The Publishing Lab
The Publishing Lab is a student-managed resource center run by the Fiction Writing Department at Columbia College designed to assist writers in finding homes for their stories. Our market research cuts down the amount of time writers need to weed through magazines, presses, and gargantuan/costly writing guides by steering them toward magazines and publishers that match their sensibility and experience.
Since 2001, the lab has been a place to start researching both the art and commerce of a writing career. Our web portal is an extension of the valuable student-generated market research we house for Columbia students. Our target audience is emerging writers, but market research transcends experience. All writers can benefit. Browse the sources in the right hand column to begin your research. Good luck.
JUNE UPDATE: Wow. We just posted a huge chunk of Magazine Reports for your perusal. New data and interviews with the editors of everything from solid literary journals like Carve to the absurdist journal Bust Down the Door and Eat All the Chickens. It's the culminating work from our Chief Scientist Jotham Burrello's Fiction Writers and Publishing class.
But that's not all! We posted three new Indie Press Reports. One includes an interview with author Stephen Graham Jones, who gives his experience with a small press.
The real gem, though, is the Press Report on Soft Skull Press. You'll find an interview with Publisher (and past Story Week guest) Richard Nash where he dishes on the economic realities of publishing. Ever wonder how those books get the primo spots facing the windows at Borders or Barnes and Noble? Wonder no more. Richard has the answer. Reading it on the page, you do miss out on his Irish brogue, but do your best to add it in your own head.
APRIL UPDATE: The housing market is taking a beating, but that doesn't mean your stories can't find homes.
We've put up a bevy of new market research — magazine reports and market sheets — over the last couple weeks. The Story Week Reader 2008 is now live and online for the entire world to read.
And who says you've got to read 'till your eyes bleed to research a writing career? Over on the right, you'll see a link to a new feature, video interviews with editors who can help shine a light on the process they go through to decide what makes it into print (or online) and what doesn't. There's already more in the pipeline.
But wait! There's more! Take a gander at the first Publishing Lab Interview with playwright Rose Martula, a Columbia College Fiction graduate recently named "1 of 50 playwrights to watch" by Dramatists Guild Magazine (July/August 2007). Her 23-point list of writing tips are geared toward playwrights, but a great kick in the pants for anybody contemplating a writing career.
Since 2001, the lab has been a place to start researching both the art and commerce of a writing career. Our web portal is an extension of the valuable student-generated market research we house for Columbia students. Our target audience is emerging writers, but market research transcends experience. All writers can benefit. Browse the sources in the right hand column to begin your research. Good luck.
JUNE UPDATE: Wow. We just posted a huge chunk of Magazine Reports for your perusal. New data and interviews with the editors of everything from solid literary journals like Carve to the absurdist journal Bust Down the Door and Eat All the Chickens. It's the culminating work from our Chief Scientist Jotham Burrello's Fiction Writers and Publishing class.
But that's not all! We posted three new Indie Press Reports. One includes an interview with author Stephen Graham Jones, who gives his experience with a small press.
The real gem, though, is the Press Report on Soft Skull Press. You'll find an interview with Publisher (and past Story Week guest) Richard Nash where he dishes on the economic realities of publishing. Ever wonder how those books get the primo spots facing the windows at Borders or Barnes and Noble? Wonder no more. Richard has the answer. Reading it on the page, you do miss out on his Irish brogue, but do your best to add it in your own head.
APRIL UPDATE: The housing market is taking a beating, but that doesn't mean your stories can't find homes.
We've put up a bevy of new market research — magazine reports and market sheets — over the last couple weeks. The Story Week Reader 2008 is now live and online for the entire world to read.
And who says you've got to read 'till your eyes bleed to research a writing career? Over on the right, you'll see a link to a new feature, video interviews with editors who can help shine a light on the process they go through to decide what makes it into print (or online) and what doesn't. There's already more in the pipeline.
But wait! There's more! Take a gander at the first Publishing Lab Interview with playwright Rose Martula, a Columbia College Fiction graduate recently named "1 of 50 playwrights to watch" by Dramatists Guild Magazine (July/August 2007). Her 23-point list of writing tips are geared toward playwrights, but a great kick in the pants for anybody contemplating a writing career.