Issue 8 Retrospective & Journal Update

Radon Issue 8 released last month online and (for the first time) in print, embodying the massive growth and changes the journal is experiencing in 2024. This post serves both as a behind-the-scenes update and a moment for us to pause and reflect on how we are doing.

A Whole New Team (Almost)

May saw the departure or hiatus of most veteran Radon editors and the arrival of four new members to the editorial team. Each left on their own terms to focus on their careers in bookselling, agenting, and taking care of their families. In a trial by literary fire, the new team members stepped up and quickly learned the (literal) ins and outs of the journal.

Since we previously had our editors working on every aspect of the journal, losing multiple teammates created a sudden vacuum of knowledge. To prevent this from happening again and to lighten the workload on each editor, we decided to move toward specialization. Specifically, this meant bringing on production and marketing team members whose sole job fell inside these realms.

For the first time we even brought on first readers to lighten the reading load for our existing editors. We brought on board Kallie for production just one week before Issue 8 went live and she single-handedly got our Epub coded and up to professional standards. We will be working with her on website improvements throughout the rest of the year and are enjoying having her with us.

Marketing remains a uniquely difficult position to hire for. As of October 2024, Radon has found, trained, and lost three marketers. While each of them loved our journal and ethos, they found that real-life marketing jobs are unforgiving with their time and do not play nicely with volunteering for a genre journal in the off hours. To this end we are once again looking for a marketing specialist and open to emails inquiring about the position. Until someone new is found, Aimer and Marisol will remain doing their best to not pull their hair out from stress.

Adventures in Print Publishing

We teased it greatly and knew it would come with growing pains. But 15 days after the digital launch of Issue 8, our print edition was perfected and made available worldwide (Direct link). Now that we have gone through the process with IngramSpark, we have a much clearer picture of timeframes and what is required to establish parity between our digital and print launches.

Things we had not anticipated, such as week-long waits for file processing, set us back. Needing to complete our Epub coding (typically what we do last on the day prior to launch) before we could print our physical copies was also a wake-up call. We are actively restructuring our production process to account for the hard lessons we have learned and will be a smooth operating machine in 2025.

To boast for a moment: All Radon issues (beginning with Issue 8) are available worldwide in every major online retailer and with global distribution. Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Agapea, Adlibris, Chapters, etc., you can find us for $6.99 wherever you are. We are also available to bookstores and libraries through Ingram distribution. So please feel free to request your favorite indie bookstore to buy one of our Issues for you. We have specifically granted indie bookstores a trade wholesale discount in order to support stores worldwide.

Updated Patreon Perks

We remain vigilant in adding or modifying Patreon perks so that our supporters receive the most value. With the arrival of print editions, we have added free copies to $15/month patrons and an at-cost printing discount for our $10/month supporters.

The detailed response letter and professional editing perks have been underutilized this past year and we wonder if they are enticing enough to our community. We would love feedback on this if you have any. It may be that the response letter feedback should be priced lower in the tiers, but this is unclear.

We aim to update our sticker and mug merch this year to better reflect our journal aesthetics. We would also love to start a merch store but will need a marketer to arrive to find the time to set it up.

Thanks to our wonderful supporters, our journal continues to steadily grow. We are now around 75% funded for our current operational level. When we reach our next goal (about $200/month) we will be able to once again expand the journal. Our current thoughts are to move the poetry payment up to $25 and grant fiction writers a limit of 4,000. Before 2030 Aimer still wants to move to a quarterly publication schedule, but we will need to grow a little larger yet before that happens.