Magazine open to submissions and investors

Today it is my pleasure to interview John Raab of Suspense Magazine. This magazine is open to submissions and open to investors. For those of you who are writing and/or business minded this interview will be enlightening.

Writing Career Coach: How did you come to start this magazine?

JR: I started the magazine a little over a year ago. It was actually started as a hobby because of the lack of original stories in bookstores. I knew that there were many, many authors out there that I’ve not heard of, but should have. I thought that by starting the magazine, I would be able to find them and then in turn let other people find them. We have had the luxury of being able to interview some of the top authors in the business, to bring more awareness to the magazine.

WCC: That's true. I loved the unique interview with Stephen King last month. You’ve had some big names in your magazine, but you cater to aspiring and published authors. How do you meet the needs of such a range on people?

JR: This is a difficult one, balance in anything is tough. Suspense is a very vague word. I always get the same question when people want to send in a story. “What type of suspense are you looking for?” I’m looking for all types of suspense. Suspense comes in many forms. To be very basic I relate it to this: American Idol is as suspenseful as a James Patterson book. Why? Because both of them leave you on the edge of your seat, waiting to find out what happens next. So to meet these needs, we must first have people understand this basic point. Suspense is anything and everything that leaves you “hanging with anxiety” until the end.

WCC: Who is the target of your magazine?

JR: We target anybody that has a passion and thirst to sit on the edge of their seat. Suspense/Mystery/Thriller all of these genres are the same, with some basic differences, but the same underlying fact, you have anxiety and drama until the end. The difference in each genre is they just take a different road to excite your need for that drama.

WCC: Are you open to submissions? What is the link to your writer’s guidelines?

JR: We are open 24 hours / 7 days a week. We can never have too many submissions. Every type of story has an audience and don’t want to discourage anybody that has a great story and keeps getting rejected because it doesn’t fit that tight hole most magazines are looking for. The only guideline we have is this: 5,000 words or less, unless you write a serial story that can be broken up into parts. Your story has a “suspenseful” feel to it and if you look at the answers above, you will see that we are open to anything!

WCC: Many periodicals are folding but you just launched the print version of your magazine. What made you choose now?

JR: Good question. We decided to start now because you can’t find anything out there like we have. We are launching a print version because a certain audience likes that print version in their hands. We also have a .pdf version and will have a .epub version that can be downloaded into an I Reader device, like Kindle or Sony I reader. We have been told by the largest magazine distributor, and many of the bestselling authors that we have interviewed, that we are original and there is nothing out there like us. If you have this type of product, no matter what it is, there is an audience for it.

WCC: Besides stories and interviews what type of content will you provide?

JR: We are going to have different forms of suspense/thriller/mystery in the magazine. Aside from author interviews and stories, we are going to cover graphic novels, artists, writing features, movies, DVD, reviews, author spotlights, conventions, and websites. I’m sure I left some things out, but I think you get the idea. We are going to try and make this the premiere magazine that covers these topics. I just went to Barnes and Noble the other day and didn’t see one magazine that covers it all. Well, there is now!

WCC: Thank you so much for your time, John. This sounds like an exciting venture and I hope my readers will go to your website to check out more.

JR: My pleasure. Thanks for having me.

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John Raab is the editor of Suspense Magazine. He has been an accountant for 19 years and a general manager in the staffing field for the past 5. He has started up two staffing businesses in the past 5 years, one of them sold, working at number two. This magazine is my next project.

To potential investors, John says: Like any business we are looking for investors to help us take this magazine to the next level. www.suspensemagazine.com is how you can find us and you can contact me at editor@suspensemagazine.com We have just setup two partnerships that will allow us to sell on Amazon.com and be listed on 5 of the top magazine selling websites. We will also have our .epub version available to download into an I reader. You can also find us on myspace, facebook and twitter.

To potential writers this means and opportunity for growth and exposure if you write in the Suspense genre. Go to www.suspensemagazine.com to find out about subscription information and writer’s guidelines.

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Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at www.WritingCareerCoach.com
Learn more about Tiffany's Marketing techniques on her main blog.
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Read Tiffany's award winning manuscript "A Face in the Shadow" on her fiction blog.
She writes a blog for the Christian writer Tuesdays at Writer's Rest.