(To submit to the E-Zine, click HERE.)
I've been thinking about a kind of crazy marketing/promotion idea. What if we put together an online magazine, an E-zine, and publish it on Amazon, bringing together a bunch of authors with a wide variety of content?
And I do mean a wide variety. For example, we could include any and all of the following.
- Articles
- The Craft of Writing
- Marketing Tips
- Author Biographical Pieces
- Author and Character Interviews
- Book Reviews
- Poems
- Short Stories
- Long Excerpts
The content for the E-zine doesn't have to be limited to this list, either. It's really an anything-goes kind of thing—anything related to writing, reading, the life of an author, or the life of a reader.
In fact, the more variety we put into it, the more likely we'll catch all kinds of readers. Think of it as an entire month's worth of an author's blog but scrunched into one publication.
Would Authors Be Paid?
Let's get this question covered right away. No, I would not offer payment to contributing authors.
The biggest reason is I have none to offer, and even if I paid a very small amount per author, the size of the publication (the number of submissions I'm thinking about) would make any payment cost prohibitive. Even $5 or $10 per submission would easily cost me more than a $100. With that kind of overhead, it would take me a very long time to turn a profit, much less be financially able to turn out multiple issues.
But the reverse is also true. It wouldn't cost an author anything to promote their work in this publication. And I'll go one step further. Anyone who submits material will get promotion from me apart from the publication. For example, right now it costs an author $5 to hire me to promote their book long-term. If that same author submits material for the E-zine, I would do the long-term promotion for free.
What About Previously Published Material?
I wouldn't require submissions to be unique. I wouldn't ask authors to write material specifically for the publication, though they would be more than welcome to. If there's a call out for a certain kind of material, an author could publish it elsewhere, such as their blog.
How Would The E-zine Be Promoted?
One hundred percent of what I currently do is done through Twitter. I have a Facebook Fan Page, but I've always felt that my time is better spent on Twitter, especially after I discovered the active Writing Community. If everyone involved with each issue tells their Twitter followers about it (as well as any other social media they use), word-of-mouth marketing might move the needle a little bit.
But I think we can do more than just tell people about it on Twitter. We might be able to trigger the Amazon algorithm. The standard price of an issue will at least be $2.99 to capture the 70% royalty, but our big push would be during sale periods.
I plan on buying multiple copies at $0.99 each and gifting them to people I trust, giving them an opportunity to leave a review. If each contributing author bought a few copies at this price point, it could really push the needle, triggering the algorithm to recommend it to others. Purchasing issues wouldn't be required, but it would definitely help for those who could do it.
When the publication isn't on sale, I would tie in promotion opportunities to the purchasing of an issue. In other words, if an author buys the publication at the full price point, I would give that author Twitter promotion in exchange.
If this thing works as intended, everything I do would be tied in with it. Anyone involved in the project and anyone purchasing copies would become my marketing clients.
[Dream Sequence] Just think: if I could quit my day job and devote more time to this idea, I could help that many more authors. [End of Dream Sequence]
One Other Fun Note
One fun thing we could do is have writing contests, publishing the entries in the E-zine. A panel of judges would pick a winner or a couple of winners, awarding them small cash prizes.
We could fund such a thing in three ways. First, I would pay the cash prize. This would be the lowest payout option, since as I've already said, I don't have a lot of money. But, one person could win $10 or $15 from me. Second, one or more authors could fund the prizes, treating it like a giveaway opportunity.
These first two options have the main drawback of not limiting submissions. What if a volunteer panel of judges had to go through hundreds of submissions and all for the payout of a measly cash prize?
For this reason, I recommend option three: a small fee is paid to enter the contest. (An author could sponsor it as well, throwing a little extra on top, or picking their favorite entry to win a small prize.) This would limit the submissions to hopefully only serious ones, and with enough of them, the total for cash prizes could be much, much higher.
In any case, it might be a good feedback opportunity. If each judge wrote a sentence or two about each entry, that alone might be worth a $5 entry fee.
What's Next?
There are more things I could blab about, but I think that's enough for now. At least enough to give interested parties an idea of what to expect.
The next thing to do is start collecting names, to keep this discussion going.
If this project interests you in any fashion, fill out the form below. You aren't signing up for anything in particular. It's mostly there to give me an idea of how many might get involved and at what capacity.
I'm not even asking for an email address. I would like most of the conversation to take place on Twitter, if for no other reason than to hype it up some, which is why the Twitter field is required.
If you would like to email me, here's my emaill address.