Harness Magazine's founder on the ups & downs of running an independent publication right now

​Ever dreamed of starting your own independent publication? Not sure what it takes to get readers, subscribers, advertisers, and contributors to participate?
 
Recently, I spoke to Ashley Rector, the founder of Harness magazine about the good, crap, and totally awesome parts of starting and running your own magazine in a digital age.
 
If you have a great idea for an independent publication but are worried about its financial sustainability, there’s a lot you can learn from Ashley’s story of how she builds Harness from scratch. On this episode, you’ll learn exactly what it takes to run a successful independent publication.
 
What this episode covers:
 

• What this week’s episode is brought you by: Blog On: A Blogging Starter Kit for Entrepreneurs, an e-book by yours truly.
• The similarities between Harness Magazine’s focus and what keeps the podcast going in the first place!
• Ashley’s intro to what her magazine covers
• What kind of material Harness covers
• How Ashley got started at Harness, and why she’s super excited about its three-year anniversary
• Why she started Harness, and how the things she was interested in submitted not really having a proper home was a huge part of it.
• How the tendency for women to bond over shared experiences was a major source of inspiration
•  What Ashley loves about often being the first place where first time writers are published
• The struggle she had in the beginning to figure out if she was going to be in the digital or print space, and why that was a major thing she had to consider.
• Looking back her advice for others that have the same interest is basically this: ask yourself “what is the goal, and what you want it to be?” and why that should be priority number one!
• What Harness used to be vs what it used to be now, and how Ashley made the switch in publication schedules, and made it possible to do both web and print versions.
• How Ashley used social media to create a buzz, and attract writers, readers, and etc., and how that has evolved.
• What the submission process often looks like, and why it’s often about being inclusive but also maintaining quality at the same time.
• What she looks for in submissions and why it’s about what’s lacking content wise, and largely subjective.
• What gets rejected: “often there has to be something really wrong with it,” and what qualifies as “wrong”.
• The hardest part of managing submissions? The large amount of submissions. And why Ashley’s interest in always wanting to let people know regardless of the result is part of that.
• How getting a team has helped manage the large amount of submissions.
• Why Ashley sees giving one-on-one feedback to the writers as so important.
• How the themes are driven by Harness’s social media, and the tools/ systems that Harness uses to plan things out.
• Ashley’s advice to listeners: “you have to sit down and decide what’s most important and take it in bite-sized pieces”, and why launching a magazine is about starting small
• Why Ashley recommends using publishing group forums on Facebook to ask for help when you’re really not sure.
• Why the most important thing to decide is this: “do you want to be like Vogue or an indie magazine?”
• Why advertising partnerships for Ashley are about partnering with brands that match their mission.
• The truth about pricing for ad partnerships...? It really depends and all the factors that tie in.  
• Why a lot of the ad income goes towards printing and distribution costs.
• The Harness media kit, and how it has helped. If you’re stuck on creating yours Ashley recommends checking out Harness’s as a guideline.
• What to include in a media kit, how her graphic designer has been helpful, and why you might need to reach out to freelancer if you don’t already have access to a graphic designer.
• Why being in love with what you do is so much an important part of starting your own publication. And why doing your homework/ research is important too!
• The new issue that Ashley is currently working on, and the new website that’s coming soon in the new year.

 
About Ashley Rector, this week’s guest
 
Ashley Rector is a small business and passion coach, attorney and the founder of Harness Magazine. Harness is a digital and print publication dedicated to empowering women through creative expression. Simply put, Harness publishes the articles, artwork and poetry from real women around the world.
 
Where you can find Ashley Online:
 

• Website: https://www.harnessmagazine.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harnessmagazine/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/harnessmagazine
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/harnessmag

 
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