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Even for a "free givaway" type magazine, the key thing is to get circulation. Readership = reputation = people wanting to work with you.
How to do that is the bit where everybody struggles. So here's the "basic template" that a lot of people try. The winners seem to make it work by a mixture of talent, luck, and good networking.
1. Get a product - the magazine itself. Edit the stories. Be clear and honest with creators. Decide on a house style for grammar etc. (e.g. is it "red, yellow, and green" - with the comma after "and", or "red, yellow and green", without that last comma? Tabbed paragraph openers or not? What is abbreviated and what isn't?) Get the creator to agree (on record, via email or whatever) to the final laid-out version before it goes to print.
2. Prepare the issue in whatever editing programme you want - Word works fine for most things - including illustrations etc. Remember that the layout will need to auto-adjust to handheld devices like phones and ipads. Kindles will ignore fancy fonts and layouts anyhow. So get a product that looks good on a "traditional" computer screen but that still looks okay on other types of screen too.
3. Include hyperlinks. Include "invisible" link points, especially one called "Contents". Some ebook readers (including Firefox's in-browser ebook readers) automatically look for that link as a starting point.
4. Get the small print right. Include a copyright notice for each contributor and one for the edited package as a whole for the publisher. Acknowledge the authors' rights to be acknolwdged as the creators of their content. "Free" doesn't mean someone else can print out copies and sell them - say so. Include a contact - email is fine - for people to get in touch for permission to reproduce stuff etc (otherwise your copyright claim can be challenged because you gave no way for people to legitimately ask).
5. Pick a good cover. Remember that it also has to look good and be readable as a thumbnail on a sales page. BIG titles with bold single images work best. The artwork will need to be 300dpi, minimum 6"x9", .jpg or .gif so it fits any device without loss. Be really careful about using images found online; a lot of big companies like Getty Images troll for illegally reused images and make a nice sideline out of "pay us $300 and avoid a big lawsuit" threats.
6. Get permissions from all creators - authors and artists and any external editors - that clearly state their agreement for you to publish. Amazon and most other online retailers insist you have them so that their backs are covered. Let me know if you need a basic template agreement to use. The agreement should clearly state:
- Title of work
- Name of author and preferred pen name
- Approximate word count (to help prove the story you published is the one described in the contract)
- Date of agreement
- Whether the permission to print is exclusive and for how long (e.g. "Publisher has exclusive rights to release this story in print, digital, and audiobook format for one year from publication or from 1st November 2016, whichever comes first. Thereafter Publisher has the right to use story in additional sales of existing publication but the story is no longer exclusive.")
- The author warrants that the work is his or hers, that he or she has the right to license it, and that he or she indemnifies the publisher from claims caused by falsely saying this (i.e. somebody plagiarises someone else's work, you publish it, some big company's law firm get heavy - you need a liability shield)
- Whatever arrangement of payment there is, even if there is no payment. This includes frequency of payment and minimum payments (i.e. if the author is due $3 do you need to send a cheuque? Most publishers hold off until there's at least a $25 minimum royalty to send. A few have never sent me anything).
- Whatever entitlement the contributors have to free copies or to at-cost print copies.
- Name and address of all parties in the contract and how to contact them; if it is to be by email, specify addresses and how address changes are notified.
- Mention that legal disputes will be resolved in whatever state and country you want them to be resolved in, usually your state of residence. Otherwise you could end up trying to defend a copyright claim in a Japanese court or something.
7. Look at e-distribution. That Word file should convert to a .pdf and other more professional editing suites. Kindle etc. accept Word and pdf files now; experiment on which gets ported across better. You can uplaod your magazine for free to those vendors and you can set the price to $0.
8. Look at hard-copy distribution. The same work you did for the e-book translates very handily to Createspace and its competitors with hardly any extra effort. Pick one and make a print copy available. If nothing else, some authors like a physical copy of their stuff; some have doting parents too. There's no cost to you, because it's print-on-demand; but you will have a print editorial credit to your resume.
9. Publicise the hell out of the mag. The thing lives or dies by this. Social media is vital. Websites, interviews, "online tours" of people's blogs etc all rack up awareness. You need Facebook "likes", Twitter hashes, Amazon stars, reviews. Also start an e-mailing list so you can alert readers to subsequent issues (include a link, don't send out the mag; that way you can better monitor downloads and you don't piss people off by clogging up their inboxes).
10. Take then minutes. Repeat.
IW
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