Signing on with a New Magazine: Our Iowa

A Special Yahoo
by Karna Converse

My story, "Small-Town Life's Their Cup of Tea ... Er, Coffee" is the Why I Came Back to Iowa feature for the Holiday Issue of Our Iowa.

Though IWW members did not critique this piece, I wanted to share my yahoo here because of how the story came about.

Last summer, I was asked to be our county's contact for submitting story and photo ideas (a volunteer position) to a new magazine that would be "for Iowans, written by Iowans." The editors' mission: "to celebrate everything that's great about living in our state ... in an upbeat, light-hearted and fun manner."

I agreed because I knew the publishers had a reputation for producing high quality and very successful magazines. (They recently retired from Reiman Publications, publishers of 10 national family-friendly magazines with a combined circulation of 13 million. Six of the magazines rank in the top 100 in national circulation.) But I also sent two published writing samples with some of my story ideas. The editor liked my samples and hired me to write the piece that appears in the current issue.

We read so many stories of startup magazines and e-zines that don't make it, and writers have good reason to be leary of new ventures. But there are plenty of good stories too: Our Iowa -- and remember, this is only the second issue -- already has 17,000 paid subscriptions!

Plus -- it's fun! I'm meeting new people and learning lots of interesting tidbits about where I live. And, if I can write about it -- all the better!

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Karna's story is not online, but you can find the magazine's guidelines on its website.