Blood, sweat and tears...but also great satisfaction
When you browse through any editorial material, you don't necessary think of the efforts and the work that are needed for putting it together. Today I thought of sharing with you the behind-the-scenes story of a small online magazine, The People We Are. I say small, because the editing team is small and the legth of the magazine is maximum 30 pages.
Dozens and dozens of hours go into the preparation of a 26-page issue. It usually starts a month before the actual deadline, when, together with the editing team we begin to throw down ideas for the articles. Once the main stories have been identified, we start booking appointments for the necessary interviews and searching online and other resources for content and visual material.
The next phase is actually doing the interviews, going to the events we are featuring and taking photos of people and places. This is without a doubt the most time-consuming phase. If you do live interviews, you have to either record them or take notes and then, as soon as possible in order not to forget anything, write the story out. Once I have the material for an article, I sit down to compose it, and choose which pictures would go well with the text.
As the chief-editor, I write some articles on my own and I receive others from my co-editors. When I receive materials from the others, I always read their text and then start working on the layout and choosing appropriate images or other visual elements. Sometimes I even draw some illustrations to go with the articles.
Once all the material is in, I need to package it all nicely so that the magazine follows a certain thread and flows smoothly. This means moving the articles back and forth on the pages, and deciding how much importance and space to give to each piece. Next comes creating the index, and then proof-reading and editing it all once again.
And then, finally, out it goes!!! Check out the latest issue of The People We Are and let me know what you think!