Tarantula magazine project

[tmag]

Hello everyone,

I am in the process of attempting the introduction of a monthly tarantula magazine. The idea is to initially have the magazine in Electronic Format available for perusal on devices such as Smart Phone devices, iPad's, iPod's, Android-based devices, as well as PC's, Mac's, etc... with the end result of us also going into the world of printed publication.

Any and all feedback is appreciated.

Sincerely,

Scott Templeman.

 

[3skulls]

Hey Scott, I joined your FB group the other day. I'm wishing you the best of luck and looking forward to it.
I'm not the best out there but... If you ever need help with photography, I would love to help out if I can.

Keep us updated!
Rich

 

[Equinox]

Only advice for writing ongoing magazine etc is find a lot of weekly pieces you can replicate. Finding new stuff to write about can be tricky.
So you can do things like 'tarantula of the week' and write about a certain species every week. Or 'an interview with...' Then pick a different breeder/well known seller each week to interview. Also a 'top tips' section, with new researched tips regarding T husbandry etc. I had to do something similar once for school... The first one was a breeze... But after that I started drying up with the ideas!
Hey, you can do a column on my fang art when it's finished if you like

 

[captmarga]

In my real-life day job I put out an 88 page magazine 6x a year. So here are some tips:

Set a deadline table and stick to it. Deadline for submissions, deadline for your final proof, for publication.
Have a way in email to store submissions for current and upcoming issues. (Ie, different folders for V1, v2, V3, finished V1, finished V2, etc)
Place items promptly and then move them from the to-do folder to the Done folder.
Be flexible with size of "magazine".
Be willing to dig up a lot of material on your own!

Hope this helps!

Marga

 

[tmag]

Thank-you for the feedback and ideas, guys... I truly appreciate it. The trouble we appear to be having at the moment is the whole "getting the word out there"...

Thanks again, and I'll keep you all posted.

Scott Templeman.

 

[Warblie26]

A friend of mine in the past started a music themed mag. To get exposure he hit the street. He started by selling add space with the option to have the magazine available in the location of the advertiser. This may work if you can have your mag linked to the web sites of the prospective advertisers. They like it since they get exposure. you like it since you get a location to place your rag. In the end you need to do what captmarga said do alot of digging on your own. You could also run a monthly contest for a free item from one of your advertisers. Everybody likes a contest!! Could be item of the month, best photo, most bizarre pose. Get the idea

 

[Plissken]

How about a quarterly magazine (every 4 months)? I work for a magazine publication company and a lot of the "niche interest" magazines come out quarterly. You should consider featuring true spiders also, more to write about.

You may find yourself running out of material to write with a monthly mag on something so specific. And with it being quarterly, it gives each issue more exposure time for the public eye (ie better marketing). Also without sponsors for adds, you will need to charge more for each issue (nobody wants so buy a $15 magazine every month!).

I'm not saying you need to follow this, but I work for all the major magazine names, (people, US, enquirer, GQ, Maxim etc..) so I know what sells and what doesn't.

I hope you go through with this, I just might see your magazine at my work one day! Any questions, ask me, I may be able to help you.

Good luck,
Ty

 

[Rhodin]

How about a quarterly magazine (every 4 months)? I work for a magazine publication company and a lot of the "niche interest" magazines come out quarterly. You should consider featuring true spiders also, more to write about.

You may find yourself running out of material to write with a monthly mag on something so specific. And with it being quarterly, it gives each issue more exposure time for the public eye (ie better marketing). Also without sponsors for adds, you will need to charge more for each issue (nobody wants so buy a $15 magazine every month!).

I'm not saying you need to follow this, but I work for all the major magazine names, (people, US, enquirer, GQ, Maxim etc..) so I know what sells and what doesn't.

I hope you go through with this, I just might see your magazine at my work one day! Any questions, ask me, I may be able to help you.

Good luck,
Ty

I was going to heavily suggest against any printed form of the magazine because costs/difficulty of selling a niche magazine, but with a quaterly magazine it would work much better imo because if you could get it to T dealers for sale at reptile expos or perhaps even set up a small booth you'd have an easier time selling there aswell and could potentially find people interested in subscriptions.

 

[Philth]

A printed monthly magazine would be sweet, but I'm unsure if the idea is realistic. It seems like most special interest magazines, or journals, are all going digital to save extreme cost of printing, shipping, and distributing. The monthly publications get smaller and thinner. Most of the established tarantula journals come out only 3-4 times a year , and they seem to struggle to find informative articles. If I were to write a article I would more likely submit it to one of the popular recognized tarantula society's journals.

This is just my 2 cents though, I don't mean to be a Debby Downer, I hope you prove me wrong. I'll buy it when it comes out.

Later, Tom