Voice To the Voiceless: The Modern Guide to Starting a Literary Magazine

Voice To the Voiceless: The Modern Guide to Starting a Literary Magazine

Presented by: After Dinner Conversation

No niche is too narrow! I've navigated every step of launching a literary magazine and I'm ready to share my secrets. Learn the essentials, gain insider tips, and turn your passion into a thriving publication that makes an impact.

This is the quick and dirty video I did of my presentation at Phoenix Fan Fusion in 2025. Yes there will be typos and errors. I’m sharing all this information for free. So, you know, you get what you pay for. https://youtu.be/vDcm5ERoLpE Feel free to email me if you have quesetions.

If you want the clean version of the info below to print, here is a link to the .pdf file with better formatting. ~Kolby

---

Voice To the Voiceless: The Modern Guide to Starting a Literary Magazine

Everyone Deserves a Place, Even A Small Place

1. Trans-Vampire Cosplay, Atari 2600 collectors, Bronies, Lockpicking Enthusiasts, etc

   1. “Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.”  Kurt Vonnegut

   2. “One person is a nerd, five are a community.”  Kolby Granville

You Could Look For Some Else to Publish You?

1. Become a slush pile reader

2. Find agents who publish your kind of writing.

   1. Agents specialize in genres

   2. Find them online/social media/etc.

   3. They want the same, but different.

3. Find literary magazines that publish your kind of writing

   1. The top literary magazines rarely pull from slush piles.

   2. How To Find Them

      1. Duotrope

      2. Chillsubs

      3. Submittable

4. Pay to submit?  ($3-$5 is standard)

But Is There Money in It? (Spoiler, No)

1. Books: 58,000 Titles Published

   1. 4 million books released per year

   2. 1.7 million self-published

      1. 90% sold less than 2,000 copies

      2. 50% sold less than 12 copies

      3. Literary Magazines (1,000 Literary Magazines)

         • Ten Lit Mags Print 10,000+ Copies

         • Seven Print 5,000 Copies

         • Pay Authors, Don’t Charge For Submissions, Aren’t Affiliated w/School or Single Rich Donor.  (It’s less Than 10 in the US)

   “Readers” aren’t a bell curve.  1% of people do 90% of all reading.

Never mind, I’ll Just Do It Myself!

1. Tiers of Self-Publishing

   1. Entry Level Blog (Prose And Pose)

   2. Publish a Zine.  (Wasted Ink)(Sample)

   3. Publish Regularly on A Website (Basically, a fancy blog) (Epiphany Review)

   4. Publish ebooks on Amazon (Example Link)

   5. Create A Substack (Or Some Other Paid Platform like Beehiiv, Ghost) (After Dinner Conversation)

      1. Paid ($5/Month or Unpaid)

   6. Publish print & digital via Amazon, Draft2Digital, or Ingram.

   7. Various Distribution Networks

      1. Subscription Based Distribution Networks (Readly, Zinio, Magzter, etc)

   8. Public Distribution through Barnes and Noble

      • This is a terrible idea.

      • Revenue Split, Minus Printing Costs and Returns

      • $20 is $10, minus print costs $6 = $4 Profit minus returns

      • You need a 80%+ sell rate to break even

Steps To Publishing Print/Digital

1. Create The Book Interior

   • Create in anything, save as a .pdf

   • We use Word

   • Fancy people use Adobe InDesign

2. Whatever you use, have a checklist.

3. Use the built-in conversation formatting tools

   1. Vellum (Mac)

   2. Atticus (PC)

4. Use a copy editor!

5. Create Book Covers

   1. Photoshop or other photo software

   2. Save as .pdf

   3. Sizing Depends on Size and # of Pages (Amazon Calculator)

6. Get an ISBN (Probably Not)

7. Get Library Congress Control Number (Probably Not)

8. Create a Digital and/or Print Book?

   1. Tier One – Print On Demand (POD)

      1. Amazon (Bookshop.org)

      2. Draft2Digital.com (can order via indie bookstores)

   2. Tier Two – Print Runs (250+ Copies)

      1. Use Bookmobile (Mixam)

9. Order a Proof

10. Order Copies for Subscribers via Print Run (Tier Two)

    1. Or Do Authors Copies w/Amazon POD (Tier One)

11. What a “good” number of paid subscribers?

12. Get Book Reviews

    1. Send out Advance Reader Copies (ARC)

    2. Bookfunnel   (Example)

13. Work with paid services

    1. Paid to find you readers for the ARC

    2. Pubby, BookSirens, NetGalley, Booksprout

    3. You can’t pay for reviewers…

14. Amazon/Goodreads/Etc

15. Do it again… and again..

16. 20BooksTo50K

How Do People Find Your Book/Website?

1. SEO

2. Social Media (Taco Bell Quarterly)

   1. Follow/Unfollow/DM’s

3. Bookfunnel.com

   1. Our Website Links as bookfunnel example

   2. People also send out via email lists.

4. Email Distribution Lists

   1. Mailchimp, etc…

5. Buy Ads

   1. Facebook Ads

   2. Google Ads

   3. Amazon Ads

6. The “I’ll post on my social media page/to my list” for a fee all suck.

   1. https://www.thefussylibrarian.com/ isn’t bad…

Other Useful Literary Magazine Related Websites

1. CLMP.org (Professional Organization Website)

2. Zapier.com (Action Automation)

3. Shutterstock (Purchase Photo Rights)

4. Alliance of Independent Authors

5. Kindlepreneur (https://kindlepreneur.com/secret-vip-page)

6. Publisherrocket (https://publisherrocket.com/)

7. IngramSpark

*** Sorry for the odd number formatting. Nothing is missing, check the .pdf, it’s just really hard to convert this to a useable format in Squarepace.