I'M POSTING THIS ON BEHALF OF A FREQUENT COLLABORATOR OF MINE, JAMES D. IRWIN, A RECENT GRADUATE WHO DABBLES IN COMEDY. ALL ENQUIRIES SHOULD BE ADDRESSED NOT TO ME, BUT TO HIM VIA THE EMAIL HE SUPPLIES IN THE MESSAGE BELOW. THANKS FOR READING.
The situation is this: I'm starting a magazine that has two noble goals:
1. To be the greatest magazine of all time
2. To save the world
Both are a bit tongue in cheek, but I am aiming for high standards, and the attempt to save the world is genuine in a way. The tagline for the magazine will be 'saving the world one joke at a time.'
This is how: I'm not using blogs, social networks, or websites to host content. Each edition will be a simplistic, black and white magazine in the style of old school zines. More text than images, more like a book than modern magazine. Hopefully a literary punk feel, but it's not important. The issues will be sold digitally through Amazon Direct for a low price, and all profits will go to a highlighted humanitarian cause.
The content of the magazine will be humour based, in any form. Anything really, so long as it's funny. If it works as political or social satire that's even better, but the general aim is to have about thirty pages of funny writing worth paying to read. Any form of fiction or non-fiction, poetry or prose, humour preferred but not ideal.
So it's about social and political stuff, but that's more the cause than the focus. It's a humour publication with a sense of responsibility. All submissions are welcome and will make it if they are good enough and loosely fit the theme of the project. Emphasis is on laughter and entertainment, but if people write in with more serious pieces of social/political/cultural satire it will feature.
It's also about giving opportunities to promote the work of contributors, the artistic projects of other writers, and most importantly give new writers an opportunity.
I need writers. Writers of all ages, shapes, and sizes. And I need people on facebook--- I'm making a deliberate decision to keep the magazine separate from social networks but not necessarily the contributors. You don't need to be part of a system to use it to your advantage...
Anyway, spread the word, tell them what you saw, and if anyone is interested in getting involved let them know that enquiries and submissions will be answered at this address:
another.idle.distraction@gmail.com (this will probably be the title of the magazine)