We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Richard Gilbert-Cross a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Richard, thanks for joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.
Starting Sideways poetry magazine, I was terrified of failure. What if people wouldn’t submit to the site? What if we received negative feedback?
I had to learn to make friends with failure – and fast. If the idea didn’t come off, so what?
The best lesson I’ve learned is just to make a start. Lessons will be learned along the way.
I hope that the magazine’s poetry has given people many hours of enjoyment.
Richard, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Hello, I’m Richard from Sideways poetry magazine. I run the magazine with my pal Richy. Our aim is very simple: we aim to deliver free-to-read poetry to people who may not have the resources to pay for the privilege.
We also resolve to publish at least one debut poet per issue. Eventually, we would love to enhance this number. As we publish most new poets who submit to us, we may need to find a new way of attracting their submissions.
I may undertake everything from editing to cover design & website maintenance, but the issues are built by our contributors.
Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
Not at all. We can only do our best based on the knowledge we have at the time.
That being said, being listed on Duotrope was a huge turning point for the magazine!
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
I’m especially keen to answer this one as creating Sideways was completely free of charge! I was privileged enough to own a laptop (a tiny Chromebook) from which I created and posted the initial website, magazine draft and advert for submissions.
The first request for submissions was on Gumtree. We received hardly any responses besides some erotic fiction, a 212-page book of nature poetry and an essay detailing disturbed fantasies.
Nowadays, expenses extend to the domain name and website hosting, both of which cost around £75 per year. As we do not advertise or sell things, the funding is provided by myself.
No matter how much these costs increase, the magazine will always be free.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sidewayspoetry.com
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sideways-poetry-magazine
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/sidewayspoetry