Much of this is from the email I sent out to you guys on Friday, but since we're going to be doing our discussions here, I thought I would edit and add to what I wrote in response to Doug's post and other thinking I've done over the weekend and slap it on the blog.
MEETING
As decided last night, we are set to meet Wed at 12-1 PM. Maybe we can come up with an agenda of important things to discuss (other than what's been mentioned) between now and then.
Re: DECISIONS
- I think we should hang on to the archive rights to the stories we publish. I mean, otherwise, every time we let them go, we lose content. We should be building Nexus as an ongoing online entity from here on out. I don’t know how this is handled on other websites (from what I’ve seen, a couple maintain archives) but I agree with Aaron, without a print copy, our contributors have nothing to show for their work. Does holding onto archives make it impossible for writers to reprint stories elsewhere? Also, we definitely need to figure out about if we’re allowed to reprint them in our “Best of Nexus” print edition. Of course, Doug is more knowledgeable about this sort of thing, so his way may be the way to go, but those are my thoughts.
I do still think we should have a “Best Of” issue, only if it comes out once a year. It’d be a shame if we didn’t put out anything in print.
- Possibly including a PDF version of each issue could make the print issue a little moot and allow for the cover art and artwork, giving the feel of a real magazine.
- I like Doug's idea of having Each Issue be 2 Short Stories,
3 Pieces of Flash Fiction, & 3 Poems. Maybe we could expand the poems a bit (we get so much) or add one more piece of flash fiction, but then again, we could be doing monthly updates with this limited format and it wouldn't be too much trouble. We should also consider artwork and photos and how many we want to do of each.
WEBSITE
- Aaron snuck up on me while I was writing this post (well, actually he sat quietly while I worked and I didn't notice him) and pointed out the very first thing we should do is modify the existing website to reflect new information.
- I’ve been going over websites that Doug pointed out and have been looking for features and aspects of them that would, could or should be implemented, as well as things we want to try to avoid and taking notes on all of this. I wanted to come up with a draft of a website design, at least function-wise (I’m not the best at aesthetic design) over the weekend that we could discuss this week, but I’ve only completed a bit of said draft. Hopefully Aaron’s been able to look at the sites and has some ideas of his own.
If the website doesn’t get discussed too much at the meeting (there are other issues more pressing) the things we should think about between now and then are features we ABSOLUTELY want to include, and ones we want to avoid. I’ll definitely have a short list at the very least by Wed.
- I don’t know if we’d have to bring in a big-time coder for this next idea, but at a couple websites I worked at, there were back end form programs that would format, sort and publish content on the website. This would make maintaining Nexus online a breeze, make it easy to update, easy for others who follow us to keep things consistent and not that big a problem. I know a couple guys from my past who I might be able to talk about this possibility. Maybe even con one of them to create such a backend for us. Then again, I’ve never used Dream Weaver, but I know that using such forms made updating almost mindless and much easier than using Front Page (which I understand is like Dream Weaver). Still, Front Page was pretty easy to use too, but if we established a working back end for the Nexus site, it could sustain itself without major revisions for some time to come.
SUBMISSIONS
- First priority should be to establish the email submissions and the rejection letter. I have looked through requests asking what happened to submitted poetry and people are coming by the office wanting to contribute. The sooner we get those generated, the better. Getting these together are duties we should allocate at the meeting.
- Last night Doug brought up the fact that we are only receiving poetry submissions, and I agree it sucks. Somebody even stopped by the office while I was here today to ask about poetry submissions. We really need to do something to get the word out. One thing I think we could do would be to flyer. Being a school organization, we can flyer more places than usual postings do. The flyers should include requests for short stories, artwork, photographs… poetry too, but we may want to emphasize we’re looking for more than just poetry at this point. Another thing said flyers could do is put out the call for volunteer(s) if we still want to do that.
- We need to get into any class that is teaching fiction writing (I suppose the poetry classes too, but fiction writing is what we need) and give announcements/brief presentations to let it be known we’re desperate for short stories and flash fiction. This should definitely increase the submissions for fiction. Maybe we can make a list of classes to hit and then divvy them up based on our schedules at the meeting.
- We should tell any established or upcoming writers we know that we’re looking for submissions. I’m looking at you Doug, though I’ve talked to Tad & Tony at Super-Fly, both who write and wrote on story comments from somebody in Brady's class that he should submit to Nexus.
- Can we do a radio commercial on WSU’s radio station putting out a call for submissions? Or one in the Guardian? Either or both hopefully without spending a ton?
That’s about all I have for now. I know that’s a lot to take in, but hopefully it keeps the ball rolling and gives us things to discuss at the meeting. Aaron, maybe you should cull from Doug’s and my posts to post a meeting agenda, so we don’t waste the one hour we have.
Take care guys! Good to see you both last night and I look forward to discussing this more with you online and on Wed. Also, happy anniversary, Doug!
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