For our fourth issue of Berm, we were supported by a Publisher's Fellowship from Literary Arts here in Oregon. This fellowship had an award of $3,500, which covered most of the budget for the issue (more on that later). But, more importantly, we were able to collaborate with Literary Arts on a few different programs over the course of creating issue four. We participated in a reading event, where Takahiro Yamamoto read from his piece in our third issue, and we were able to co-produce and moderate a roundtable discussion with Portland independent publishers at the Literary Arts space. Both events were a first for us and very exciting.
In addition to being one of two Publisher Fellows, we also decided to change how we used Patreon for this issue. Instead of being a place for donations and ongoing support only, we also now run pre-order subscriptions through Patreon. So if you'd like to support Berm at the $5 subscription level, you now get every new issue as they are released as long as you are subscribed.
Goals & Achievements
Between Issues Three and Four, we wanted to focus on making our process sustainable for our own lives, as well as the lives of our contributors. This meant that we needed to continue to tweak our schedule, our transparency, and get any frequently asked questions out of the way in the pitch process. For Issue Three we tried to increase the production timeline to cover the full six months between issues. This meant that we started pitching contributors much earlier in the process than before and allowed them more time to draft their pieces. But it also meant building in more time for our own internal process for things like researching design, marketing the issue, and applying for grants for the next issue.
In our Issue Three Retrospective, we also talked about the stress of the grant process. Well! That was, in a way, the theme of this issue. It was comforting, in a lot of ways, to talk to artists about the grant process, how they felt their time was used when applying for grants, and how grants have either helped them or not. We continue to struggle with the grant process - as many artists and arts organizations do, but feel a little less alone now, having done it for a few years and talked with many different people about grants. For Issue Five, which we are wrapping up the production cycle for now, we are thankfully funded by a RACC Art3C grant. Funding Issue Six is still up in the air.
Pivoting Patreon to be a subscription model instead of an ongoing support model was something we talked a lot about before it happened. When we first started the magazine, we weren't sure how to properly do a subscription model (despite a few folks asking for it directly). One thing that was a sticking point in the discussion was that we had planned to be a limited run magazine, printing 100 copies. Then, after the 100 copies were sold, that issue would be considered sold out and not printed again. This is hard to do with a subscription model because you have to consider issues for sale at stores, hand-sold at zine fairs, and sold as individual issues through our website. But ultimately, we were overthinking it. Now, there are set thresholds on the amount of purchased subscriptions before we need to increase our print run. This way we can reserve a number of copies to be sold to stores, at fairs, and generally have around for people who are not subscribed to the Patreon.
We knew the theme for this issue was going to be a tough one for some people, and we were kind of excited about that. Money is hard to talk about. But the pieces that contributors created were frank and honest and poignant. We were immensely impressed with the wealth of experience and insight that was published in this issue. It was also nice to be able to capture our own thoughts on the economics of Berm, including this issue's budget, inside the printed magazine.
Budget
The budget for Issue Four of berm was planned at $3,500 to match the Publisher Fellowship grant from Literary Arts. In the end, we spent $3,170 on payments to contributors, marketing photography, and printing. The rest of the funds from the grant were put towards our annual business taxes, which are $650.
The underspend on the budget was largely due to fewer contributors being commissioned for this issue. In the Lessons Learned section we will cover this more, but for now we will say that a summer issue about money was hard to commission pieces for. We ended up writing our own article about the economics of Berm, and conducting an interview with Variable West–both of which we were excited to include–that were not paid out to another contributor. On paper, for the grant, we paid ourselves for design and editing. But in the bank account, the money just went straight into paying taxes.
Rates were the same as in Issue Three, aside from the Marketing Photographer rate, which was based on their own hourly rate requested.
Lessons Learned
One element that we didn't know we wanted was the ability to talk with and participate in events surrounding the grants we receive. Literary Arts was a fantastic partner to collaborate with, not just on events, but in many discussions about independent publishing. Jessica Meza-Torres, who has since left Literary Arts, was helpful, encouraging, and very active in the community of publishing and magazines. This experience taught us we would like grant makers to be more than just a funding opportunity. Counter to this, we also understand that a lot of artists feel the opposite. They would like to receive funding and do their work without being asked to participate further, which we understand! But for us, it was a good time and made us think about how we can help the larger community of independent publishers. Our experiences with Literary Arts has inspired us to think about other projects that we wouldn't have without their active involvement. More on that in our closing thoughts!
Summer is not a good time to pitch contributors without a lot more lead time. Folks were on holiday, folks were busy with exhibitions they were preparing for, folks were out enjoying the sun. Makes sense! For future issues that take place in the summer months, we have a plan to pitch folks sooner in the production process. This, we hope, will get us on more calendars sooner and allow us to work with contributor's schedules better.
Don't be afraid to try something new. We've often had the experimental ethos when it comes to pieces we would like to publish, design we would like to try, and playing with the way we print the magazine. But it took some time and consideration to think about the way we can build a sustainable subscription model. Frankly, there's a lot of weird feelings about subscription models, ads, and the creator economy floating around out there. So it was something we kind of put off for a while as we were trying to learn more about what we could accomplish, how grants worked really, and what the audience for Berm would be. Now, heading into the last phase of our production cycle for Issue Five, the Patreon subscription model feels good. It feels like people will be getting the value they would like from receiving a copy of the new issue of Berm when it releases, and that we can sustain it at the current (and double the) level it is at.
Closing Thoughts
Issue Four worked out well! Despite some challenges getting contributors onboard during the summer months, the pieces we were able to get for this issue were important, timely, and honest looks at the way artists feel about money. It also felt like the timeline for production was smoothed out a lot. Nothing felt too rushed for us, or the contributors, and the issue came out as planned.
Funding continues to be an issue with future issues, as we are not yet at a sustainable level of subscribers on Patreon. But we are closer, which is a relief. We will still need to apply for grants for future issues, or look for operational support funding from larger organizations, but the gap is a little bit smaller.
One thing that spun out from this issue was our desire to help coordinate and publish a report on the independent publishing landscape in Portland. We recently learned that we received a $1,000 micro-grant from Critical Conversations to produce a proof of concept for this project! So things are expanding a bit, but in an exciting way. This report, we hope, will continue on annually and help to serve as an archival record of the way independent magazine publishers in Portland are doing, what they're doing, and where they see the future of publishing going in years to come. We don't know that this would have happened without the Literary Arts roundtable event first planting the seed of the conversation.
If you would like to subscribe to get new issues of Berm when they are released, check out our Patreon. Or, if you would like to purchase a copy of Money, visit our website.
Our next issue, Joy, will be released in June of 2024!