dumbfoundry

According to the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses, there are 600 "active" literary magazines in the United States, with "another 400 to 700 that publish irregularly and/or in miniscule quantities." The CLMP's definition of active is rather broad, however—one published issue each year is the qualification. Again, it’s an impressive number until you look closer. What kind of readership do these 600 magazines actually enjoy?

The average press run for these journals is less than 1,000 copies, with little or no distribution. They don’t sell; in fact, they’re not intended to be sold. The open secret of the literary establishment is that these magazines have no readership, outside of the poets they print. In other words, hundreds of literary magazines are printed each year, but they never reach an audience of any kind. Where do they go? Why, they don’t go anywhere. They stay in boxes. Contributors get a few complimentary copies; others are given away free of charge. This makes perfect sense when you remember the purpose of these magazines: they exist to have poetry printed in them. After all, how else can those "24,000 writers" get publishing credits? Notice the emphasis here: it’s not about being read, it’s about being published. [...]

This entry was posted by eeksypeeksy on Wednesday, November 10, 2004 at 11:35 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.