More Magazine Woes

All I can say is that it is a bloody good thing I did not take the leap of trusting that I could make the magazine my living and quitting my job after this summer as I was very close to doing, since I have not even been able to earn enough to print an issue since summer.  That said, had I been working on the magazine instead of my day job, I would have earned enough to print a fall and winter issue ... but still not, I fear, enough to live on past that.  Yet.  I am on the two-and-a half- more years Plan, okay?  I want the magazine to be my job by the time the Lone Star Baby enters public school in the first grade ... at the latest.  And I can do it, too!  

Insert your encouraging, reassuring, affirming comments in the comments section, now, please. Alongside comments about how much the magazine rocks and how you cannot wait to get your next issue, but how you will wait because it is so worth it.  Thank you.

Anyway.  Two huge magazine problems messed with my life recently and are just beginning to ooze away.  One was that, very near the winter issue deadline, my new ad rep. who had told me she could definitely get what we needed by November 15th ... said she hadn't.  At the last minute. And wasn't up for the job.  So.  I seriously considered pulling the money out of my savings account one-last-time, although we really could not reasonably afford that, but .... then came the second problem.

Many of you know I have been working with an ancient Mac and a dial-up modem which cause me lots of adventures.  In the midst of this ad stuff , my e-mail system upgraded ... and I could no longer read my e-mail on any browser my computer would support.  Even the library computer would only let me read them and not do anything with them and I cannot be reading e-mail at the library much.  So I haven't read any of my e-mail to speak of in about a month.  Not good.  And really the last straw.

We just now went ahead and bought a new computer and a high-speed internet connection because, honestly, I cannot manage the magazine without things at least approaching the proper tools.  We got a new Mac thinking that the cheaper PC would become a more expensive option once we had to buy all-new software for it ... but it turns out that most of our Mac software won't work on the new computer.  We have some that will, though, and are building it up slowly to where it needs to be.  In the long run, despite its expense, this computer is, I think, the best thing I could have done for the magazine.

Still, it was expensive, and with Christmastime here and braces for the Lone Star Girl looming soon, there is no way I will be able to pay for any issues of the magazine out of my own pocket anymore.  I know that I cannot sell the ads we need myself, either, as I simply do not have the daytime available to me due to my job.  I have a new ad person who I am hoping will work out ... a good friend who has always been deeply supportive of the magazine ... so hopefully she will be able to sell enough ads for a spring issue.  Winter is definitely out.  

Bottom line ... the next issue will come out when I have an ad rep who is successful and that is all I can do on that end.  I am looking for ad rep's in other parts of Texas and continue to look for quality submissions for Issue Ten, whenever it goes to print (hopefully February!).  Such delays are deeply frustrating but I do feel that we are moving, in a maddeningly slow way, in the right direction.

Please remember those supportive comments!  Thanks!