreover, seeing one's work in print is far more gratifying than seeing it posted on a website. Printed magazines generally have a higher standard of writing than articles posted on the web (no offence!). I certainly would not be able to write to a sufficiently high standard for my work to be published unless it was technical but there are a great many out there that can and just need their work publishing in print.
Although you have given me an idea - an electronic form of the magazine in PDF format might be workable! I shall have to look into that.
