Letters & Journals Magazine Update

The launch of the print version of Letters & Journals is scheduled for 2011. It's been a long time in research and planning and the challenge in 2010 has been to build a following of potential subscribers.

To date we have a list of 2,300 names of possible subscribers/buyers. Our goal is to get 5,000 names. Once we have a list of 5,000 names then we will begin approaching advertisers and following up with the ones who have already expressed interest (thank you!).

If you know some people or groups who would be interested, please encourage them to sign up for the website, the e-newsletter or just let me know to add them to my Magazine Updates Only list. None of the lists are being sold or shared and there is no obligation.

Thanks to the many loyal followers who offer their encouragement and share in the excitement of all the things that Letters & Journals represents; pens, paper, ink, pencils, notebooks, diaries, journals, note cards, stationery, mail art, pen pals, postcards, mail, stamps, letters, ephemera, etc.

Fun Mail

This fun little packet came in the mail earlier this week after I signed up at the Good Mail Day post 'Call for Scribblers, Mail Artists and Pen Friends'. I've been busy working on my return card and envelope to Christine from Edmond, WA, but haven't finished it yet. I don't have quite have the knack for mail art, but I do like trying new things and being creative and I have a TON of paper- old books and magazines, notebooks of various sizes and colors, maps, calendars, scraps, stationery, scrapbooking paper, recycled paper, advertisements, fliers, graph paper, used stamps, stickers and more.

Visit the Good Mail Day blog and read through the comments to see if there is someone you would like to send something to. Or leave your address with a list of what kind of what kinds of mail speaks to you. Make it a Good Mail Day!

Letters & Journals Magazine

Letters & Journals magazine will be a quarterly print magazine containing features and departments related to the art and appreciation of letter writing and journal keeping. The magazine will be perfect bound (meaning it has a spine) and have slightly heavier stock paper than the normal monthly magazines. All of the ads in the magazine will be for stores and products related to the niche industry of the pen and paper enthusiast- our core audience.

In order to find the advertisers related to our niche, we need to build a database of names and addresses of potential subscribers. To do this we will be launching www.LettersandJournals.com in May 2010 offering unique and interesting content as well as links to other articles that we find in our internet travels. We will also send out a weekly e-newsletter with engaging and relevant content.

 To give you a taste of some of the morsels that will be featured in the magazine, here are some sample article ideas:

A Stationery Lover's Guide to Paris (NYC, San Fran, London, Paris, you get the picture)
How do you start a Stationery Business? A Look at some people who did
Exotic Postmarks: Postcards from Around the World
Highlights of people's journals (famous and otherwise)
Pen Pal Corner- Who are these people? How do you find one of your own?
Samples of different journals you can keep (nature, travel, art, goals, daily, baby, etc)
Fan Mail- Do Movie Stars/Musicians/Athletes/etc Still Get it? Let's Take a Look
Dead Letter Office- Old, found letters and postcards
The Writing Area- Photos of readers and famous desks and writing areas
Fun with day planners and notebooks- Finding or Creating one of your own
Mindmaps, doodles, to-do lists, other lists

For ideas suggested by other readers, you can read the comments at this post. This is just some of what will be featured on the website and in the magazine.

Letters & Journals Magazine Update

Don't you just love the cover on this magazine? We're working now on bringing this charm and warmth to the website as we continue to put the building blocks on that to bring the site to life this May.

Thanks to all who have offered content, sent content, are seeking content or are in the process of doing any of the above! Keep it coming!

Letters & Journals plans to be the destination stop for all of your letter writing and journal writing needs. I've written about some of the features and departments in previous posts, but here are some more:

Notes to oneself such as to-do lists
Profiles and interviews with pen or paper enthusiasts
Journal Retreats
Pen Pal Conventions
Store Listings (Reviews and Profiles)

We are not going to reinvent the wheel by creating all new content on these pen & ink related topics. Our plan is to offer mostly original content, but also bring other stories in by linking off-site to where the story or article was originally published.

Even after the print magazine is published, we will still offer original content on the website as well as a portion (probably small) of what is in the print version.

So if you see a story, have a story or have an idea for a story, please share it with us by contacting me at jackieflaherty (@) yahoo (dot) com or leaving a comment here. Thanks!

Pen Pal Letters

I love a good letter! Who doesn't? I'm lucky enough to have an awesome group of pen friends. The one who sent this letter regularly adds art work to his envelopes and stationery. Victor is 80 years old and likes to work with water color and pencil drawings. He is a colorful personality with some strong opinions and calls himself a curmudgeon. We found each other through Lex Letters, a pen pal magazine, and have been corresponding for 3 or 4 years now.

Although Letters & Journals won't have pen pal listings, we will have features of pen pals, their correspondence, websites, friendship, adventures, etc. As I mentioned in my post on pen pals in Sept. 2009, there is a new found life for finding pen friends on the internet.

When I'm not reading or writing letters, I get my letter writing fix by visiting these websites: Missive Maven, 365 Letters, Letters, She Wrote, We've Got Paper. I love the interesting mail the get and send and am glad for any photos they post with their articles.

Maybe there is a story angle you would like to see covered or possibly you have a story waiting to be told. I'd love to hear from you!

When You Write a Letter

The friendly letter, according to this book, "...need not be written today; its composition may be deferred tomorrow or next week, or to that pleasant and indefinite future when we plan to accomplish all things worthy and worth while; it is the letter we write because it gives us pleasure to do so, or more likely because we hope to give some one else pleasure."

One of my pen pals (Christi) was nice enough to send this to me when she came across it somewhere in her book scouting (a hobby we are both passionate about).

Written in 1921, Thomas Arkle Clark was the Dean of Men and Professor of Rhetoric at the University of IL. The book was printed in 1938 by Benj. H. Sanborn & Co. The six chapters of this small book (7" x 4.5") are:

Letter Writing
Materials and Form
The Friendly Letter
Formal Notes
The Business Letter
Letters of Courtesy

I enjoy reading books on letter writing and this one has been a gem. It gives a glimpse into the culture and norms of society and how those change over time. In reading the chapter on formal notes, Mr. Clark went into some detail on a dinner party that his sister hosted where he described the process of creating the invitations (written or engraved- only the vulgar would have theirs printed) and the corresponding acceptance notes (he described some as bizarre).

'When You Write a Letter' has been a joy to read and hold (I love old books, especially those with a subject that is meaningful to me). Thanks, Christi! In Letters & Journals I plan to have reviews of books on letter writing and journaling.

Now, I must be off to accomplish things worthy and worthwhile!

Some Survey Results for Letters & Journals

I've been watching the surveys come in for the letter writing and journal writing surveys that I've been conducting. I'm trying to gather additional information of what types of articles people want to see in the Letters & Journals magazine. I've gotten some great feedback and am taking copious notes for future articles and potential advertisers.

In this post I will focus on the letter writing survey. In my next post I will look at the results from the journaling survey.

Letter Writing
For the letter writing survey 50% of the 100+ respondents said that they write between 1-3 letters per month. 17% said they wrote over ten letters a month (I would be in this group) and 16% said they wrote 4-6 letters per month. I realize that the survey is skewed because most of the people taking the survey are letter writers, which drives the number up. It's not like surveying the general public of which many would say they write 0 letters a month.

Some of the articles that people said they would like to see in Letters & Journals include:

58.7% Product Reviews of Pen & Stationery items
57.9% Art of Mail Art
51.6% Pen Pal Corner
50.8% Letters in the Attic (Genealogy)
49.2% Desks of Famous Letter Writers (and Readers)

Some interesting suggestions that readers offered include these great ideas:

History of letter delivery (in the US and other places)
Letter writing protocol over the ages
Postcards (web sites that promote them, collections, etc)
Stamps (like an intro to stamp collecting)
Letter writing campaigns- Do they work?

If you haven't taken either of the two surveys, you can visit them here. They take less than 3 minutes to complete (unless you're in the mood to offer lots of suggestions, which are very welcome). Please forward this link on to others who may be interested. Thanks!

A special thanks to my friends who took the surveys even though they don't write letters or keep a journal. Thank you!