For the past two years, maybe a little longer, Sandra of Thistle Cove Farm and I have been casting around for a way to use a terrific name that Sandra came up with, Fiber Femmes. First we thought about a guild, then a calendar, and several other ideas but nothing ever jelled. Early this year we were kicking it around again, with an intention of trying to get a grant, and the idea of an on-line magazine floated in. This rang true, and Sandra has been working hard since on getting together articles and getting the word out of our intention. The response has been wonderful, thanks to all her efforts and marketing skills, and we're well on our way to 'publishing' our first issue on line at Fiber Femmes on July 1, with a July/August issue. My responsibility is to do the computer work to put it on-line and write an occasional article. Sandra has done all the hard work already!
This is the notice that Sandra has been putting out for the last couple of days:
"Fiber Femmes e-magazine is a joint venture between two women who share common interests of all things fiber. Each issue, beginning July/Aug 2006, will include women involved in all aspects of fiber, a particular fiber (animal and plant), articles on spinning, knitting, crocheting, weaving, felting, dyeing, pricing goods, festival visits, guilds, shops, fiber in the news, photo contest, book reviews, calendar of events and an Enhance Your Stash Marketplace.
July/Aug 06 issue includes a feature on a Fiber Femme involved in the fiber industry for more than 3 decades and articles from experts in the areas of: spinning cat hair for a shawl, intro to needle felting, pricing handspun yarn, fiber festival tips, a Femmes First Fiber Festival, Fiber Focus, Spinning History and MORE!
Fiber Femme Firsts - please send photos of your first hand dyed projects and we'll include them in our first issue; deadline June 15, 2006.
Potential readership stands at 1,025,507 and growing; if you'd like to be part of this exciting new (ad)venture, please contact us ASAP. We're looking for Fiber Femme writers, photographers, advertisers. First issue contributors receive FREE business card ads in Enhance Your Stash Marketplace! Lest you think we've forgotten those Fiber Fellows...send in recommendations for same.
Sandra Bennett & Leslie Shelor
www.fiberfemmes.com/
http://fiberfemmes.blogspot.com/"
The main question that we've been asked is "How do you subscribe?" You don't have to, when the issue is up on July 1, simply go to http://www.fiberfemmes.com, and read everything for free! We're hoping to pay expenses and pay writers through advertising. Our joint blog, http://fiberfemmes.blogspot.com, will feature updates about our business projects as well as provide a means of putting out notices about the magazine.
If this venture succeeds, and I think it will, it will be mostly because of Sandra's expertise at promotion. Marketing is a field I know very little about, and Sandra has navigated the tricky waters of this area for some time. I'm really looking forward to working with her; we've had a lot of fun already!
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