Magazine Swap

As a freelance writer, I need all the access to magazines and other publications that I can get. One of my favorite weekend pastimes (and thank God my husband enjoys doing this as well) is to sit in the cafe of my local Barnes & Noble or Borders and flip through a half dozen or so magazines, reading the content, studying the layout and advertising, and generally just trying to glean as much info as I can about the editorial slant of each publication so that I can increase my chances of getting an article accepted.

Of course, there are times when I just have to have a particular magazine, usually because I think I stand a good chance of writing something they'll want to actually publish and thus need at least one issue as a reference point. Occasionally I'll get lucky and find archives of previously published articles online (Pink magazine is a good example), but for the most part, the publishers are a pretty stingy lot and prefer to have readers pay for every single word of their mag. Of course, with an actual hard copy of a magazine, you also get the photographs, the advertisers, the general "look" of a publication -- something that you couldn't get in an online archive anyway, and which an aspiring contributor will need in order to be able to discern that magazine's unique "voice."

I do subscribe to a few magazines that I've found to be useful in my writing and blogging endeavors, specifically Pink, Victoria, Writer's Digest, Poets & Writers, Allure, and Geek Monthly. As part of my Media Bistro membership, I've also been getting Wired and The New Yorker, although those are set to expire very soon, and I don't intend to renew. I'm also thinking of adding Filipinas and The Writer to my slate of subscriptions, but I'm waiting till after B. and I move to a new place before I pull the trigger on those. Yes, I realize that magazines can be very expensive, especially when you have a public library just a couple of miles away.

However, my public library -- God bless it -- is sadly lacking in most of the publications I'm interested in. They do have Writer's Digest, Poets & Writers and The Writer; however, as a writer myself, I think that every working and/or aspiring writer needs to actually own those publications. They're excellent reference materials you'll likely refer to again and again, not just for information but for inspiration as well. (Poets & Writers is especially good for the latter.) Pink, Victoria and Geek Monthly are not among the magazines offered at my library. Pink is an excellent pub for ambitious careerwomen, especially those who own their own business, as it carries lots of great articles on everything from recommended business books to profiles on successful women (from Tyra Banks to Mellody Hobson of Ariel Capital Management). Victoria is a great reference for a blog I have on French-inspired living, and I refer to it often for blog posting ideas as well as home decor and beauty. Geek Monthly is just bloody funny, and any magazine that has Tina Fey on the cover has my vote as a publication of choice. Allure is available at my public library; however, again, it's an excellent source for my blog on French-inspired living, and I use it often as it's packed with useful articles on everything from beauty and fashion to diet and time management, all of which have given me plenty of fodder for blog posts.

For everything else, though, I rely on my weekly trips to the local bookstores as well as my frequent forays to my public library's Magazine Swap.

For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of these in your own library, a magazine swap is basically a shelf or bookcase or even just box in which people throw in magazines that they're no longer interested in reading or keeping. They can then either take other magazines out of the box that others have donated and which they may want to read, or just leave their own for others to pick through and select. Our library's magazine swap is an entire display case, often filled with hundreds of magazines. I've found current issues of Allure, Marie Claire, Forbes, Working Mother, Popular Science, even Essence (in a town with a pathetic lack of African-Americans among its population). I've picked up dozens of copies of Flying and Flight Training for B. (who is currently studying for his pilot's license), many of them of very recent vintage.

Popular donated titles include AARP, Better Homes & Gardens, Cottage Living, Food & Wine, Time, Newsweek, US News & World Report, and lots of Golf. I've also found More, Cosmopolitan, People, US Weekly, OK!, Fortune, Money, Smart Money, National Geographic, Runner's World, Self, Fitness, and even a whole stack of current-year Writer's Digest. I usually try and visit at least twice a week (I work one day a week at the local library, so that helps), and I always find at least a half-dozen magazines to take home. Once I'm done flipping through them and getting the info that I want, I normally return them to the swap and start over again.

This is a great way to not only recycle your magazines (which many would ordinarily just toss anyway, given their relative heft), but to share them with your community. I'm all for supporting the printed word (and thus the companies who make a living off of it), but if you have a bunch of magazines lying around your house that are just taking up space, why not donate them to your library's magazine swap and give it a new life in someone else's hands?

If your town library doesn't have a magazine swap, as if they would start one. Chances are, they'll welcome the chance to engage more with their patrons. Ask the head librarian if you could bring in a box of magazines to jump-start the project. It could simply be a table near the public seating area with a Magazine Swap sign, or even just a box. I'm willing to bet that once word gets around, you'll find that you'll soon need a bigger space to accommodate all the magazines coming in, after which the library can consider getting a bigger display case for it. It benefits everyone, of course, as not only will community members be able to recycle their magazines and share with their neighbors, but the library will benefit from the increase in foot traffic. In addition, it highlights one of the core principles of the public library's mission, that of being the central repository of knowledge and printed materials in the community.