How Not To Miss Out On Your Magazine

I’m very pleased - and somewhat relieved -by the reception of the first issue of The Inner Circle Writers’ Magazine, which came out on Friday. A tremendous amount of work went into it precisely so that you, the reader (and writer) would get a tremendous amount out of it. It’s the beginning, I hope, of a whole new venue for writers all over the world to learn their craft, gain valuable insights and useful information, and be entertained by their peers, all at a very low price.

You can subscribe to the magazine here, if you haven’t already:

A very few people, however, in the process of subscribing, seemed to have missed the link which would have taken them straight to their downloadable copy after payment, so I thought I’d take a few moments to explain what was supposed to occur.

Firstly, if you’re subscribing from the website page, you would click ‘Subscribe’; if you were just purchasing a single copy, you’d click ‘Buy Now’.

These buttons would take you through to one of the world’s best inventions, PayPal. PayPal enables people all over the world to purchase things from each other in a few clicks, and it usually works like magic. The funds magically appear in the seller’s account instantly, and the shipping process can begin right away - in this case, a simple electric download of a magazine. If you don’t yet have a PayPal account, I highly recommend setting one up - they make it as easy as possible, because it is in their best interests to do so.

Once you have set up a PayPal account, or logged in to your existing account, you make a few clicks and purchase either your subscription for £20.00, or an individual copy for £2.00.

Now, this is where a few people missed the connection: immediately after the purchase, a box is visible on screen saying ‘Return to Merchant’. In this case, the ‘Merchant’ is me, and when you click that box you get taken through to the website page from where you can instantly download your magazine.

As soon as you get to that website page, I remind you to ‘bookmark’ the page - note its address, copy it, save it, however you normally bookmark things on the internet. That’s because that page is where future issues of the magazine will appear. If you have subscribed, you will simply be able to visit that page to download the next magazine when it becomes available. If you just bought an individual copy, you’ll get taken to a page where only that copy is presented for download.

If, after paying, you just closed PayPal and walked away, you probably expected the magazine to be delivered to your email address. But that’s not how this works. I wanted it to be quicker than that.

None of this is a problem: if, for whatever reason, you didn’t see the ‘Return to Merchant’ box or it never appeared, all that happens is PayPal sends me your payment anyway and I see that you have subscribed (or bought a single issue) and, as soon as you ask me ‘Hey, where’s my magazine?’ I can send you the link. It’s obviously much easier all round if it works automatically and you just get the magazine without having to ask. But such are the wonders of modern technology that I will be able to tell who has paid and who hasn’t, straight away.

The important thing is that you get your eyes on the magazine.

The first issue was a challenge for me. I had to make sure that it contained what you wanted to see, plus a few surprises which hopefully were things you never knew you wanted to see, but which delighted you anyway. I think, from the feedback I’m getting, that I got it about right. But that’s just a taste of what’s to come: future issues will be even more packed with marvels. The magazine has to live up to its appellation ‘The World’s Most Exciting Writers’ Magazine’, and all kinds of things are in the works so that it does exactly that.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about any of this. In the meantime, two things to keep in mind:

1. Twelve issues a year of over 120 pages each is a LOT of pages. I need submissions from you - stories, articles, artwork, snippets, photos, cartoons, and so forth, as well as advertisements for your latest releases.

2. If subscriptions reach 1,000, I will be able to afford to PAY for accepted submissions. Right now, contributors are given awards - my books and courses - for their work. What this means is that YOU can help to create a new paid venue for your work by spreading the news about the magazine and encouraging others to subscribe. Details of payment rates and everything else you need to know about how the magazine works are contained in a free guide, downloadable here.

I look forward to hearing from you!