Launch Your Own Magazine: A Guide for Succeeding [Paperback]

Samir A. Husni (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Hamblett House Inc; 1 edition (June 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0966104900
• ISBN-13: 978-0966104905
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #386,245 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

87 of 92 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very informative, a great instruction manual., June 3, 1999

By 

Phil Stanoch (Cleveland, Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Launch Your Own Magazine: A Guide for Succeeding (Paperback)

I've had an idea for a magazine for a few years, but haven't done anything about until now. This book was great! Husni gives a different instruction in every other chapter. Chapters in between instructions are for interviews. He interviewed people who have already gone through the launch process. This was both informative and inspiring. I've read "The Magazine Publishing Industry", and it wasn't as informative for someone interested in launching a magazine. Husni's nickname is "Mr. Magazine",and with this excellent book, I would say he has earned it.

46 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stands Apart From The Rest!, June 1, 2001

By 

"[e-mail]" (Dandridge, TN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Launch Your Own Magazine: A Guide for Succeeding (Paperback)

Although we are familiar with book publishing, we needed information regarding our upcoming magazine startup. I reviewed six books on the subject.

The only one not returned was, "Launch Your Own Magazine."

I was looking for the nuts and bolts philosophy of this industry not back-patting and fluff. This magazine provided solid and useable information.

The interviews, room for notes and easy writing style of Dr Husni made my research pleasant and interesting. His checklist at the end of the book was the cherry on a very tasty book.

Bravo for placing information sharing above self.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great book, few minor issues (make that more than few), November 5, 2004

By 

Slightly Dazed, Very Confused - See all my reviews

This review is from: Launch Your Own Magazine: A Guide for Succeeding (Paperback)

As someone planning to start a magazine, I found that this is one of the better magazine start-up books out there, and it is doubly informative considering Mr.Husni is the leading expert in the field of magazines. He brings to the book a sense of being heavily involved in the industry.

However, the book was excellently detailed in some areas while being skimpy in others.

He provides great detail about the research process, evaluating competition, developing a plan, and designing the magazine layouts etc.

Each chapter hits on one of these above topics(and more) individually in about 12 chapters. At the end of each chapter is a magazine profile: a tale from the trenches interview with a start-up magazine founder about how they started the mag and the problems they had to face. This is interesting as it provides some details about the process from a newcomer point of view.

This is where the payload of information ends though. While Mr.Magazine gives us information about the theory part of the magazine development process, he doesn't give much info about the business side of things. Things like how to find and evaluate printers, how to drum up investors, what associations/organizations to network with, what media outlets to contact, etc.

In other words, he's big on research and development, but not real world business. It was only when I looked at his bio did I realize he's a professor, which explains his semi-dissociation from the nitty-gritty business world.

The only other complaint I have about the book is the magazine interviews. Don't get me wrong, they are very inspiring and I've even been tempted to subscribe to a few to understand the inner workings of success. However, after a few of these interviews they all start sounding similar...there are about 12 interviews and Mr.Husni seems to ask the same questions to all of them.

To sum it up, this book has value in parts....just don't expect to be an expert by the end of it.

P.S...Oh and a somewhat disturbing note about the magazines profiled: they're supposed to be the success stories of the ones that survived the 95% death rate. From the sound of the interviews they're the next big Atlantic Monthly, George, etc.

However, in the process of researching these magazines (I was trying to see how big they grew since the time this book was published) I found that 3 out of the 5 mags I looked at became recently defunct. Now there's some inspiration for you people!!! Instant deflation aside, I'm going to go now and check the rest of the list to determine just how depressed I should be....and whether I should kill my magazine brainchild once and for all.