Annalemma’s next issue is coming out in a few months and we’re throwing a subscription drive to help pay for production costs.

Issue Eight: Creation, will mark four years I’ve been editing and publishing this magazine and, for the most part, enjoying the hell out of it. I love meeting and working with extremely talented writers and artists, collaborating on an undeniably beautiful product and helping to foster and support a community of writers and artists I enjoy being a part of and cherish on a daily basis. What I haven’t always enjoyed is trying to sell the magazine. Creating a sustainable revenue stream (as is the case with most publishers in the literary game) is a complicated, uphill battle, requiring a lot of work for very little reward.

I started this magazine with my own money under the pretense if you create a beautiful product, people will pay for it. Then I learned people need to know about it before they can pay for it. Getting a magazine on the radar requires money. Add that on top of printing fees, contributor fees, web and print design fees, release parties, and the money dries up rather quickly. And if people aren’t buying the magazine in the numbers it needs to sustain itself then you have a problem. So last year we went nonprofit and solicited donors to help pay for the production costs to print Issue Seven. That worked out pretty well and we banked on the idea that we could print Issue Eight if we sold enough copies of Seven. Which brings us to now.

I’ve tried a lot of things. We (meaning the people I rope into helping me out with this project) have tried a lot of things. We’ve tried everything short of directly asking you to buy the book. So here we are, asking you to buy the book.

If you want to see this magazine thrive during a hard time in publishing, click here to subscribe. You’ll receive Issue Seven and, in a few months, Issue Eight, as well as some postcards, buttons and whatever free fun stuff is lying around the office.

And if you subscribe right now you’ll receive $5 off the cover price of Issue Eight.

This isn’t a plea to support a convoluted Kickstarter campaign, this isn’t a plea to give us money with nothing in return. This is good old-fashioned capitalism. This is a plea to support something you and I both enjoy. You’re paying for a beautiful product you’ll keep for a long time, a product that will enrich and add dimension to your life.

If you want to help beyond a financial way, please post a link to this message on your facebook/blog/twitter, however you communicate with people who enjoy the things you enjoy.

Thanks for your continued support and interest in this project. It means everything.