PUBLISHING YOUR OWN MAGAZINE

HOW TO GET STARTED

PAGE THREE

The amount of content on my website was expanding and I was publishing stories that many people had not seen before. I was able to provide a thorough insight into the history of the town in a way that local people had not been able to access previously.  I began urging people to write about their memories of the town and their childhood, and they responded by submitting stories and photographs of days gone by.

My work attracted the attention of one of the local town councillors who began submitting news and press releases detailing current events and activities within the town and suddenly the website had become firmly established.  It was featured in a local newspaper on Valentines Day 2002, which brought it to the attention of the whole community.

It was only then that I realised many elderly residents of the town, without home computers and access to the Internet, were unable to share in what my website was able to offer.  I was obviously also missing out on much valuable information that they would be able to contribute.

I began to formulate a project to produce a small newsletter to accompany the website so that everyone could have access to the information I was able to offer regardless of whether they had Internet access or not. It would also allow me to urge many more people to contribute their own personal memories and family photographs for publication. However, the response I received to my proposals from friends and colleagues proved less than enthusiastic and so for a while the idea was abandoned - though not entirely forgotten.

Some weeks later, while perusing the website for a neighbouring village, I noticed a message posted on that sites message board from a lady who asked if they had considered producing a newsletter to keep the village informed of present day events. Finally I felt that my vision for a local newsletter held substance because here was someone who shared my ideas and I decided that now was the time to put my plans into practice.

My website had by this time been online for three years and over that time I had amassed a lot of information which I would be able to use as content for a newsletter.  Quite simply, using a Microsoft Word template, I compiled a draft of my first newsletter, which ran initially to just four pages but which before final publication had expanded threefold. I included personal recollections, historical articles and photographs, family history articles and a variety of other similar topics as well as a descriptive account of the format I hoped future issues would take.

I sat down one evening trying to think of a suitable title for the newsletter. A number of different ideas were considered before I eventually settled for ‘The Digest’ which was described as “A periodical that summarises the news” and for want of anything better I stuck with that.

[The Digest Website http://www.thedigest.co.uk ]

It seems that I was always in the right place at the right time, and fortunately, whilst at work one day, I was able to show my manager what I was proposing to do. I asked him if I could utilise the office laser printer to produce copies of the newsletter, and not only did he agree, but he also offered to print the entire first three issues for me on a much larger office copier machine, which also collated and stapled at the same time. So, in effect ‘sponsored’ by my employers, the first three issues of ‘The Digest’ were published for me free of charge in return for a whole page advertisement about my employer’s activities and their company logo depicted on the front cover. These first three issues were deposited in local shops, libraries and community centres throughout the town and made available free of charge. The Digest instantly generated a lot of interest around the town and copies disappeared quickly with up to 1,200 being produced on a monthly basis.

My desire to expand the content of the newsletter to sixteen pages caused me to reconsider the whole process as I felt I could no longer expect my employers to meet the cost of something that was now getting beyond a simple copying task.  It was becoming expensive to produce and more and more time-consuming.

Through my contact with a local town Councillor I was informed of the possibility for obtaining a community grant to help establish local community projects and so I submitted a request for funding. My application was successful and with the availability of funds I was able to purchase my own laser printer and supplies to commence printing my newsletter from home.

Boxes of plain A4 paper were purchased in bulk and printing of the fourth issue was undertaken from a spare bedroom.  To meet the increased costs, a small charge was applied to all copies which proved acceptable to everyone and enabled proprietors of those shops who supported me to retain a small percentage for their assistance.

For another seven months I continued to print the entire batch of newsletters from home in this way despite the publication increasing in size to twenty-four pages. Up to 16,000 sheets of paper passed through the laser printer throughout the seven to ten day process, all to be stapled by hand.  It was a monotonous task, but the kind of effort and dedication that is sometimes required if you are to be successful.  Without a doubt, the newsletter had now evolved into a community magazine.

It wasn't long before the task of printing over 1,000 copies per month was beginning to take up all my available resources and left me with little time to compile future editions. I explored the possibilities of commercial printing but while this would increase the presentation and allow me more free time to concentrate on other areas of production it would also mean a substantial rise in the cover price would be required.

The prospects of enhanced presentation, with the magazine printed on glossy A3 paper, before being folded and produced as an A4 booklet was considered worthy of the extra expense. I took the decision to make such arrangements from issue number twelve with an increased charge to meet the costs of production.

However, several problems during the printing process resulted in a copy that failed to meet the standards I was expecting. To be fair the task had not been made any easier by the fact that I had submitted my final copy as a ‘Word’ document, which had to be converted to a format that the printer could work from.  Despite an initial assurance that a ‘Word’ document would not cause any problems for them, during the conversion, all my original formatting was lost. Certain fonts were missing and had been substituted, the magazines were late being published, and the whole situation created more problems than it had been intended to solve.

I had booked my annual holiday around the publication date so that I would have sufficient time to distribute the magazines before I went away.  The delay in printing meant the magazines would not be completed until the Monday after my departure and I had to hastily arrange for a friend to collect and distribute them for me.

Completely dissatisfied with my first taste of commercial printing, a frantic search for another local printer was begun before issue thirteen went to press.  After several quotes, some of which were more than double that of others for exactly the same end product, I settled on a local printer in my hometown.  After consulting them about previous problems it was suggested that I convert my ‘Word’ document to a PDF file, which can be viewed and accessed on any computer platform.  Converting a document to a PDF file preserves the formatting exactly and embeds fonts and images within the file itself, so that what you submit to the printer is returned exactly as originally compiled.

The finished magazines exceeded my expectations and I was now the proud owner of a well-presented glossy magazine that could take its place alongside the commercially produced publications by large-scale organisations on a newsagent’s shelf.

Michael Norfolk