Ack what to do! Our focus right now was supposed to be on distribution and sales, now that the big cheque and first edition has been sent to the printer. What person in their right mind would make sales emails right now, lol? “Hey, stock our magazine in your closed doors, would ya?” Welp, that ain’t happening. Or how about that event we were supposed to be promoting right now, to launch the mag? A big thumbs down on that one. You’d think the answer would be clear (other than figuring out stupid bookkeeping as a new business owner and organizing my mess of files that to me are organized chaos and to anyone else, they’d wonder how I even get a speck of work done). Start on the content for the next mag, right?! An exciting prospect. Now that we’ve done it before - more straightforward. And oh, the creativity is a blast!
What kind of lists would people want to read? Want kind of people do we want to feature? But the thing is, we started this mag based on seasons. So the 1st edition was to come out at the end of next month with a brighter tune towards spring and summer. And sure, we’ll still have it then. But without getting it into stores, and without a proper launch, and without proper marketing, well, delaying its release makes the most sense. Although wouldn’t it be awesome to read it while you’re in quarantine right now? Oh well. We’re in the fortunate circumstance that the content is timeless, and that 31-year-old Alina lives with her parents due to frugality and commitment-issues — so she can get by on little money coming in for some time, hahaha. TMI. But we’re in the unfortunate circumstance that we’ve put in a year of working with no profit. And you might say ‘hey, you got that $17,000 ($15,300) from Kickstarter!’. Well, that’s less than what it costs to print it, let alone any other bills to make this fabulous publication happen (thanks to everyone who backed us!). So we can start on the second edition with no idea for when it can come out as we need to sell the first one first.
The second edition was to have more of a darker focus, for the fall and winter. We even have a sweet theme for it if it works out (although our first theme changed throughout production so who knows on that). Because we have no idea when we can launch this first one, we REALLY have no idea about the second one. So perhaps we wipe seasons away. Maybe even wipe themes away. Just talk to cool people and see what happens? Yeah, seems smart. Just needed to rant a bit before moving forward on that one. So: spend the mornings dreaming up cool article ideas, and spend the afternoons converting an ugly van into something livable! Hehe. So, friends, let us know if you have any ideas. Gulf Islanders doing cool things. Cool questions or cool ideas. Cool thoughts on how social distancing is affecting your mental health (because we have a whole lot to say about that and it ain’t good). Actually! Prove you’ve read this far and answer this question! What is one thing you figured out about yourself during the covid 19 pandemic?
We’ve determined we need some easier reading/more service-based stuff in the second edition, so keep that in mind, if you even know what that means, haha. Cheers!
