PUBLISHING YOUR OWN MAGAZINE

HOW TO GET STARTED

PAGE ONE

INTRODUCTION:

Firstly I should stress that I have no educational qualifications of note and prior to beginning publishing my own magazines I had absolutely no previous experience in publishing whatsoever. I consider my greatest assets to be a desire to succeed and great perseverance.

While the qualities outlined above could hardly be considered a guarantee for success they do prove that even someone from such a background can feel that a high degree of attainment is possible. I truly believe that with determination and effort on your part, anything is possible so long as you have a belief in yourself and your own abilities.

It was back in August 2003 that I first made my decision to begin publishing a small community magazine and through the pages of the Magazine Publishing website you will learn how I single-handedly established, produced and developed two monthly community magazines entirely in my spare time, whilst also continuing my full-time employment.

There have been times when I have worked tremendously hard, endured many set-backs and disappointments along the way, but I have received so many letters of appreciation from my readers that all the late nights and lost sleep I experienced were deemed fully justified.

I would like to make it clear from the outset that his is not a ‘how-to’ guide - I do not intend to go into great detail about how this project should be operated.  Once you have gained an understanding of how my own project came about then you should be able to determine the best course of action for yourself depending on your particular location and any specific area of interest that you may have. 

What I would like to impress upon you is the fact that such a feat is possible, if you have the desire to succeed, and I hope that this will come through simply by reading about my own personal experiences.  There is, without any doubt, a market for unique and innovative community magazines and my achievements should provide you with all the encouragement you need to begin. From there on you may well find you can introduce ideas of your own that enables your own community magazine to be far superior to my own.

Throughout the Magazine Publishing website it is assumed that everyone will have a basic understanding of the tasks involved in using a word processor or more specialised publishing software and also in the fundamentals of computer operations.  Nothing I could tell you would improve on what you most likely already know in those areas.

I do not consider myself qualified or experienced in any particular field and my understanding of the English language and its usage would not win me any awards. I am confused also by the large number of available punctuation marks when it seems I can get by perfectly well using just three or four of them. However, even in the confines of a local community publication, such grammatical errors rarely go unnoticed. You will discover that your readers delight in pointing out such errors as much as they enjoy writing in to you about other, more appreciative topics. However, you will find you are in good company, because some of the most moving stories you will ever read will have been written by people just like you and me. It is the fact that the stories you will receive are so real and untouched that gives them such a unique appeal and if you were to go through and amend every little error until they complied with the laws of correct grammar you would tear the soul from within them.

This project requires that you have a great love for your work and that you are able to feel and share the emotions that personal recollections can express. Your magazine will become a part of your life and a platform for you to convey such emotions to your readers. Personal recollections are often the most moving legacy of a person’s life and sadly, are often one of their final statements. If you are unable to relate to them then publishing a community magazine might not be suitable for you.  I would not like to think that simply because I am showing you an opportunity to establish a promising and potentially lucrative magazine publishing business of your own that you would do so without the respect that I believe it demands and is fully deserving of. The interests of your readers and especially those of the people who submit stories to you for publication in your magazine must always be at the centre of your heart and foremost in your mind.

What you will read about here are my own personal experiences and achievements and no part of this report has been extracted from any other report, book, or web site. This is entirely my own story.

I do not, however, consider myself an author in any way or form and in that respect much of what is written here may well appear unprofessional. I could, of course, have hired the services of a professional writer, but I believe that what is important here is the idea itself and not the way the idea is presented to you. Quite honestly, I have such belief in the idea for publishing local community magazines that a few lines would possibly have sufficed.

Judging by the amount of information currently available about publishing a local community magazine, this is a relatively new and almost unexploited opportunity and you owe it to yourself to make the effort to succeed. There could hardly be a better opportunity or a better time for you to begin.

Michael Norfolk