Last week I took a trip to Soho's Sketch Book Pop-Up Store to hear Amelia's Anthology founder and editor Ameilia Gregory tell the tale of her now internet based magazine.
Her 10 year = 10 issue journey in a nutshell:
Each year the number of issues went up by 1,000 issues. Ie. 1,000 copies were made of the first issue. 2,000 of the second etc etc.
Each year it cost her the number of issues printed. 3,000 issues cost her £3,000 etc.
She always made enough money to pay her dues and create the next but never any to be frivolous with.
With each issue she tried to add an extra/innovative element. Issue 9 saw her release a supplementary memory stick with a variety of music tunes. Along with the £9000 it cost her to print the 9000 issues she forked out another £15,000 for the memory sticks.
She became tired of seeking out advertisers and hence on of the reasons the printed version ceased to exist.
She is still paying off debts.
It's always enlightening to hear the trajectory of others who share a similar passion; however, because Gregory's ideals are quite different to mine I did not find her story that inspirational. I would have been willing to sacrifice some of my 'ideals' in order to make the publication a financially viable business. She created a concept which mainstream commercial investors were not too interested in and because she was not willing to compromise her vision she had to sacrfice a more 'successful' future. But kudos to her for not letting the golden $$$ persuade her otherwise!
The Sketch Book Pop-Up store will be around for a couple more weeks with a bounty of interesting talks to come.
The above drawing is just one of the many amazing illustrations by John-Paul Thurlow who is currently exhibiting his works at the Pop-Up Store.
Check Sketch Book's blog for more info!
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