Reasons for the change of format:

As everyone is well aware, the cost of doing anything nowadays is going up and up, and publishing (especially a small, self-funded press like ours) has not escaped the struggles. In the 9 years we’ve been running Firewords, it has never made a profit but we’ve been proud that it’s always been self-sustaining - the sales of each issue covering the cost of printing the next, and so on. However, now that the cost of printing, distribution, storage and myriad other factors are all increasing means that continuing as we have been was not going to be sustainable. The cost benefits of this are twofold: we won’t have a huge print bill to cover each time and we’ll also (hopefully) have some recurring money coming in via the subscriptions.

Though cost is the biggest factor in this decision, it’s not the only one. We’ve been keen to try something different for a while. This new gradual way of publishing Firewords means each piece gets its own moment in the spotlight. Instead of being buried deep in the pages and having to fight for attention (or getting missed completely), they’ll now get all our readers’ attention straight away as they drop into their inboxes.

We’ve always produced Firewords in our spare time, in between our day jobs. Reading all the submissions, selecting the final line up, commissioning all the artwork and putting it all together in one publication is always a bit of a scramble and we never have as much time as we’d like on each of these steps. Going forwards, we’ll have more time to focus on getting each piece beautifully illustrated and in front of your eyes one by one, rather than all at once with a tight deadline.

Some questions you may have:

Will this mean fewer people will see my work if published?

Actually it could mean more readers than ever before. Our print editions usually had a print run of 500. Our newsletter currently has 3000+ subscribers.

Will there still be compiled issues?
Yes, even though we’re publishing a very small number of stories and poetry at a time, we’re still putting together a complete issue and we’ll compile them all into a digital version of the magazine as before. This will then be available to optionally purchase from our website. Subscribers will get a 50% discount on this or, if they don’t want to subscribe to the newsletter, they can wait and buy the digital version at the end to have all the stories and poems in one place. We will send a complimentary copy to all our contributors.

Will Firewords ever be in print again?

We hope so but cannot say for certain. The team loves holding a final physical version of the magazine in its hands and we do hope to be able to get back there in some form. This could be back to each issue as before, or some kind of anthology of previous digital issues.

Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with any other questions
– Jen & Dan