A quick note about the next week or two on the Film Stories website, as well as an update on the magazines and the podcast as well.
To the wonderful people who support Film Stories,
Firstly, and most importantly, I hope you’re safe and well. It’s no revelation to suggest that the last few months have been challenging. There’s not too much of use I can say there, other than please look after yourselves. It’s far more important than anything I’m about to say.
The purpose of this note is to explain why things will be a bit quieter here for the next week or so. In short, Film Stories is having a week or so away, a brief summer break. As such, the website isn’t going to be updated until August now, and the Film Stories podcast will be away for a couple of weeks too. Hopefully, you’ll rejoin us on the other side!
I truly appreciate the people who have got in touch to offer to keep things ticking over whilst we have a little bit of a rest and reboot here. The support is very much appreciated.
Unfortunately, there’s no budget in the coffers for holiday cover. Furthermore, I have firm rules that anybody who writes for Film Stories gets paid for their work. And if I don’t have the money to pay for the words, then I have no intention of taking them for free. It’s been a key foundation of the entire Film Stories project since day one that writing has value and should be paid for. It’s not ideal for me that this site isn’t updated, but also, it feels like the right thing to do.
A few other things…
The magazines
Film Stories issue 18 is heading to print imminently – I can’t wait to show you the cover! – and is available to preorder. It’ll ship at the very start of August.
Film Stories Junior issue 4 is shipping now, and subscribers will be getting their copy any day (if they haven’t already).
Please note that we won’t be able to ship any more orders until August 3rd.
The podcast
Thanks to everyone subscribing and leaving nice reviews. It’s helped enormously. The podcast will be back in early August.
The future
This is the difficult one. Like many magazines, the economics of Film Stories have been pretty much decimated by the last few months. Advertising has disappeared, and spreading the word to new readers is harder than ever. I want to be transparent about this, because that’s been important to me at the start. I say all this hugely appreciative of the support so many of you have given Film Stories.
The plan, then, is to take the magazines back to Kickstarter – the best promotional campaign we ever had – in the early autumn to gauge just how much interest is out there, and hopefully attract some fresh investment.
I want to be clear: the Kickstarter campaign will not be aimed at people who have supported Film Stories already. The hope is it’ll spread the word of what I’ve been doing even further.
Furthermore, a Patreon is running too – that you can find here – and funds from that are channelled into the website and research materials for the podcast.
None of this means that there’s a threat to anyone’s money if they’ve subscribed by the way – I’m not that kind of person, and I’ve been clear from the start that the only person allowed to be out of pocket on Film Stories is me!
But also, I want you to know what the plan is. More over the comings weeks.
Onwards!
I’m really proud of the opportunities Film Stories offers, of the 120+ people who have got their first paid print writing work because of the magazine, and the 35+ independent movies that have had at least two pages of coverage. That’s on top of the thousands of web articles we’ve run, including over 300 longform features.
Most of all, I’m hugely thankful for the writers who have trusted me with their work, and the many people who have supported, read, spread the word and generally banged the drum for Film Stories. Between us all, it feels like we’ve come quite far in two years. There are plans for even more once I’ve taken a summer break.
You all take care of yourselves, stay safe, and I’ll be back in a week or two. Thank you so, so, so much.
Simon Brew
Editor
Film Stories
Image: BigStock
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