Talking MagCloud

I began a Publisher file for the Zine (titled it Our New Zine as a place holder). Made a couple of decisions: page size 6" x 9" with 8 pages total. Start small, yanno.

Then I moseyed on over to the MagCloud site, where I discovered that everything they publish is 8.25" x 10.75" (from 8.5" x 11" size pages). Um. Okay. That makes the decision for us then. Scratch the placeholder file and begin again. Not the first time I've ever "frogged."

Then I browsed the magazines available from the site under the "Literature and Arts" heading. And started to feel totally inadequate to the task. I mean ... I was looking at some fine high end design there. And while it is true that graphic design is the business I am in -- I'm not really a graphic designer, per se. I'm really just your plain garden variety typesetter. And I was thinking to keep it plain, simple, more about the words (or the artwork itself, should we be blessed with photos / drawings) than about some high-falutin' design work.

Besides, folks, all I'm using here is MS Publisher. And not even the latest version, at that.

And, of course, it will indeed take some money to bring this whole concept to viability. Sure, we can submit our .pdf file and get the issue on the site for next to nothing. But then we'll want to sell issues. We can send folks to the site, but I know from experience with ordering a single issue from them that the shipping cost will be a deal killer. Better would be for us to order hard copy issues and take to the streets to see if they actually sell. And that, my friends and neighbors, will take some serious moola.

Seems like an impenetrable wall right now. Frankly, I want to go crawl into a hole and just cry my eyes out.

But I won't. I'm going to pretend this is viable, even knowing that it's very likely not, and get on with it.