The Perspiring Writer Magazine

Although I’m not a gardener, I write articles for Florida Gardening. I’ve covered memorial gardens, a healing garden, a children’s garden, a reading garden, a secret garden, and others. But enough about me; let’s look at publishing. Florida Gardening editor Kathy Nelson says, “It probably isn't all that interesting from the outside. From the inside it’s exciting, sometimes terrifying.”     

MDC: I assume that before you began this venture you and Wae were gardeners (probably still are).   

KN: Wae was an avid gardener and a member of the Brevard Rare Fruit Council. I gardened in Pennsylvania, but when I moved to Florida, I was a miserable failure, as are many Northern “transplants.” I caught the gardening bug from him.

MDC: What led to publishing Florida Gardening?

KN: Wae had an itch to have his own seed business. In the late 1980s, we started Southern Seeds, selling seeds (mostly open-pollinated) for edibles that do well in hot weather. It soon became obvious that gardeners in Florida needed information even more than they needed seeds. But we both had regular jobs and neither the time nor resources to publish anything larger than a newsletter, which didn’t seem worth the effort. Soon, however, we started seeing magazines published on a small scale using desktop publishing and decided to give it a try. A few weeks after making that decision, Wae was laid off from his defense-industry job in the fall of 1994. We took it as a sign to get serious. We wrote a business plan and found a bank that would lend us money to get started (using our house as collateral). Our first issue came out in the fall of 1995.

MDC: How did you develop a subscriber's list?

KN: We started with the Florida names on the Southern Seeds’ mailing list. That consisted of about 500 people and the minimum amount of magazines we could have printed was 10,000. That meant we had well over 9500 leftover magazines in our garage! We were finding that publishing a magazine is one thing, and marketing is another. Eventually we discovered many plant festivals throughout the state. The first one we did was the Tropical Flower Show in West Palm Beach. We went there with three issues under our belt and not much of a clue about how to catch people’s interest. If you give the magazines away, everybody takes one and many end up in the next trash can. If you try to sell them for the cover price ($4.95), people walk by. The first day of the show we sold only a few subscriptions. Then a friend came up with an idea: give three free magazines to anyone who buys a subscription. That did the trick. We started selling a significant number of subscriptions at every garden festival we did. We also buy mailing lists from other gardening magazines and catalogs, then send out information about our magazine. Many people consider this “junk mail,” but there are few other affordable options for getting the word out. We think it’s part of the American capitalist system.

MDC: And an advertiser’s list?

KN: We were already deeply involved in the horticulture community through our seed business, so we contacted anybody we thought might benefit from having an ad in Florida Gardening. We also keep our eyes and ears open to new businesses that might be interested. Because we are a state-wide publication, local nurseries usually don’t advertise in the magazine, but larger companies and botanical gardens are finding that an ad in Florida Gardening really pays. Truth be told, though, we haven’t worked the advertising side as much as we should. We’ve had our hands full getting a magazine out every other month and dealing with subscriptions, renewals and everything else that running a business requires. We spend a good deal of time answering questions from readers.

MDC: What's the division of labor?

KN: Wae is the publisher and I’m the editor. I work with freelance writers developing ideas for articles, then prepare each issue for layout. I’m also in charge of classified advertising and gathering events for the Calendar. Wae does everything else. He does the layout for the magazine and deals with ads. He keeps the computers and other equipment going (good thing he’s a mechanical engineer). He handles the renewal and marketing bulk mailings. Believe me, sometimes it seems as if we’re more in the mailing business than the publishing business.

MDC: How has the magazine been received?  

KN: We get good feedback from readers. Many times they say we’re the only magazine they read cover to cover. Loyal readers collect as many back issues as possible and search for missing ones. But every magazine has a core readership. We think the fact that our subscriber base didn’t fall off much in the recent economic downturn says a lot. In fact, by the fall of 2009, renewals were higher than ever. Advertising is trickier. We’ve lost some advertisers in the Great Recession, and others have been slow to pay. We’ve tried to be understanding and it has often paid off. As soon as the economy started to turn around, we began to get back payments and thank-you-for-being-patient notes. For the most part, advertisers have tended to stay with us for years on end, so it must pay.

MDC: Is Florida Gardening sold retail?  

KN: Quite a few garden centers and botanical garden gift shops carry it, but since the recent economic downturn, many of them have closed. Florida Gardening is also carried on newsstands throughout the state, in Publix, Walmart, Home Depot, Barnes and Noble, etc. But many of the magazine-distribution companies have gone bankrupt in the last few years, so it is getting harder to find outlets.

MDC: In content, how do you handle Florida’s climate variations?

KN: We divide the state into three distinct areas––North, Central, and South. Of course, nothing is ever quite that simple. Many of the same plants can be grown in all three areas, at least in the summer. A Florida summer, from the Panhandle to the Keys, is just plain hot and muggy. Winter is the season that separates the more-tropical from the more-temperate areas (not counting the unusually brutal winter of 2010!). We do our best to give readers the information they need to be successful gardeners, no matter where they live. And while we encourage them to learn what plants are recommended for their specific areas, we also encourage them to learn about the microclimates in their own yards and to have fun experimenting. We believe that gardening is as much art as science.

MDC: What is a typical week (or so) just before publication?

KN: No picnic! I feed the articles and photos to Wae as fast as I can get them ready, and he works on layout. Then I proof the first rough copy and write the captions and Table of Contents. The proofed pages go back and forth a number of times until we’re satisfied. Then we sit together and work on the cover. Sometimes it goes quickly and easily, and sometimes it’s like pulling teeth. We’ve learned a lot during the last 15 years, but the first few years were really wild. We often worked all night, then had to drive 100 miles north to our pre-press shop in Ormond Beach. If the computer files didn’t work when we got there, we’d drive home and fix them, then drive back. Once our files ran correctly, the pre-press shop would create the color proofs and we would drive back to Ormond to proof them. We were always amazed that we managed to get another issue completed. Nowadays, of course, technology has made things easier. There’s no pre-press and we don’t have to rush to get to Fed Ex. Once the magazine is ready, we simply e-mail it to the printer. But that’s not the end of it. A few days later the printer ships the color proofs to us, they get proofed again, necessary changes are made and we ship them back to the printer. And don’t forget, our business doesn’t come to a standstill while we’re preparing an issue for press. We work lots of extra hours. I need a nap just thinking about it.

MDC: How far in advance do you layout an issue?

KN: We usually don’t do layout until the last minute––which is defined as the last two weeks before press deadline. It takes me that long to prepare all of the articles and Wae is plenty busy with his other duties. When we simply can’t put it off any longer, we settle down and get started. Waiting until the last minute isn’t in my nature, but it’s Wae’s way and it usually works out. Throughout the years we’ve had a few times when we didn’t make our deadline. There were a couple of memorable computer crashes and hurricanes, but the worst was in 2002 when Wae had heart bypass surgery. To this day I can’t tell you how we got that issue out on time, more or less, but we did.

MDC: Do you find time for personal gardening?

KN: NO! I’m exaggerating, but much like the shoemaker’s kids who go barefoot, the magazine takes up so much of our time that our gardening efforts suffer. I work outside almost every day here on our mini-farm, but for a lot less time than I used to. I gave up growing edibles a number of years ago because of the demands of the magazine, but a wildfire in 2008 created some new sunny areas, so I’ve started growing vegetables again. Wae is on the Board of Directors of the Florida Tech Botanical Gardens in Melbourne, plus he goes around the state giving gardening talks. For the last two years he’s been working on a project that concerns climate change. And he helps me around the yard as much as possible. There’s always something to do in a 1-1/2 acre yard.

MDC: What do you look for in submitted articles?  

KN: Our mission is to help Florida gardeners be successful, and success can be measured in many ways. It can mean giving readers the information they need to grow beautiful plants and tasty food, but it can also mean telling them about a neat place to visit or some interesting or fun detail to share with friends. In general, if it’s about gardening in Florida, we will share it with our readers.

MDC: Lastly, if someone has an article idea, should he query first?

KN: Definitely. And be prepared to be patient. Sometimes I have articles scheduled for at least a year in advance.

MDC: Ah, there’s common ground (no pun intended). Gardeners, publishers, and writers must be patient. Thanks, Kathy.

[http://floridagardening.com]