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Hello Jonathon. What are the chances of having each month's OWC winning entries printed in WM?
It would be good for TB and for the magazine, I would have thought, and they wouldn't take up much space. I know they might appear two months after the event, but if they appeared every month that wouldn't matter.
We'd get more people entering OWC if there was a chance of publication, and the pieces in WM might garner more readers plus steer a few towards TB.
Comments
Shame, as I do think more would enter if there was promise of wider publication.
Quality control perhaps? But then couldn't WM have the option not to publish that month's story or poem if they didn't think it good enough?
No space in the mag? I'd have thought it would be possible to squeeze a tiny story and poem into one of their pages.
Adding value to the mag? Personally the more content in the way of stories and poems would be a plus for me and it would generate more interest/members to Talkback. We have shrunk to the point that this forum is possibly off-putting to newcomers as a lot of these threads portray a community of close friends. (Which is nice for us, but hard for a newbie to have the confidence/desire to infiltrate.)
I wonder if he's on holiday? Seems odd that he hasn't replied.
Maybe something could be emailed in each month, just as some writing groups sometimes send in their news, and it be included whenever space allows?
Perhaps there should be a sticky 'welcome' thread saying we are a small group atm but very friendly and welcome all (except spammers!) and hold a wealth of knowledge if anyone wants to ask a question. 'Newbies treated with care'. Or something.
I don't work on other mags, but time is less heavy on all of our hands than it used to be, for various reasons.
To address these points in a probably not entirely logical order, I'd love to make Talkback more inviting to everyone. I'm with you that TB could appear not quite intimidating, but maybe a little closed to newbies, so let's collectively figure out how to fix that! Liz's idea of a sticky welcome thread is a good one, and I like the idea of brief updates into the magazine (but maybe not every month).
I'll have to give the OWC idea more consideration. I'm sure you've realised we've removed the judging comments from mag comps to give the stories more breathing room, and space is tighter than ever.
We've been discussing more changes recently too, but I need to get more things in place first.
And finally, yes, I am at Swanwick on Monday and Tuesday this year. Will I see anyone there? After Swanwick, I'm away for the rest of the week, so having chipped in here for this, I might not be that responsive next week but will be plotting and figuring things out.
Glad we don't have to share you with other mags.
Some newbies seem to come here with a specific query and once they have an answer don't come back.
Do you know how many hits Talkback gets versus log-ins?
*goes off to think of something welcoming and intelligent to say*