Let Me Clarify It

I realized that I've been talking about a "literary magazine" in my last two posts without really explaining what it is. So here it is:

Lit mags usually display these awesome, unique, super artsy covers. Impossible not to love.

The Dial, one of the earliest literary
magazines, was first published in 1840.

A literary magazine is a collection of pages, put together much like a conventional magazine, that have art as a topic. Lit mags or lit journals, as they are also called, serve the purpose of showcasing prose, poetry, and artwork from less known, or even anonymous, artists. These magazines are made by and for the arts -not for the profit or the fame, but with the intent of sharing and spreading pieces of the souls of writers and artists around the world, with whoever wants to appreciate them. It is a beautiful cause.

But people don't only submit pieces to a lit mag with the intent of blessing the world with the intricate, beautiful depths of their hearts. The magazines are often used as a platform to reach acknowledgement within the literary world. Many writers that are big names in the literary world started off with literary journals. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Margaret Fuller with their lit mag, The Dial, are to this day two of the most well known transcendentalist writers.

My inspiration! (this post is becoming very visual
and I love it)

Despite that, they make between none and little profit. Literary magazines are either free, funded by the government, available online, or cost little. The writers and artists that submit material to them don't usually get money for their work, and if they do, it's not much. There are some exceptions, such as The New Yorker, but these are the ones that include some aspects of conventional magazines -articles and opinion pages. That is because the people that read lit journals are usually strictly interested in them, rather than literature and arts in general.

My intentions in choosing this topic are simple: I want to be able to create a literary magazine that will appeal to a wider audience. But when I start thinking about the how... that's when things start getting complicated. My inspiration, for now, is The New Yorker. Even though I don't have it all crystal clear, figured out in my mind, I know I'm going somewhere.

And it will become a beautiful cause.

"Literary Journals And Magazines: What They Are, Who Runs Them, and How They Benefit You - Writer's Relief, Inc." Writer's Relief, Inc. 2010. Web. 12 Mar. 2016. <http://writersrelief.com/blog/2010/06/literary-journals-and-magazines-what-they-are-who-runs-them-and-how-they-benefit-you/>.

"Literary Magazine." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 12 Mar. 2016. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literary_magazine>.

"Magazine - The New Yorker." The New Yorker. Web. 12 Mar. 2016. <http://www.newyorker.com/magazine>.

"The Online Books Page." The Dial Archives. Web. 12 Mar. 2016. <http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/serial?id=thedial>. 

"Top 50 Literary Magazines." Top 50 Literary Magazines. Web. 12 Mar. 2016. <http://www.everywritersresource.com/topliterarymagazines.html>.