My attempt at a literary magazine, advices would be appreciated.

[Isitandthink]

Good Day to All,

I am currently doing an advanced diploma in Advertising due to my aspiration to become a copywriter.

At the moment, I am given a task to produce a magazine(editorial module) which I have chosen it to be a literary one due to my passion in literature. In my country, literary magazines do not exist or perhaps I have not the opportunity to stumble upon. Hence I find it hard to make one when I do not know how is it like.

From my trip to the library and futile attempts at finding sample online literary magazines, I have come to a conclusion that they looked more like text books and novels than the commercial magazines we see around. I have also seen a couple of literary reviews in the library's magazine section but they look awfully dull.

My hope is to fuse editorial design/advertising with the beauty of literature in this module. Thus I would greatly appreciate any form of advice on my undertaking. For example, does anybody have any literary magazines I can refer to, or is it in nature that all literary magazines are dull in layout and design or am I missing the relevant ones?

[Dinkleberry2010]

Good luck on your literary magazine production. Be prepared to spend a god-awful lot of time, work, and some money producing it.

[Isitandthink]

Hi Jermac,

The production would be a mini one, because of the duration of the module we do not have that much time to do a complete magazine. But nevertheless the challenge will be great :D

So have you read literary magazines before? How is it like in comparison to a commercial magazine?

[Dinkleberry2010]

Most literary magazines do not contain ads. There are numerous commercial publications that print a great deal of literary work. If you are going the route of an online literary publication, the cost will be minimal, but the time and work will be great, even if you are doing this as a one-time thing.

[Isitandthink]

Hi Jermac, thank you for your numerous warnings but I am prepared to bring forth the time,effort and money for this project otherwise I would not have chosen this particular content :)

It would be a real copy and not a online one. One of the advertisement that I have in mind would be the promotion of organisational bodies that provide support to poets/writers that publish their work and could provide sponsorship or alike.


There are numerous commercial publications that print a great deal of literary work.
Do you mind listing some names of these publications so I can do some research on?

[Dinkleberry2010]

Okay, since you are going to produce an actual physical magazine, you will need about $3,000 to begin. I state this from actual experience. I and five others created a monthly magazine. It was in tabloid form--something like the format of USA Today. About a third of the content of the magazine consisted of ads, and about two-thirds of actual writing. The initial $3,000 went for the printing and other costs associated with it. With the exception of the printing which we paid to have done, we six did everything--the composition of the ads, the selling of them, the writing contained in the magazine, the layout, the design, the publicity, the circulation and distribution. For the first year or so, we realized no profit--we made just enough to keep the magazine going--that is, to have it printed. But eventually, as we became established and our advertising base and readership solidified, we began actually making money from the magazine. It took about a year.

[Isitandthink]

Hi Jermac,

Great to hear that your magazine is going up strong and kicking.

I think I might have been unclear, but just to clarify: mine's going to be just a submission for my school's editorial module. So i technically only need to make 1-2 copies of a 18-32 page literary magazine.

What I need to do is: the composition of the ads, the writing contained in the magazine, the layout, the design, but no publicity, no mass printing and no circulation and distribution, so that would definitely not cost me 3k.

Anyway, thank you for your advice.

[kelby_lake]

Most literary magazines would have resident columnists- critics who give their opinion on new releases every issue. There might also be articles discussing certain themes in a particular work, etc...

[calebjross]

Literary magazines, or how that term is used, usually refers to thicker, literary journal sized quarterly books. Because they tend to come out only 1-4 times a year, they are thicker and are heavy on text content with few ads.

There are some great ones out there that have more of a magazine feel. Though still without ads, they have a design sensibility that is closer to magazines.

Some examples are:
Tin House (http://www.tinhouse.com/mag_current_home.htm)
Ballyhoo Stories (http://www.ballyhoostories.com/)
The Believer (http://www.believermag.com/)
Vain (http://www.callmevain.com/)

If you want, I'd be more than willing to mail you some of my back issues of the above magazines. I have a few sitting on my shelves that haven't been read in a while. Since you are in Singapore, I'd ask you to pay for shipping, but I can get them out right away. Send me a PM or email me (caleb {at} calebjross.com) if you are interested.

I hope these help!

[Isitandthink]

Hi Kelby, thank you for your info, i'll consider that in one of the section of my magazine :)

Hey Caleb, those examples you provided sure are beautiful judging from the covers and webdesign especially Ballyhoo Stories and Vain.
I've recently finally found a lit magazine titled: "Zoetrope" that I could get my hands on(loaned it from a library).

I'll pm you and check if we can work out the shipment thing, I'm more than glad to pay for it :D

Thank you both once again!

[tomekdzido]

Popshot and Carve are good magazines which are quite stylish and have nice covers and designs.