start your own magazine

This article in Sunday's Age is interesting: if you can't find exactly the write magazine to sell to, start your own.

"...there aren't too many magazines that will publish your 4000-word opinion on William Shatner", the article notes. So Mia Timpano started Nerds Gone Wild!, a free mag that is reported to print 6000 copies each issue.

Also part of "Melbourne's indie magazine boom" are Mess + Noise, for indie bands and their fans, The Sex Mook (what's a mook?), Is/Not, and T-World.

There's a magazine for everything. "It's the equivalent of starting a rock band if you're into books," Lisa Dempster, publisher at Vignette Press, tells The Age.

"These days, the coolest kids don't play guitars: they start up magazines", the paper reports.

Image courtesy Wikipedia

the final portfolio piece

Exercise D

Write a short piece of humour based around the subjects of food and cooking and indicate the publication for which it is written eg. Australian Women’s Weekly, Gourmet Traveller, Weekend Extra, Grok, Great Walks etc.

350 – 500 words (maximum)

Can you be funny about fat? Humerous about ham? Witty about Wheaties? Jolly about Jello...etc...

Image courtesy Wikipedia

walk don't run

Hello WfPM movers and shakers,

I like the look of this new magazine. One of you is thinking about/has decided to do the long assignment on a walking track in WA - could this be a place where she could be paid for her work?

When I called the editor to see if he wants freelance stuff (he does) I didn't ask about $$$. Very uncharacteristic of me. I will ask when I email him my idea pitches.

I am interested in walking, and I am cautiously optomistic about this popular magazine's future: it seems to have a strong idea of who its readers are.

As always, the ads are instructive. Pages 2 and 3 are for an (expensive) Audi car. I guess you have to drive to those remote places where there are great walks.

See you later today/tomorrow...