PCOS Magazine

I’ve been amazed as-of late at the sheer amount of attention PCOS is receiving on Facebook…and the number of fans of PCOS Magazine. I want to say thank you SO much for your continued interest.

As this magazine is a personal passion, fed by the wonderful writing and perspectives of some absolutely FABULOUS contributing writers (Angela Grassi, Holly Amarandei, Suzy Reyes, Sasha Ottey, and more)…well, let me just say this, it takes a lot of work to produce. I’m not complaining one bit. That’s the thing about it being a passion.

This said, life has thrown a couple of curveballs lately and it’s made it hard to concentrate on the magazine. I’m a little late getting the latest issue out to everyone, and I want to apologize for that. The upcoming issue will be out soon, most likely before May 1, and I promise to you that it will provide a great deal of great information!

PCOS Magazine is a group effort, essentially. We are always looking for new writing talent/voices, people who have design or ad sales experience, and more. If you have a talent, the readers of PCOS Magazine will probably benefit from it. Please let us know how you would like to get involved.

This topic is only one of a few that I have swimming around my head right now regarding PCOS Today Magazine. However, for the sake of not confusing the heck out of myself or others, I’m going to make separate topical posts.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled PCOS for the Masses blog post…

About two weeks ago, the first hard-copy edition of PCOS Today Magazine (after having been purely virtual for the past two years) debuted. I do not have the capital right now to print a bunch of copies of it at a local (or not so local) printer, and then mail it out. Someday, hopefully, but not yet. That said, I’ve utilized Lulu.com, which is typically a print-on-demand BOOK publisher to do it. I used Lulu.com’s “comic book” format, and it came out fairly nice.

That said, the actual hard-copy version ended up with a final royalties+commission cost of more than $7. That’s a little steep, and one of the more vocal PCOS proponents on Soulcysters.net didn’t waste any time pointing that out to me. I’m a member of the Soulcysters.com forum community and have been for quite a few years. Kat Carney started the site, and it’s a pretty fabulous way to find out about all things PCOS and to connect with other “cysters.”

My experience with publication has always been on the design and writing side of things. Working with the advertising aspect of publications has been like me approaching an oracle. I don’t understand the nuances of ad sales incredibly well, and I wish I could find someone who would be willing to work with me to focus on the advertising for the magazine while I concentrate on design and copy.

So I guess right now, I’m wracking my brain about how to make the magazine incredibly economical while still trying to turn a small profit, and at the same time increase the magazine’s size and reach with the next and subsequent issues. I’m wondering which other advertising opportunities I should be approaching, and how to go about it. Does it become strictly downloadable or do I fill it with lots of advertising as to produce the capital to print it hard-copy too? Do I seek some kind of investment in the magazine to front-load capital for printing, etc?

If anyone has some perspective in these areas, I’ve love to hear it!