Managing Editor Lisa Ampleman: There’s a low buzz in online literary circles these days about literary magazines and their longevity, or lack thereof. CNN even published an article on how industry standouts Tin House Magazine and The Believer have closed (or will) in recent years, and it detailed the challenges for Alaska Quarterly Review, housed at a university that has begun withdrawing funding, another common struggle. Bard College recently reversed its decision not to support Conjunctions any longer after realizing its strong reputation in the field, but others are less likely to do so.
Those behind the scenes at magazines know that very few break even. For print mags, subscriptions help cover some costs, but not all. Even online-only magazines have expenditures related to website maintenance, submission management systems, design, and other labor, and they rarely have a subscription model. Though the lit-mag landscape is rich and varied, with new outlets opening all the time (we particularly admire Honey Literary, for example!), the reason individual mags keep going is “for the love of it,” as Travis Kurkowski, a researcher of publishing history said in the CNN article.
So, if subscriptions don’t cover the costs for most mags, where is the money coming from? Some mags have university support, as we do, with the additional mission of teaching students the art of literary publishing. Others charge reading fees for submissions, in part to cover the cost of programs like Submittable, or they hold contests with fees. And many apply for grants and/or fundraise from individual donors or through particular fund drives. (In recent years, I’ve been surprised to see a list of names, foundations, and grant organizations in magazines and books from presses that I thought would have been self-sustaining because of their popularity.) Finally, some even sell merchandise or organize conferences/workshops, both to raise funds and act as a service to writers.
In addition, as our lives move online, more every year, fewer readers want the physical magazine; we’ve noticed at the AWP Bookfair in recent years that it’s difficult to even give issues away.
If you’d like to support lit mags, large and small, in some way, I recommend the following:
If you can support them financially:
- Buy subscriptions (obviously). If you want a concrete goal, perhaps subscribe to one magazine for every ten or fifteen submissions you send out. Trying to downsize your bookshelves? Buy a digital subscription from mags that have that option.
- Enter contests, especially if there’s a free subscription involved.
- Use the tip jar when you submit if that option’s available.
- Donate directly. (Arkansas International has a fabulous page that describes what your money does for them, for example.)
Unable to give money? Consider using your time or talent instead:
- Volunteer as a reader for a magazine.
- Share, retweet, or otherwise promote magazines’ calls for contest entries, donations, subscriptions, etc. on social media.
- Write to their sponsoring organizations on behalf of magazines on the verge of losing funding.
- When a magazine publishes your work, share a preview of it online, and encourage your network to visit the site (for those page clicks!) or buy the issue (digital copies are often cheaper; ours are only $5!).
I realize that we at The Cincinnati Review speak from a place of privilege, with strong support from the University of Cincinnati over the years, including the Robert and Adele Schiff Foundation, the Elliston Poetry Fund, the Taft Research Center, and the Helen Weinberger Center for the Study of Drama and Playwriting. But we’re part of an ecosystem, glad to be collegial and not competitive with our peers, hoping for everyone’s continued success—both writers and the magazines they publish work in.
