The end of Amelia’s – exclusive interview

Amelia’s Magazine has long been a reference point for the independent magazine world.

Founded in 2004, each book-thick issue has been painstakingly put together by a gang of talented interns, illustrators and Amelia herself, to the acclaim of fans around the world. And the latest issue, number 10 (now available to pre-order) is its last.

Though the pop-culture/fashion articles mixed with illustration (and occasional free stickers) have always made its pages distinctive, Amelia’s is probably best known for its cover innovations: scratch and sniff, encrusted with Swarovski crystals (before Harpers Bazaar did it), covered in flock, glow in the dark, printed on metallic foil (before Interview did it)… the last issue’s logo is covered in lime-green glitter, ending a visually striking sequence.

The website will apparently continue, but the print is no more. Though some have blamed the financial situation for its demise, in fact Amelia decided to stop at the beginning of the summer, before the credit crunch really hit. In a Magtastic blogsclusive, she shares stories of ongoing financial hardship, fighting mediocrity and why she always suspected that ten might be enough…

Did you have a particular vision for Amelia’s from the beginning?
Only in so much that I have very much pursued my own vision, without much regard to whether it will be a financial or critical success.

Was it aimed at a particular audience?
No, I’ve never been that way inclined. The magazine is purely based on the things that I like and think should be promoted, in the hope that others will appreciate what I have to say – it seems to have worked!

Why the printing innovations?
Because I am a very tactile person, and since the start I always wanted to produce a magazine that was desirable because it was special. In a sea of mediocrity I wanted to stand out – and I feel that if printing is to survive in its current form then it needs to adapt – information can be easily imparted on the internet but to hold something in your hands should be special. And yes, I think it has been part of my success and also my downfall because it hasn’t been cheap to do.

Was Amelia’s Magazine ever profitable?
No, it has been a total labour of love and I have barely eked a living for five years now, but it has got a lot worse recently – there is a lot more at stake now because my print runs are so much bigger, and because most of the magazines are sold on sale or return I am constantly chasing money that is owed to me to pay my printer, and in some cases I never get it. So my printer is constantly chasing me for money and it’s just too stressful. Plus I now have hardly any advertising, which I never anticipated, but I guess it is the times and I can’t survive without it. So the decision to stop making the magazine is partly financial but also creative – there are so many other things I want to do and I just don’t have the time at the moment, so I want to free up that time to pursue other avenues.

What do you wish you’d known when you began Amelia’s?
That the ability to get advertising revenue has nothing to do with how well your magazine is known or loved. If you don’t have your foot in the advertising world then you are screwed.

Is it possible to make money from publishing your own magazine?
No, probably not unless you are a total workaholic lunatic (I’m not, I have a life) or are willing to compromise your values to make money (again, I’m not)

How much has it cost you to publish Amelia’s?
Oh god, I’ve never added it all up – I dread to think! All I do know is that issue 9 has cost me in the region of £40,000 just to produce, and that’s not including any overheads or salaries. And I still owe money for the production of issue 8…

Is issue 10 a retrospective?
No, it will be like all the rest – I always planned to do 10 magazines and then go out with a bang if I felt like it at that point – which it turns out I do. So the 10 issues should stand as entities on their own – I would rather Amelia’s Magazine was remembered with fondness as a great design magazine of its time than petering slowly out into nothing.

What’s next?
At the moment I have so many ideas churning around that I am not quite sure where to start – I would hate to leave the world of publishing altogether as I love producing something tangible. I am toying with the idea of producing an Amelia’s Annual, sort of based on those annuals that kids used to love, but for adults. It will be a creative, ideas-based publication, and would encompass anything that I am interested in.

However, at the moment I have no idea how I will be able to fund it, and as publishing lead times are so long I may look at a different publishing model based on my reputation – I may only print what people order online before it goes to print, thereby decreasing all the usual risks! (but probably not selling very much either)

I might also start working with illustrators to produce environmentally friendly, high-quality notebooks, or I might work with a music company on the idea of bespoke limited edition USBs like the one that comes free with issue 9. I also want to start work on a book about sustainable communities and ecovillages around the world, which may mean that I do a fair bit of travelling next year and blogging en route. I am not sure how my website would run if that happened because at the moment I have 8 interns helping me to run it and it seems that is barely enough!

So maybe I will downsize everything, I don’t know. I want to start running the sustainable arts camps that I had hoped to start running this year, whereby artists and environmentalists and activists will get a chance to work together on ideas to improve our world.

In the end so much of my time has been taken up with other projects like helping to run Climate Camp at Kingsnorth that I just haven’t been able to get the idea off the ground yet. And I have lots of other ideas but they are all a bit up in the air – I am trying not to do too much as that is my usual default setting and I think I need to chill out a bit! But in the long term, I want to set up a sustainable arts community somewhere in the UK, and I need to learn a lot more about how to do that first…

I am also working much more towards the Climate Rush – and it looks like I might produce a book with illustrators and climate change thinkers (well, it’s an idea anyway!)