By gr on 2006-12-20
Someone wrote to me asking about starting a magazine. I guess it's ok for me to post my responses. I hope they do help, although there's no real answers to some of these questions... I left the topic of his possible magazine out. I also edited things down to make them shorter and easier to read.
Was it difficult to take GR from a zine to where it's at now? Did you and Martin work full-time on GR from the beginning? Or did you have day jobs for a while? How did you fund it in the beginning when you first jumped into a full-on magazine? Given my limitations, do you think this idea is unrealistic?
1) I think you do have to start small. If you can figure it out, you can make a site first, then make the publication later. People seem to do this these days, it's tough work, but if you want it bad enough, it's there to do. It's totally possible to make this work. It's a decent idea. You might have to make sacrifices, you can't do it all. Had I not sacrificed, I wouldn't be doing what I do today. I watched people move forward in life, while I lived at my parents and toiled all night. Typical, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.
2) It's a long ride, 12 years or more for us, so it's not easy, but small steps is what it took. It wasn't an overnight thing, it was small improvements each issue. Did you know we had black and white in the mag until maybe 2 years ago?
3) Martin worked FT elsewhere for 10 years. I worked on GR full time much much longer. I lived at home until I was maybe 30 or near there.
4) Funding. $200 for the first issue and it was out of pocket. If you have $200 you can start something. I don't know when the "full on mag" thing started, I usually say it's the first issue, but the jump to the third issue was $2000. You gotta have at least $2000 and something to get things going anyway, on the minimum. But we did start with $200.
5) Things are as real as you want them to be.
Was it difficult to take GR from a zine to where it's at now? Did you and Martin work full-time on GR from the beginning? Or did you have day jobs for a while? How did you fund it in the beginning when you first jumped into a full-on magazine? Given my limitations, do you think this idea is unrealistic?
1) I think you do have to start small. If you can figure it out, you can make a site first, then make the publication later. People seem to do this these days, it's tough work, but if you want it bad enough, it's there to do. It's totally possible to make this work. It's a decent idea. You might have to make sacrifices, you can't do it all. Had I not sacrificed, I wouldn't be doing what I do today. I watched people move forward in life, while I lived at my parents and toiled all night. Typical, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.
2) It's a long ride, 12 years or more for us, so it's not easy, but small steps is what it took. It wasn't an overnight thing, it was small improvements each issue. Did you know we had black and white in the mag until maybe 2 years ago?
3) Martin worked FT elsewhere for 10 years. I worked on GR full time much much longer. I lived at home until I was maybe 30 or near there.
4) Funding. $200 for the first issue and it was out of pocket. If you have $200 you can start something. I don't know when the "full on mag" thing started, I usually say it's the first issue, but the jump to the third issue was $2000. You gotta have at least $2000 and something to get things going anyway, on the minimum. But we did start with $200.
5) Things are as real as you want them to be.