How to make a magazine: Intro to a 6,137 part series

Once upon a time, in a land just around the corner, Beyond was interviewed by blogger Jen Lemen. We thought we'd reprint the interview here for longevity and oh, to hear ourselves talk... But really, it's our introduction to the Introduction to the Preface of How to Make a Magazine: an opus of 6,137 parts. Coming Soon to somewhere near you. If you're near a computer that is.

JL: whenever i think about independent magazine publishers, i imagine thoughtful people with rumpled hair walking around tiny offices with lots of plants and earnest quotes taped up on the wall...you know, stacks of papers everywhere and couches doubling as beds for dedicated volunteers or maybe the publisher herself.  true/false? what's it like day in and day out, working as a magazine publisher? any highs/lows you wish to report?

Karen@Beyond:  It's both chaotic and quiet. I don't have a pile of earnest quotes but I have a whole wall full of blank pages that gradually fill up with text and highlighter scribbles and then black and white layouts as the design and visual element comes in. It's kind of like growing a little garden each time an issue is produced, except our dirt is blank paper. I try to do my hair every day too.

(Interrupted for morning run and a good long stare at the sky and snow-covered Canadian Rockies.)

I used to be a lot more intense about getting the magazine out and sacrificing my health to do that. But then I decided it would be a really bad idea to have a bunch of burnt out people trying to reflect on what it means to be a human being. So now, I just do what I can in a day, listen, and try to relax about the whole thing.

The highs? That's got to be the collaborative part. You know, the ability to gather people and get their writing and art known and see it all come together in a beautiful way. By the end of an issue, I've gathered (and declined) many, many times the material that you actually see in the magazine. So I'm a little foggy on the whole thing. But when it's finally printed and you see artists look at their work, their eyes all shiny and happy or you watch a reader open up a gorgeous visual spread and run their hands over it, you get this sort of "ahhhh!" feeling. And you can start again on the next one.

The lows? Those are pretty usual to independent art-making. I don't like to highlight them too much and yet you want people to know that things don't come together magically. The lows have to do with money and trying to buy groceries and gathering funding and subscriptions and doing the paperwork. There is an enormous amount of work to do and sometimes I feel like I'm one of those plate spinners. But all art-making has its ordinary and I'm learning to be as grateful for the chance to do that stuff too. I do want to print t-shirts on behalf of indie magazines that say "subscribe dammit!" but then I eat a piece of dark chocolate sent to me by beloved supporters and go on.

I liked Jane Siberry's response in our Beauty issue when we asked her if there was any sacrifice involved in being an independent musician. She said something like "Oh, there's no cost if it's in alignment with you." And then went on to list all the costs in doing something alternative. I thought that was pretty funny.

(Go upstairs, make Earl Grey tea, grab square of dark chocolate...return.)

JL: In Issue 14, you have a conversation with Bruce Cockburn that i can't wait to read.  how did the interview come about? did you get to meet him?

Karen@Beyond: Ahh, interviews. Such strange and wonderful things. "Hello, I've done all this research on you and know where you are born and what you like to eat for breakfast and now I'd like to ask you some questions that will go out to a bunch of strangers and I want you to be sort-of transparent and forthcoming with me but I know you only have a certain amount of time." That being said, I love doing interviews. They are a LOT of hard work from start to finish but also a great way of getting a small piece of someone's story.

I gave the Cockburn interview to a wonderful writer named Darren Hughes who really loves Cockburn's work. Darren blogs over at Long Pauses. He did a great job. We can't really pay our writers much (if anything) so it helps to be able to give them subject matter that they love. Cockburn's people were really helpful in setting the interview up. It was an all around enjoyable experience.

One of my favorite lines from the Cockburn interview is when Darren uses a quote from Bruce's song "World of Wonders"  that talks of "a rainbow shining in a bead of spittle". That really helped me as I was pulling together content around Issue 14's theme of possible worlds and hope.

(Cue up musicto "Waiting for a Miracle" and "Closer to the Light" for a good Cockburn soundtrack to blog questions.)

JL: A few months after receiving my first issue of beyond, i laughed to pick up my tattered copy from beside the couch and note that i had clearly loved beyond to death.  i had not really considered before that it was possible to take in a magazine the same way i loved a  painting, a poem or a book.  what makes a magazine art to you?

Karen@Beyond: I want to thank you for thinking of this. It goes past the whole "Can't you just put it online?" question that is always asked these days. Too often, we think the point of things is information, a kind of mechanical content.

In strange times, people may need to use different words to breathe new meaning into something. And sometimes people have to live the meaning back into old words in order to make them breathe again.

'Magazine' is a word, an idea that the Beyond community of readers and contributors are trying to live new again. The magazine format is an amazing way to be collaborative and imaginative and engaging - all in an incredibly portable package. And creating objects, deliciously tactile objects that can get lost in the world - behind couches, in coffeeshops, left lingering in odd places - is an important part of the way art surprises and finds us.

I'm all for alternative art-making and media that is online but that also exists as something you can touch and really see. We need to look at what a magazine could be as opposed to what most magazines have become - a vehicle for commercial messages. I think that's why alternative print media takes a bit longer to get going. You have to have this initial conversation about how things could be and then present what you really are as opposed to what readers think you are.

JL: we live in a world that believes you should take every opportunity handed to you, that a steady flow of cash from corporate sponsors is a divine sign that you are on the right track.  i think that it's safe to say that beyond, as an ads-free independent magazine is working off  some different assumptions, true? how do you decide what makes it worthwhile to publish in an independent magazine?  what keeps you inspired when things get tough?

Karen@Beyond: I've thought about the "worthwhile" question a lot. This can be hard and it's a really slow process in the midst of a world that pumps out content and information and well, just tons of stuff. Why add another thing to the pile?

But there are so many things that would reduce us to these little one-dimensional nouns. Insert career/religion/relationship/etc. here. The most prevalent noun is probably "consumer" now. We each can stand in our own little places and allow a more colorful, complex and ultimately beautiful picture of humanity to come through. This is what makes anything we do worthwhile, paying attention to what is in front of us and inviting others to join us along the way.

I continue to be inspired by people who take the time to make objects of beauty, like the glass studio and the illustrators featured in Issue 14. I'm inspired by those who put their minds and their efforts toward seeing the world not only as it is but what it could be. I'm inspired by those who take their ordinary and their small and their everyday and find the beauty in it without denying the sadness or suffering that comes to humans. If you stop and really look away from the more obvious sources of "information", you can see people doing amazing things for one another. I forget that sometimes.

(Run outside and turn on the sprinkler making both birds and tulips happy. Have another sip of tea.)