I decided that I want to abandon the idea of a fictional book, and do a magazine. A magazine is much more achievable in my opinion, and I can contribute to monthly articles more comfortably than a 300 page book. It would be a magazine with about 10 or more subjects I actually participate in within Las Vegas. This is where I live. The 1st several issues would be free. It will also, possibly, help me get in doors of a corporate marketing/ advertising job I want also. Subjects may include, not in particular order: outdoors, guns, rock music, art, poetry, restaurants, local travel, military, family activities, entrepreneurship, a few others. Opinions? Advise from experience?
Starting a magazine is a lot of work. Keeping it up even harder. It's also rare that the publisher would do the writing. That sort of seems like self publishing but with extras. You'll find published works in N+1 by the publishers, but I know some people look down on this in the magazine world. And one thing to keep in mind is you get what you pay for. Are you going to have editorial staff positions? Are you going to pay writer? Who is going to read submission? Who else is going to write for you? There's also distribution, advertising and marketshare to consider. I think it's much harder to start and continue with a magazine over writing a book. And it will cost you. Cutting corners will show. I've worked for magazines and been published in several. To enter the scene and being taken seriously, I think there's a lot more work that goes into it than you think. Personally, I wouldn't do it.
Unless you have a lot of money and people behind this, it's never going to be anything more than a fanzine. A fanzine that sells even half a dozen copies would require a lot of time and effort, and make you roughly 0.001% profit.
What's in yours that isn't covered by publications (print or web) that already exist in Vegas? In 2019, you're dealing with an industry in which some of the biggest, most well-financed magazines are going out of business due to loss of subscribers. And in Vegas, there's the added burdens of people willing to spend their disposable income on forms of entertainment other than reading, and people who are accustomed extremely fast-paced entertainment and information. For this to have a smidgen of a chance, you'll need a unique niche and a publication that offers something that's not already out there. You also need to figure out how to compete with the live entertainment business, which spends millions of dollars to make people leave the comfort of the AC in their homes and hotel rooms and go out in the heat to see a show.
Thanks for the input. I’m looking to do a project very much like a magazine, involving Vegas locals. I figured this would be a decent achievable idea. The 1st several releases would be free. I figured if I can produce them cheap, it would be ok.i would do most of the content in early stages, and possibly collaborate. I wouldn’t be able to pay anyone for several months. I am aware there are established magazines out there with large bank accounts, and large capable staff. My theory is everyone started at the bottom.
Sounds to me like you're trying to start a business. That essentially begins and ends with an initial investment, an ongoing expense budget, and a reasonable sales expectation. If you can check those boxes, you can move onto production and how the product will be assembled in a timely, repeatable fashion.
Except this isn't an industry where everyone starts at the bottom. Starting a business without the finances would be hard for any kind of business venture. And asking people to work for free at a place with no reputation and that no one has ever heard of really isn't fair. Putting a magazine out isn't cheap. Even with all the corners you plan to cut, it's still going to cost more than you think. And all those corners you cut are going to show when it comes to quality and content. It's fine to not want to write a book, but have you thought about writing for magazines vs. starting your own? It could be a much better career move, and you could make some money rather than lose money on a project where it seems like you don't quite have the industry knowledge. Another thing you could do is go work for a magazine. I don't know your background in terms of education and work experience, but working for a magazine will show you what really goes into this sort of thing. Perhaps, a job as an editorial assistant would be a good place to start. You could also volunteer to be a reader. FYI -- There can still be competition for volunteer and intern positions. You might want to check out a magazine out where you are called Witness. I think they put out some really great stuff. I have a friend who started a regional magazine. She had over a decade of experience in publishing. The first thing she did was to write a pretty detailed business plan to present to potential investors. Then she put together a board of trustees. She already knew tons of writers. And she really knew what goes into good stories and how these kinds of businesses operate. She never made any money at it even though the magazine was great and she really tapped into something that was missing in the area. She kept it up for two years until she just couldn't afford it anymore. While she was doing it, it was her only job and it seemed like she was always working. I was part of a start-up team for another publication. We had an investor when we started which was the sole reason we were able to put out the one and only issue of the magazine. Also, it's more important to pay writers than yourself, I strongly believe. It was too much work. I felt like I didn't have that much time for my own writing. When I joined this team, everyone came to the table with experience and an expertise. We actually got several places to agree to carry our magazine, but it would have been a full time job without any pay. No one on the start up team was getting paid, but our writers did get paid. Going it alone without the finances and knowledge to make it seem like something decent enough to attract readers is not how most magazines are started.
A few more things to consider: Do you have the stamina to do the overnights that are required to put a magazine to bed every issue, plus whatever day job you'll need to sustain yourself while you're putting out free issues? Who's going to pick up the hard copies from the printer (is there even a magazine printer in the Vegas area, or would they be shipped in from out of state)? Do you have somewhere to put all the copies while you're pending delivery to the businesses that will distribute them? Magazines are heavy and flammable, and the storage of them is frowned upon by insurance companies. Who's delivering them? Before you even get to all that, can you meet the printer's minimum print run, and is there room in their printing schedule that meets your deadlines? How are you promoting them? (Hard copy magazines can't go viral.) Hard copy magazines are not, in any way, cheap to produce. They require much more time, labor, raw materials, fuel, and money, and the deadlines are much harder to meet than with a web publication. I speak from experience as a former web publisher who went the web route because it was the only financially feasible way...and that was in the early 2000s, when the web was in its infancy and hard copy magazines and newspapers were still selling OK. Even when I was in college and we did a hard copy newspaper in a fully-functional newsroom with free printing courtesy of the local newspaper donating their presses, raw materials, and the time of a few of their people helping us out after the daily finished its print run, delivery to our distribution points was still all hands on deck by a team of ten students who'd been up all night putting the paper to bed.
