3 ms·

Print media -- seriously. There are vanishingly few types of paper-based products left besides mass-market paperbacks and a handful of soulless conglomerate-own

by rchaud 3y ago

Print media -- seriously. There are vanishingly few types of paper-based products left besides mass-market paperbacks and a handful of soulless conglomerate-owned magazines that may disappear tomorrow. Just like there are small farming collectives out there, I'd love for there to be micro-magazines and short stories on paper, made cheaply and distributed to small mailing lists with a single stamp (not an email newsletter!). PDF versions available for long-distance readers. Something, anything to counter the overwhelm of ad and email popup-ridden "content blogs" and walled garden platforms sucking everything into their in-house LLMs.

mapleoin 3y ago
I've had the opposite experience. I'm amazed at the types of print magazines on niche topics that still exist. Are you aware of https://www.stackmagazines.com/ https://www.stackmagazines.com/ ?
- piva00 3y ago
  I've been looking for something like this for a while, thanks a lot for sharing! It just sucked when I was checking out a few mags and after calculating the cost for shipping to Sweden it was higher than the total cost of 4-6 magazines...
andremendes 3y ago
>Just like there are small farming collectives out there, I'd love for there to be micro-magazines and short stories on paper, made cheaply and distributed to small mailing lists with a single stamp (not an email newsletter!). PDF versions available for long-distance readers. You seem to be describing what I've known (since forever) by "Zine"[¹] [¹]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zine
- rchaud 3y ago
  Yeah that's what I was thinking of. Are there semi-professional zine publications out there? I checked out Etsy but the stuff there was not really to my taste.
  - dendrite9 3y ago
    Do you have any decent local bookstores nearby? You might be surprised at the variety of magazines they have once you skim past the usual options. I've seen all sorts of niche publications, including zines. Most are not for me, but that isn't a problem since there is usually something that catches my eye. You might find something that grabs you from the list of exhibitors here: https://www.seattleartbookfair.org/Exhibitors https://www.seattleartbookfair.org/Exhibitors Or look for similar events and check out who attends. I like reading about food, so places like Omnivore books have specialty books or magazines that are not just recipe books. Though I do like cookbooks. https://omnivorebooks.myshopify.com/ https://omnivorebooks.myshopify.com/
scruple 3y ago
I am also into micro-zines (and larger). There's a great community around Sword and Sorcery style short stories, with a handful of high quality quarterly and monthly publications, with strong authors in the genre.
jkepler 3y ago
Are you ruling our hardcover books that still get written and published? I'm on email mailing lists of two small/Independent publishers, and they still make books. And where I live, there's a book binders workshop on my street.
greenie_beans 3y ago
> I'd love for there to be micro-magazines and short stories on paper, made cheaply and distributed to small mailing lists with a single stamp (not an email newsletter!). PDF versions available for long-distance readers. what do you like to read? i might have some suggestions
- rchaud 3y ago
  I'm open to different topics. Short stories, music, business, art.
  - greenie_beans 3y ago
    little engines has stories and it's free: https://www.littleengines.pub/ https://www.littleengines.pub/ i also like forever magazine, the writing is better than little engines: https://forevermag.net/ https://forevermag.net/
ineptwriter 3y ago
There's 100s of literary magazines (litmags) that publish in print and/or online. They tend to focus on fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. But you'll also get commentary, news, art, comics, works in translation, litmags that focus on certain genres etc. etc. Below is wikipedia's list. "One Story" is a good example of micro in the mail, literally one fiction story sent in small print format once a month. Also below is one writer's take on which are "the best" litmags, including what they could find about each's circulation numbers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_literary_magazines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_literary_magazines http://www.erikakrousewriter.com/erika-krouses-ocd-ranking-of-483-literary-magazines-for-short-fiction http://www.erikakrousewriter.com/erika-krouses-ocd-ranking-o...

by rchaud 3y ago

mapleoin 3y ago

I've had the opposite experience. I'm amazed at the types of print magazines on niche topics that still exist. Are you aware of https://www.stackmagazines.com/ https://www.stackmagazines.com/ ?

piva00 3y ago
I've been looking for something like this for a while, thanks a lot for sharing! It just sucked when I was checking out a few mags and after calculating the cost for shipping to Sweden it was higher than the total cost of 4-6 magazines...

andremendes 3y ago

>Just like there are small farming collectives out there, I'd love for there to be micro-magazines and short stories on paper, made cheaply and distributed to small mailing lists with a single stamp (not an email newsletter!). PDF versions available for long-distance readers. You seem to be describing what I've known (since forever) by "Zine"[¹] [¹]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zine

rchaud 3y ago
Yeah that's what I was thinking of. Are there semi-professional zine publications out there? I checked out Etsy but the stuff there was not really to my taste.
- dendrite9 3y ago
  Do you have any decent local bookstores nearby? You might be surprised at the variety of magazines they have once you skim past the usual options. I've seen all sorts of niche publications, including zines. Most are not for me, but that isn't a problem since there is usually something that catches my eye. You might find something that grabs you from the list of exhibitors here: https://www.seattleartbookfair.org/Exhibitors https://www.seattleartbookfair.org/Exhibitors Or look for similar events and check out who attends. I like reading about food, so places like Omnivore books have specialty books or magazines that are not just recipe books. Though I do like cookbooks. https://omnivorebooks.myshopify.com/ https://omnivorebooks.myshopify.com/

scruple 3y ago

I am also into micro-zines (and larger). There's a great community around Sword and Sorcery style short stories, with a handful of high quality quarterly and monthly publications, with strong authors in the genre.

jkepler 3y ago

Are you ruling our hardcover books that still get written and published? I'm on email mailing lists of two small/Independent publishers, and they still make books. And where I live, there's a book binders workshop on my street.

greenie_beans 3y ago

> I'd love for there to be micro-magazines and short stories on paper, made cheaply and distributed to small mailing lists with a single stamp (not an email newsletter!). PDF versions available for long-distance readers. what do you like to read? i might have some suggestions

rchaud 3y ago
I'm open to different topics. Short stories, music, business, art.
- greenie_beans 3y ago
  little engines has stories and it's free: https://www.littleengines.pub/ https://www.littleengines.pub/ i also like forever magazine, the writing is better than little engines: https://forevermag.net/ https://forevermag.net/

ineptwriter 3y ago

There's 100s of literary magazines (litmags) that publish in print and/or online. They tend to focus on fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. But you'll also get commentary, news, art, comics, works in translation, litmags that focus on certain genres etc. etc. Below is wikipedia's list. "One Story" is a good example of micro in the mail, literally one fiction story sent in small print format once a month. Also below is one writer's take on which are "the best" litmags, including what they could find about each's circulation numbers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_literary_magazines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_literary_magazines http://www.erikakrousewriter.com/erika-krouses-ocd-ranking-of-483-literary-magazines-for-short-fiction http://www.erikakrousewriter.com/erika-krouses-ocd-ranking-o...