help

I thought I would take stock of how Sci Phi Journal is going now that the first three issues are out. I’ve got a lot of good feedback and people who read seem to be enjoying it. Thanks to those who left reviews on Amazon and thanks to everybody who helped to promote the magazine, submitted stories and articles, helped with editing and everything else that has made it happen. Three issues was the initial run I committed to doing, to see if the idea was viable and whether it was worth pursing. I did try this once before a number of years ago and it sold all of 10 copies and never got to issue #2, so this time around things are going better than that. The magazine isn’t breaking even yet, but it isn’t doing awfully, getting about a 1/3 of the way to breaking even on each issue.
So where does this leave things? People seem to enjoy the magazine and would like to see it continue, and I would like to see it continue as well. The readership is currently growing, so things are moving in the right direction, but it is expensive to produce each issue and financial issues will eventually kill the magazine if it doesn’t continue to get closer to breaking even. I’d love to be independently wealthy and be able to do the magazine as a hobby and sell it cheaply but unfortunately I can’t afford too and it will need to break even if it is to survive.
So what does this all mean if you are one of the people that would like to see it continue? I’m not going to beg for donations or anything like that. If you would like to donate to the magazine to help underwrite the cost or you would like to sponsor an issue i’d certainly be interested in hearing from you, but ultimately that would only be life support for the magazine and could only ever be a short term strategy to keep things from folding, unless it was quite a large grant (So if anybody does happen to know any eccentric billionaires!).
What the magazine needs is to sell about 1000 copies of each issue in 1 format or another. If it can get to that it will mean the magazine will have reached a point of being able to pay for itself, turning a small profit of a few hundred dollars an issue (Depending on exactly where the issues are sold etc, not all copies generate the same revenue). It currently is selling about a third of that number. You could offer to buy a bunch of issues, and I wont say no, but ultimately what the magazine needs is for news of it to spread and to get more regular readers. So if you like the magazine, and aren’t an eccentric billionaire, if you can promote it on social media, to friends and colleagues, or anything else that can help to move it, then that will insure the magazine will survive. If you have ideas, or there is something I should be doing that I am not, please let me know. I was this to succeed and working together I think it can!