I have myself a bit of time, and in thinking about the way my hobbies interact, I kind of want to start an online magazine for flash fiction, shorts, and poetry. I have an idea of how I want it from the design point of view:
- Seek short, salient, simple stuff
- Make each issue around 30 minutes to read in its entirety, encouraging single sessions
- Works in within each issue auto load as they scroll down
- Put a kudos button on each work so we can see what kind of writing people like
- Make goddamn sure that the layout isn't distracting from the writing
- MAKE GODDAMN SURE THAT THE LAYOUT ISN'T DISTRACTING FROM THE WRITING
- Be the Adult Swim of lit mags, friendly, sassy, self-aware in consistent elements
If I put in 4 hours a week reading entries and maintaining the website and use cheap hosting, I can imagine having a nice online mag going on. But I don't really know what to actually expect, cause I just like reading lit mags, I don't know what it's actually like from the other end.
Questions I have off the top of my head:
- Did you have any qualms with the way I want to design it? Anything that you'd like to add?
- Does the world even need another online literary magazine?
- Asking for photography? Yay? Nay?
- I was thinking about starting by asking the authors of short stories from r/writingprompts I bookmarked. But then I realize that I really don't know what to offer them, other than my adoring fandom. How would you PM these people?
- Am I underestimating or overestimating how many entries I get? Do writers expect to be paid? I don't want to be a jerk who tells people I'll give them exposure, but I don't really have money to pay out for writing. Am I hurting the state of writing for writers or something?
- Speaking of money, how do online mags even make money? I've always assumed it was mostly through funding. Is it tacky for me to ask for donations at the end of each issue, especially at the very beginning?