It’s important to know what a literary magazine is before you start one. It’s a publication – online or print (or both) – that showcases the work of authors. Often, literary magazines will offer music and art as well. There are plenty of elements to consider before creating a literary journal – including time commitment, niche, money and marketing ability.
Starting Your Own Literary Journal
Let your own light shine through, and deliver what you would like to read. If you know you can devote time to reading submissions, answering your contributors, advertising the journal - along with having a bit of money to pay for a website domain, a literary journal is an excellent way to meet and connect with people, join the larger artistic community and read great writing.
Knowing Good Writing
Your interest in creating a literary magazine should reflect a knowledge of the literary industry and of writing. While changing times do encourage different kinds of writing (eclectic and experimental poems over those with iambic pentameter or flash fiction over longer stories, don’t compromise your interests and the verified interests of readers you know.
For instance, A capella Zoo, a literary journal, boasts providing “literature for the ADD generation.” However, if you are interested in the changing trends of today’s literature and poetry readers, your journal should specialize in this.
Fiction and Poetry Journals
Decide if you’ll want to provide poetry or fiction for your readers. If you’ll want to display fiction, you’ll have to be committed to reading it (and possibly editing it or having your writer do so.) This goes for poetry as well. You have to take the time to read, accept and reject submissions. This goes for journals of non-fiction, essays and reviews as well. If you want to showcase art or music alongside writing, make sure your website will display large files and music.
Develop Your Own Niche
When you know what kind of content you would like, you can start creating a brand or a niche. This will attract your readers and contributors – an image, design idea or aesthetic can a long way, even if it’s metaphorical. If you want a more edgy journal, your design can reflect this. Likewise, if you’d like a calm, peaceful, spiritual journal, you may want to pick lighter colors and calming images. The font you use can also be a great tool for delivering your aesthetic messages.
Building Your Own Literary Journal Website
Pick a website to build your site on – or build your own. A website should have a home page, a submissions information page, an ‘about’ page and pages for your content. You can find a website on webs.com or you can build a website on a blog site like Wordpress.com or Blogger.com. Keep in mind, however, that the more control you want over your website (design, pages, html) the more important it is to research what websites allow you to do just that.
Buy a Domain
It’s important to design your site and purchase a domain. Sites that have a .com are more likely to be noticed, as they look more professional. Weebly provides a great website builder. You can design your site with many pages, templates and HTML. You can also embed a blog onto the site. Weebly allows you to purchase domains directly through them, as well. It’s a simple click-and-drag site, so it’s perfect for the busy journal editor.
Advertise Your Journal
Advertising doesn’t have to cost much, if anything. When you’ve built your site (complete with submission guidelines), you can place an ad online through Craigslist, Redroom.com and other social networking sites. Tell everyone you know about the journal and ask them to spread the word. You can submit your journal to important sites like Poets & Writers Magazine’s literary journal database, along with Duotrope’s Digest, a very comprehensive journal collection.
Duotrope’s Digest will ask you to tailor your site to their specific requirements so that they can feature your journal. However, it’s a very important site – and many journals take off just by placing their information on their site. You can also list your journal on Litmags.com.
Lisa Marie Basile - L. Basile is a professional writer and the author of three books. She is a Masters of Writing candidate and the editor of Patasola ...
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