My Newest Project: Scratch Magazine Launches Today

Today I am proud to announce the launch of Scratch magazine, all about the intersection of writing and money.

The Scratch Mission

Very few people or publications speak openly about the economic realities of the publishing business. In our bare-it-all media culture, frank talk about money remains taboo. Writers often lack the context or insight to understand our own industry, even as that industry undergoes massive structural and economic changes. Scratch provides a home for open and sustained discussion of these experiences through high-quality content. Yes, we publish advice for writers—but we also go further, investigating the nuances of writers’ relationships to money, work, and publishing.

Our Free Preview Issue

Today we’re launching a free preview issue that gives you an idea of what we’re all about. Our first official issue will release on January 15, 2014.

For the preview issue, I contributed the following pieces:

Contracts 101: The Grant of Rights clause — advice for writers on negotiating this important clause in a book or magazine contract. If you’re allergic to legalese, here’s the tip sheet, available in a handy PDF download.


The Age of the Algorithm — how book marketing is changing. I also wrote a companion piece on book marketing basics. Both are very useful if you’re planning a book launch.


Along with Manjula Martin, my co-founder, I moderated a roundtable of web editors, to discuss how they make assignments and how they pay writers.


Don’t miss the Letter from the Editors (which further elaborates on our mission), and our Transparency Index, where we disclose the back story of how we launched the magazine.


And there is much more worth reading—including an interview with Jonathan Franzen by Manjula.

Will you subscribe or donate?

If you find Scratch’s content useful, then I hope you’ll subscribe before the first issue releases in January—you’ll get a special rate if you do. Or, if a subscription isn’t for you, but you’d still like to support our mission, then consider a donation.

Also, you can:

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