Reader Mail: Starting a Magazine

Scott:

I am really thankful for having met a life motivator like you. Through the various messages i receive from your site, I have been transformed to thinking like a great entrepreneur.

I have an idea of starting a magazine in my home country, and I wonder if you could send me some website addresses that could guide me in developing this magazine.

The aim of my vision to entering the publishing world is to bring information to the door step of citizens of my country and I know with your assistance to guiding me through, the dream would be realistic.

I would be looking forward to your reply.

Richard

Thanks for your kind words, Richard, and congratulations on the decision to move ahead with your entrepreneurial vision. For those of us who spend a great deal of time on the internet, it's easy to forget that only about 24% of the world's population has internet access. In some parts of the world, such as Africa, it's less than 6%. While print magazine circulation may be declining, there's still an enormous potential market, and plenty of opportunity for a magazine either covering a new topic or serving an under-served market.

Here are some resources to help you get started:

Start Your Own Magazine - Entrepreneur tells how to break into the business, including interviews with their key staff about what it really takes to start and run a magazine.

MagazineLaunch.com offers extensive, well-organized resources and tips on launching your own magazine.

MagShoestring.com focuses on cost-cutting strategies for those who are launching their magazine on -you guessed it - a shoestring budget.

Magazine Publishers of America have an FAQ on starting a magazine. Much of the information is U.S.-focused, but you should still find a lot of it useful.

MagCloud is a new service from Hewlett-Packard that provides print-on-demand publishing, mailing and subscription management, all on a per-copy basis - no setup or maintenance fees. It's currently only available to U.S. users

Publishers Global is an international directory of publishers and publishing service providers, sorted by country and category.