Tag: Magazine

  • Thinking Out Loud (Online Lit Zine Idea)  

    I’m still kicking around the online lit magazine idea. I haven’t made any plans yet, just thinking it over. I did ask one editor a question about submissions, but other than that, haven’t made any progress on it.

    But I thought today would be as good as any day to put out some ideas and see if any of them stick.

    First, I still don’t have a name for the thing, and knowing me, it will be the last thing I do. What I have been thinking about is calling the project an “online lit zine.” Calling it a “magazine” sounds too ambitions and serious. Now, calling it a “journal” is a bit too pretentious, even for me. And then there is “zine” which feels a bit closer to the spirit of what I am attempting; which at this moment is not a whole lot, but “zine” does leave the door open to being funky and eccentric. Also, the first professional thing I ever got published was in a Dallas music zine, so it’s like an ode to my beginnings.

    I have also been thinking about the format of the thing, and publication in general. My first idea was to publish a flash piece a week, you know, and email it out to subscribers – like most online magazines do. I would like to get away from publishing an issue once, or several times a year. I prefer the idea that someone would submit something, I like it, it goes up right away. I prefer the idea of speed and immediacy. I am sure if and when I do this, I will come to understand why you should take your time and wait months and months after accepting a piece, to publish it. But as of right now, let’s get’em up! (Shoot now, ask questions later!) It would be cool to post five days a week, fifty-two weeks a year, and give around 260 writers a slot.  

    And I have to sell schwag on the site. I mean, is there any other way for an online lit zine to stay afloat? This does go back to needing a catchy name, co-opting an appropriate attitude. Then I would have to make runs of products limited, and over charge for them. Unless you get published on the site, then you would get it for free.

    Okay, I’m going to roll this over in my head now, and see what sticks.

    This might be a mistake, but feel free to drop a line sharing what you think works or doesn’t work when it comes to online lit magazines.

    And while I’m at it, like and subscribe you freeloaders.

  • That’s a Good Name

    This isn’t a new idea of mine, you see, as I have been thinking about it since high school, but what if I started a lit journal? Nowadays, it would be an online lit journal, but in the back of my mind I can hear M.M. Carrigan over at Taco Bell Quarterly yelling that I should just do it.

    And I might…

    But that’s not why I am here. (Though I could always use the unsolicited encouragement.) The reason I bring all of this up is that, besides figuring out what the mission of the lit mag would be (It needs to be original, like, the only place to get whatever it is that I will showcase,) but most importantly is to come up with a name that stick in people’s minds, and encapsulate whatever it is that I am selling. Now, logically, I need to come up with the mission or purpose statement first as that will make it so much easier to find a name… Yeah, but that’s not a whole lot of fun.

    What I am reminded of is when I was in a terrible, just awful punk/blues/jam band, and all the hours in rehearsal we’d spend rockin’ out, and then yelling possible band names at each other;

    No Refund, Lost Weekend, Areola, Bacon on the Side, Webbed Toes… You get the idea.

    Now, I don’t want to sound too much like a grandpa 90’s punk, but it should still have a literary name, but with an edge… like…

    Poochie

    Inked Well

    The Blurb

    Atmost

    Humph

    Dead Spot

    Dead Cart

    Mark Two

    And then the title might need a good one liner to follow up, like…

    “Nothing But Illustrious Writers”

    Or

    “It’s Norse for Quality”

    Or

    “Putting Your MFA to Use”

    So, you can see, this has been a fun mind walk of an… Oh!

    Mind Walk (That’s a good one…)

    Anyway, you can see this has been a fun exercise in…

    Ellipses (Ah… maybe not…)

    Point here people is that making an online lit journal might not be the easiest thing, but picking out a name is a good way to kill an hour of writing time.

    (And all these journal names are copyrighted by me, Matthew Groff, 2024. Can’t use it unless you get permission or pay me.)

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