Maybe even electronic, sort of

Did a huge bunch of mailing today. Still have a little to go, but the end is in sight.

Just sold out completely of good old issue #2. I have mixed feelings about that. It feels like a solid thing to have done. I like the fact that merchandise is moving, slowly but definitely. I'm getting used to our tiny apartment's living room being slightly less box-intensive.

But I don't like the idea of having created something and no longer having it to offer to someone who might want it.

My husband has mentioned an electronic option that he thinks might work for us. It seems as protected as this kind of thing can be.

I'm not ready to have all issues available electronically from the get-go, but I'm cautiously open to the idea of offering out-of-print back issues in that medium.

I've been asked about having the magazine available electronically since before the first issue was born. I have my reasons for being screamingly wary of the idea.

I used to write for an online magazine. It had some decent writers, and even some big ones. The guy who ran it charmed Joyce Carol Oates into giving him a story. Jeannette Winterson was a fan. It started off as a dark-fiction online journal -- the editor wanted it to be the horror equivalent of The New Yorker. It won some big genre award its first year out.

The editor wasn't a great businessman. He messed up a lot of stuff, missed a lot of chances, alienated a lot of people. But he had a lot of readers, and when he couldn't get advertisers in spite of his circ numbers, he finally decided that he had to start charging for the magazine itself.

The week after he acted on that decision, he found dozens of enthusiastic reviewers of the new issue all over the Internet. Which would have made him really happy, except that he'd only sold 9 copies of said issue.

He went out of business shortly thereafter, and I've never stopped thinking about why.

I've certainly never stopped thinking about the trouble I've had keeping people aware of where the Bitter Homeschooler's Wish List started. I posted it to read for free in exchange for some much-needed publicity. It has an author and it has a magazine it calls home. Crediting both of those is cheap and easy. How many people couldn't be bothered?

Ooh -- and which big site not only didn't bother, but did everything they could to profit from not doing so?

If I'm leery of the slippery electronic world, I have reason.

Seeing how things go with a back issue or two seems like a good way to test the waters.

First let's make sure I survive the most recent print baby, and then we'll start exploring e-possibilities.