Findings, file under Publishing:
Lady Journos. Can someone please start a site like this for essayists & poets & other writers? I feel like I have so much energy to put into supporting others’ work in meaningful ways and with integrity, but I don’t feel I know where to find the people I want to support, outside of the circle of writers I already know. PLEASE. Bring us your talented writers. We will make beautiful books for them. For you.
Speaking of For You: Do you want to take a stab at how many people who submit to 111O (roughly 400 per issue) have ever bought a copy? Guess. No, go ahead. Guess.
.
.
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Zero. That’s right. Zero. Or possibly one. I can’t recall, now, if the person I’m thinking of ended up buying a copy. Zero. (I’m not including writer-friends whose work I’ve solicited and who have bought issues, only people I don’t know, submitting blind through our website.) So, all you people out there who think we’re good enough to publish your work, aren’t we worth shelling out the money for an issue? Everyone’s got their own economy going on. I respect that. But still: out of about 1200 submissions since we started reading, no orders. Not one. So who does buy the magazine? Readers do, certainly; we get a lot of orders after being at book fairs and at events. Friends of people who’ve been in it do–one issue at a time. Some writers. Some libraries. That’s it. So writers, ones who’d like to have a piece of writing in our magazine (our beautifully produced, carefully edited, die-cut, print magazine): while buying a copy absolutely doesn’t effect your likelihood of being in 111O, it does do two things. First, it gives you an idea as to what we do like, and it will help you tailor your submission–or even rule the magazine out. Second, and maybe more importantly, it supports the thing that will support you. Buying a copy of our magazine (£10 includes UK shipping; that’s about $17 to the US, which is no small sum–but is still just one night in with a few cups of tea and some good writing instead of drinks or dinner out) means that we stay afloat. Because right now everything comes out of pocket. Which is fine. We signed up for that. But you want us to support your writing? We will, if we love it, whether you ever look at a copy of the journal or no. But this is a relationship that goes two ways. Support us, too. Take the time and make the investment in our journal–the investment you allude to when you take the time to find us, decide we’re for you, and send your work.
Oh, and if that diatribe didn’t put you off, there’s a call for graphic work–comics, concretes, drawings, everything–for 111O/5 here.