New Mag

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Robert Howe

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Aug 4, 2012
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Hello Everyone,

My name is Robert Howe, I'm new here and this is my first post.

I am in the process of launching a new magazine on the Apple Newsstand and will also make the mag available from a website in digital form for people who do not own an iPad. The mag will focus on Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror.

My goal is to keep the feel of a fanzine but have a professional and slick look like the bigger print magazines.

I do have a question, or two, that I welcome any constructive advice on from members here who may be in the magazine industry.

  1. Aside from the obvious "Offer Money" answer, what are some successful ways to entice well known authors to contribute a short story?
  2. Can I post a request for stories from aspiring writers on this forum without getting in trouble with the admins?
  3. What are some pitfalls I should keep myself aware of while creating this (hopefully) monthly mag?

I would greatly appreciate any advice on these subjects. I do plan on being active on this forum and have no desire to use this space to spam for my new mag.

Thanks, in advance, for your time.

Robert Howe
 
Hi Robert and welcome to the Chrons.
Simply produce something that impresses. Quality will, hopefully, attract quality. It'll probably take time to make a name big enough to attract well known authors, but if the level is there, it's surely a start. There's quite a bit of competition, though.

If it is a good, serious (that's not to say, without humour ;)) publication, it may attract forum members. There's both aspiring and established writers here, and everything between. What sort of things are you looking for, though? You mention Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror and a 'fanzine feel', but nothing specific.

Whilst here, you could always wander over to the Introductions sub-forum and tell us about yourself. We're a friendly bunch. Join in conversations, have fun. If you're active here, people will soon get to know you. :)
 
Thank You Abernovo,

I will head over to the introduction area and present myself.

The type of stories I'm looking for are going to be really wide open as far as sub-genres. The only real requirement is that the fiction be friendly to the Young Adult market while also being appealing enough to the adult market. I know this sounds a bit vague ... and the only real reference I have is the movie rating system that is here in the States ... PG-13 to light R ratings ... no descriptive sex ... no over the top violence or gutter language.

I remember when I first got turned on to the whole Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror world ... I was 12 years old ... as I am sure that a lot of fans were when they found this amazing stuff.

My mag will accommodate these readers as much as it will adults.

I'm also looking for folks to write reviews, artists/illustrators to showcase, gamers ... basically anything to do with the genre.

Thanks again ... glad I found this space!
 
Can I post a request for stories from aspiring writers on this forum without getting in trouble with the admins?
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No, you can't. We don't allow new members to come here for the purpose of promoting their projects, and since we have no other means of divining their intentions we have to go by their actions: if they start out by promoting their projects we have to assume that's why they are here.
 
Have you looked at the Ralan.com and Duotrope websites Robert?
You can post here http://ttapress.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=688 scroll/click through to the current entry.
We don't mind. You should check out Interzone anyway. You could advertise in its pages and you should know your peers because you'll want to be different.
There is a free issue #230 on Smashwords you can download it in a number of formats.
 
If you want good quality stories from well-known authors then take reprints. There are plenty of people (well-known or less so) who might offer you something good that has appeared before, and that story will most likely be new to the majority of your readers.
 
Teresa Edgerton said:
No, you can't. We don't allow new members to come here for the purpose of promoting their projects, and since we have no other means of divining their intentions we have to go by their actions: if they start out by promoting their projects we have to assume that's why they are here.
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So ... based on this post I should only have to make 13 or so posts before I ask for queries from new writers?
 
Tirellan said:
If you want good quality stories from well-known authors then take reprints. There are plenty of people (well-known or less so) who might offer you something good that has appeared before, and that story will most likely be new to the majority of your readers.
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All of the established writers that I have contacted are asked for existing, previously printed short stories ... not new. I've had minimal success, but one well known horror writer said he would write me an entirely new story for a later issue. So, I am hopeful that I can continue to attract the talent.
 
Robert Howe said:
I should only have to make 13 or so posts before I ask for queries from new writers?
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No, that would be far short of making you an established member!

At 15 posts you will be able to post links to sites like amazon or wikipedia, but not to your own site, which would be self-promotion. As per the rules you agreed to on signing up, you have to stick around a while and contribute to the discussions a great deal before you are able to do that.

We have this policy to reduce spam and to discourage people who join the site only for the purpose of promoting their books, blogs, or other projects. Brian, who pays most of the expenses here, is supportive of members who variously and regularly contribute to the forums, but he doesn't want to offer free advertising (at his expense) to everyone who wants it. And these days, "everyone who wants it" would be enough new authors and bloggers and e-zines to bury the regular discussions under the threads they would start to promote themselves.

We do, on a case-by-case basis, allow certain links to stay when we feel that doing so could be of significant benefit to our members. The post you refer to linked to an established and successful literary agency, and we decided it would be a disservice to our aspiring writers not to allow it. But we don't want to be deluged with promotion by start-up e-zines that pay nothing (as estimable as their intentions might be), as we certainly would be if we relaxed our policy.
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Teresa Edgerton said:
But we don't want to be deluged with promotion by start-up e-zines that pay nothing (as estimable as their intentions might be), as we certainly would be if we relaxed our policy.
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I completely understand how you would assume that any new member that wished to promote a project would be only interested in spamming the forum. I also understand how you would group all start up endeavors into this field as fly-by-night, pay nothing e-zines.

I've already run in to this narrow assumption in the course of this project. I will respect your rules as I did NOT sign up just to promote.

Because, after all, the only serious people in this industry are the big, established corporate entities ... NOT the start-ups ... or as I've been called, an Up Start
 
Hey Robert. Stick around and get us engaging in your posts and it'll not be long before you are like a pair of comfortable, smelly slippers.

No offence intended but mine are older than one of Tutankhamun's girlfriends and I love them:)
 
You rather intimated you wouldn't be paying, Robert. If you are, when the time comes that you can tell us about it, that should be one of the first things you mention, because it will attract a lot of interest from our writers!

Anyway, we don't assume anything, really we don't. We apply the same policy to all new publishing endeavors so that we don't have to make assumptions about any of them. Your magazine may go on to become hugely successful but we can't know that now, and neither can you, so we don't put ourselves in a position where we have to guess.

Personally, I hope you will become hugely successful.

In the meantime, to answer your questions.

1. Offering money is the very best way, even if it's only a small amount. The other way is to do a lot of networking and make a lot of contacts and ideally a lot of friends, so that you can get a few "name" writers to contribute for friendship's sake. Of course this would be a long term and ongoing endeavor, but unfortunately there are no quick and easy avenues to success.

Continue to ask for those reprints from established writers! Most readers won't have seen them when they were originally published, and will be glad of a chance to read them now. New writers will be eager to appear on the same table of contents with writers whose names they recognize.

3. If you do pay, pay on time. I can't stress this enough. I was once associated with a small press magazine and the publisher did not pay on time, and as a result fell further and further behind.

Be careful not to accept stories just because you want to fill up your table of contents; be discriminating in what you publish. If that means that you have to bring out new issues less often than you would like, so be it. But don't make the mistake of publishing on an irregular basis, or announcing a schedule and not keeping to it. Be realistic. You can always make the change to publishing more frequently later.

I hope that helps.
 
There's a minimum number of posts to put something in Press Releases now, Roy.

sffworld has an area set aside for promotions, and there doesn't appear to be a minimum post count. On the other hand, I don't know how much attention forum members there pay to promotion by people they don't know.
 
Robert Howe said:
Hello Everyone,

My name is Robert Howe, I'm new here and this is my first post.

I am in the process of launching a new magazine on the Apple Newsstand and will also make the mag available from a website in digital form for people who do not own an iPad. The mag will focus on Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror.



  1. Aside from the obvious "Offer Money" answer, what are some successful ways to entice well known authors to contribute a short story

Robert Howe
Click to expand...

Give me an email address or website form -- I'll be glad to send you a story.

C.E. Gee aka Chuck
 
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