Letters & Journals Prototype Arrives!

A big day for Letters & Journals this week with the arrival of the first issues of the prototype magazine! It was so exciting to finally put this in my hands. Now to get busy on the content!

2009 was a busy year with the design of the logo, masthead, departments, features, etc. as done by Kathy Forss at DaisyMaeDesign.

The cover was illustrated by award winning children's book illustrator, Christina Rodriguez. Kathy took Christina's work and created this lovely cover.

Hervey Evans from Erasmus, Inc. was hired to guide the overall project and bring it all together in a business plan that takes Letters & Journals from concept to reality.

In 2010 the plan is to

* Build the website
* Create and find content
* Find potential advertisers
* Find potential subscribers
* Begin work on the Premiere Edition

Letters & Journals Magazine Update

Next on the agenda for the development of Letters & Journals is for me to attend the Craft and Hobby Association (CHA) Winter Convention and Tradeshow at the end of January in Anaheim, CA. The show highlights all of the crafting industries such as pen and paper companies, beads, fabric, scrapbooking, art materials, etc. It will be my first time there and I'm very excited to be attending.

The prototype is being printed this week so I will have that with me to show potential advertisers. I'll be looking for feedback and suggestions on how the magazine can work to help them succeed. I have my own thoughts on how I want the magazine to look and feel and what kind of content I want to deliver, but if that is not aligned with what potential advertisers and subscribers want, then that is a recipe for disaster.

Later that week is a one day conference in San Francisco for Women in Periodical Publishing (WIPP) and this will be my second time to that conference. Last year I found it very educational and I met some helpful publishers who gave wonderful advice and support. I am looking forward to leaving the Minnesota cold behind and enjoying some California sunshine.

Mixed Paper Journal

I got this gem of a journal from elisejoy who sells them on Etsy. It's a mixed paper journal and has the cloth cover that you see plus envelopes, different types and colors of card stock and a couple tags. If you click on this link you will be able to view multiple photos of the different pages in the journal.

I've decided to make this a monthly journal. This one will be January and for the rest of the year I will make my own versions of this journal.

Being halfway through the month of January I could include:

* A picture of our NY Eve celebration
* Ticket stubs from going to see Sherlock Holmes
* My current to do list
* List the books I have read or listened to this month
* My goals for 2010
* A photo of the wintry wonderland after a fresh Minnesota snow
* A copy of the cover for the prototype of Letters & Journals
* A stamp from a letter from my penpal, Jane, who lives in France

If I'm a good blogger (and I do aspire to be), I would post the completed pictures on Flickr at the end of the month and blog about the process of keeping this unique monthly journal. Check back in February for that.

Letters & Journals Magazine Front Cover

We have been busy working on the prototype for the first issue of Letters & Journals. What do you think of the cover? The illustration was done by award winning children's book illustrator, Christina Rodriguez. If you want to see more of Christina's work, you can check out her blog.

Kathy Forss at DaisyMaeDesign worked her magic to bring everything together on the cover. We are still finalizing some decisions about what goes where, but we expect to have the prototype sent to the printer next week.

The prototype will be a printed issue of the look and feel of the magazine. I've posted some of what Kathy created this past year; feature articles, a letters column, a journals column, and the table of contents section. These are the pages that will go into the prototype to give advertisers a sense of what the magazine is all about.

I'm feeling really good about where things are at and I expect the momentum to continue as we go to the next step- the website.

The Post Office

A helpful pen pal sent me a list of potential articles that Letters & Journals can consider in future publications. I thought she had some great ideas and was wondering if others feel the same. Possibly this list sparked other ideas for you.

1. The history behind the zip code system
2. Favorite stories about post offices and workers
3. Obscure rules and regulations (US and others)
4. List of books written about or by postal workers
5. Inspiring stories of actions taken by postal workers
6. Economics of the postal system
7. History of their uniforms and/or postal vehicle design
8. History of postmarks