Literary Journals

I got this idea from LC -- in a round about way. LC said that a post on the VAJ blog was incoherent. Nat Sobel's interview on Poets and Writers was mentioned in the post, so I checked it out for clarification:

http://www.pw.org/content/agents_amp_editors_qampa_agent_nat_sobel?article_page=4

The first paragraph mentioned literary journals and how useful they are to agents. About these magazines, he said:

"My heroes in publishing are the selfless people who work at these journals, who either are not paid, or volunteer, and who spend their lives putting together these journals with relatively small circulations, but enjoy it. Over the years I've developed a number of friends among them. I admire them. I admire what they do. And they are responsible for many of the writers I represent, including Richard Russo, who I found in a literary journal out of Bowling Green, Ohio, which had a circulation of something like three hundred copies."

I do a great deal of unpaid work so a little bit more would be just that: a little bit more. If a journal with a circulation of just three hundred copies is read by agents, would members of the forum be interested in being part of a literary journal produced to show off their work?

What do you think?

What does an incoherent post have to do with volunteer work on literary journals?

Oh, nothing, LC. I did say a round about way. When you said the post was incoherent, I went back to read it again. I only read as far as the link to Poets and Writers and went in search of Nat Sobel's interview. I was side-tracked by the opening paragraph about literary journals. I enjoy putting together work by groups of writers and wondered if there would be much enthusiasm for it here.

LC,

Do you think that possibly your focus on textbooks has you looking for a more structured format than is required for posts like the VAJ article being discussed?

Ann

No. Her post had nothing to do with textbooks, and neither did my response to it. And I don't just write textbooks, I've written 6 editions of a nonfiction book -which is what "platform" addresses (not that I ever had a platform myself, just saying).

I do agree with LC about "platform" -- it does seem to mean different things to different writers/authors. I considered a platform to be something that raised you above your audience. Something that distinguished you in some way. Sports stars, musicians, actors and entertainers have a built-in platform based on the recognition from their chosen profession. Non-fiction writers have credentials -- as do textbook authors.

Building a platform for a fiction writer is much more difficult; qualifications are not necessary or even advantageous. Radio and television appearances help enormously. Blogs with hundreds of daily visitors are less important but do help. Blogs with few visitors -- and those that do visit come from Google and other search engines -- are not worth the time and effort.

Shelagh wrote:

I considered a platform to be something that raised you above your audience. Something that distinguished you in some way. Sports stars, musicians, actors and entertainers have a built-in platform based on the recognition from their chosen profession.

Yes, that's a platform, too. But even then, they're using their celebrity to sell nonfic, typically a memoir ("Going Rogue").

Madonna used her celebrity to sell a nonfic book, "Sex," and it sold very well. Her children's books? From what I can tell, they've gone over like the proverbial lead balloon.