The subject for this blog came quickly to me this week. Despite the Covid virus making a little visit to our household, happily, I have managed to maintain most of my writing productivity.
You might have seen a post I made on my Facebook pages earlier this week.
Writers Forum is a magazine I found on the shelves of W.H. Smith's in Exeter a few years ago. It drew my attention straight away. Containing excellent features, writing tips and competitions, I took the advantage to subscribe immediately.
It is always a delight for the magazine to arrive in our letterbox each month. I often read it from cover to cover in a day or two and keep it handy throughout the month to have a go at the daily Kickstarter calendar published in each edition.
I had several letters published and even had the Star Letter one month. Several short stories entered their competitions, and I only recently contemplated submitting part of my novel for critiquing on their pages.
Strangely, this month was the first time I had yet to read the editor's column. It is the first column in the magazine, after all. If I had done so, I probably wouldn't have been so shocked at the email I received from the magazine the following day advising that this latest publication would be its last.
I'm genuinely shocked and, to be honest, a little bemused. During the pandemic lockdowns, I completely understood why they paused publication for several months. Advertising revenue must have gone through the floor, and shop sales disappeared. It was great to have it drop through the letterbox again later in 2020 as things struggled to get back to some sort of normal, despite the government's best efforts at the time. I guess the distribution and advertising revenues haven't returned significantly to make it viable to continue.
Having never thrown away an edition, much to my wife's disgust, I have a fair old collection of back copies stashed away. I shall treasure them, and I'm sure I will often look back on them for further guidance and inspiration. My thoughts are with the editor and staff, who have probably lost a significant part of their writing income—sad times.
Are we starting to see the end of the printed magazine market? It was mooted a few years ago that this may happen. When I go into W.H. Smiths in East Devon, they will still have an extensive range of magazines for sale. My personal view is that there are a lot of titles covering the same subject, titles that are just a one-off publication for an online game or similar. Rest assured, there will be a plethora of 'celebrity' magazines detailing the everyday lives of multi-millionaires that most of us have never heard of. Country sports have several publications, as do gun and rifle pursuits. There is a dog and cat market too. And, of course, there will be magazines about the upcoming coronation of King Charles III.
That's all a bit of a waffle, but I will say that those publications don't offer opportunities for freelance writers.
Many writers would beg to differ with me. But from what I can see on the shelves, money is made from the odd ribald joke and funny stories written here or there, and maybe a 'Jeremy Kyle' style of personal story to sell. The market is more restrictive than ever for the independent writer. There are magazines that I have studied in depth to pitch to the editor, only to conclude that it is not worth the effort as their copy is almost written 100% in-house. After studying one magazine, I found it almost exclusively to be a vanity project for the 'editor', which I still see today across their social media output.
That is not to say that the online market has died away. Up until recently, I subscribed to the 'Readly' app. From that, I could access global markets of newspapers, magazines, and markets in this country. I ceased my subscription as I wasn't using it very much, and I could use that expenditure on another writing project. I'm sure that I will go back to it soon.
I have succeeded with magazines, Devon Life, to name one. However, things changed there a while back. Archant Publications sold it and other publications to Newsquest, who quickly closed down Cornwall Life and made significant editorial changes elsewhere. I have yet to pitch to them since those changes, but I'm always looking for something to pitch.
For now, my focus will be on completing my debut novel and building an audience for it before publication. As ever, I enjoy just writing, and I'm enjoying the ways I have found to encourage my productivity. I am well ahead of the plan, and all being well, that will continue.
I encourage any keen writer to write and then write more.
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