One Research Source

Like many other sectors of the economy, magazines are having a difficult time staying afloat these days, obvious, because they currently send out invitations to subscribe at ridiculously low prices. Not that they get most of their functioning money that way, they don’t. For years I received these offers from a certain “beautiful house” magazine, which I’ve never seen for sale on any store’s magazine racks and never heard anyone speak of. The offers always referred to me as a professional and “of the trade,” meaning the trade of interior design. I’ve no idea how my name got on such a list, as interior design has never been my field of work, though it has been a great interest, and I have subscribed to many such magazines over the years. While the photos may be beautiful or not, the texts of the articles give information a writer can use in creating both fiction and nonfiction.

When I received the latest ad for ordering the magazine referred to above, I decided to do something about it. I wrote a letter saying I’d been on their mailing list for years—erroneously—but that I would be happy to advertise their magazine in my fiction, if they would honor my enclosed check of fifteen dollars for a subscription, the price asked of only professionals of the trade. (The regular price is sky-high.) I added that I wrote suspense and was quite sure most suspense readers did not know the magazine existed. I enclosed a SASE (self-addressed stamped envelope), but had no reply. Then one day, as I was checking my bank account on the computer, I saw that the check had gown through. That meant they had accepted my terms. Better my fifteen dollars than nothing at all, I suppose.

Then my first issue of Veranda arrived in the mail. There’s been no time to read an article, but I will. The magazine appears on a table in my novel-in-progress, but at the present time, no one in the story has picked it up, but my detective has noticed it. After all, a crime is under investigation. But you never know what one of the characters might do. Some guy may leaf through it. I’ll keep my promise. Maybe I’ll send the magazine a copy of the book when it’s published.

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