Lauren Hancock-Coffey
Happy birthday, Banksia Journal!
I could launch into a treatise on time and our philosophical perception of its passing relative to so many different variables of life … but I’ll limit myself to focussing on Banksia Journal and the huge accomplishments we’ve achieved in such a short time.
Banksia Journal was born at a pretzel stand in Northbridge, outside the Blue Room Theatre. Brittany and I, inspired by the culture of the area, no doubt, bemoaned the minimal professional support for emerging (and established) speculative fiction writers like ourselves. Then: the idea. The excitement. The overwhelming realisation that this was not going to be easy.
What followed was gruelling months of research as we not only worked to make the website, read up on copyright law, planned our finances, and so much more, but also (on my end, at least) worked madly to do academic research on top of it all. You see, I’d chosen to make this my project to get my Masters in Professional Writing and Publishing. The pressure was intense, but looking at where we are now—and seeing how far we can still go—I have to say it’s worth it.
Since December last year (our official launch), Banksia Journal’s accomplished so much. We’ve grown from a team of two to a team of five, with each dedicated member having so many relevant skills; we’ve published (and paid the authors for!) almost a full year’s worth of stories; and we have such a wide and supportive network in the WA creative writing community, the depths of which we’ve only just started to explore.
Thank you to our readers and authors and lurkers and professors and friends and families who believe in our little project. Though life circumstances mean I’m no longer taking an active role in the day-to-day running of Banksia Journal, I still feel like I’m allowed to say that I’m proud of where the team has taken us and I’m excited to see where we’ll end up.
Happy reading, everyone!
Brittany Lee
Perhaps my biggest concern, when we launched Banksia Journal, was that we wouldn’t receive any submissions. Not because no-one wanted to submit; I was worried about people being able to find us.
Still, we launched our website, got the word out where we could (Duotrope and the Submission Grinder listings, posters up around Curtin University, telling everyone in our meagre social networks), and hoped.
I was thrilled when, in January this year, we received our first submission.
Then, we kept getting submissions. We were succeeding!
Success meant more and more emails in my inbox. Of course, we were hoping for this; I still wasn’t quite prepared.
Here, I’d like to apologise to anyone who’s email did not receive a timely response. If you are still waiting, please drop by our contact form and give me a nudge.
Unless you are trying to sell us a “YouTube growth service” or a backpack or something. In which case, please leave me alone.
Of course, as we received more submissions, we soon reached the point of having to turn some. This is perhaps the hardest part of the job.
You see, still being a small, niche journal, only a limited demographic of people find us. And, as far as I can tell, this demographic is invested in their writing. That is, no-one submitting to us is a bad writer; every story has had something to enjoy.
So, I would like to thank everyone who submitted to Banksia Journal this year. And, if your story was rejected, please, please, do not take this to mean it was bad. I encourage you to keep writing, and send something new to us when we reopen submissions next year.
In our effort to get the word out, Lauren and I also set up an Instagram account, and Facebook page before launching Banksia Journal. For a while there, we really tried to keep them running ourselves. But, neither Lauren nor I are really social media people, and this consistently ended up at the bottom of out to do lists.
We decided we needed help. So, we put a call out to the Professional Writing and Publishing students at Curtin, asking for someone to please come and help us manage our social media. It was a delight (and a relief) to hear back from Vinessa, Taya, and Isabel, who now make up our social media management team.
I’m sure anyone following us will agree our social media is much more vibrant and engaging now. For example, look at this recent video the team posted about Planet Books! Thank you so much to Vinessa, Taya, and Isabel for their work.
Now, I would like to talk more about something Lauren mentioned only in parenthesis: “we’ve published (and paid the authors for!) almost a full year’s worth of stories”.
She phrases it as plural, but really, Lauren pays all our authors, out of her own pocket (even when authors receive their payment through me, the funds come from Lauren). Not only that, but she pays for Banksia Journal’s web hosting, domain name, and other miscellaneous expenses besides.
I cannot thank Lauren enough for her contribution to Banksia Journal. Truly, this would not be possible without her.
One of my goals going into next year is to relieve some of this financial burden from Lauren, by finding a way for Banksia Journal to bring in revenue.
We have opened a Redbubble shop, with designs to show off your love of speculative fiction, and support for Banksia Journal. New designs have just been added, by the talented artist (and my sister) Jessica Lee. So, if you’re looking for a new t-shirt, or phone case, or some stickers perhaps (Redbubble offers holographic stickers now), and you want to support new Aussie spec fic publishing, you should definitely check that out.
We have also recently launched a store right here on Banksia Journal. So far, it has a free ebook, and wallpaper pack for you to download. And, just this week, I added our first paid product; an AUD $3.00 wallpaper pack. I hope, in the new year, to add more ebooks, and other digital products for you all to buy, and enjoy.
So please, check out our shop; just four sales of the $3.00 wallpaper pack will pay for one piece of flash fiction.
Though, keep in mind this is new territory for us. So, if you encounter any errors in our shop, please, contact us to report it.
If you would like to know about anything new we add, as well as new stories and blog posts, consider subscribing to our monthly newsletter.
Last, but certainly not least, to everyone reading this post, and to everyone who has read Banksia Journal’s stories this year, thank you.
Lauren Hancock-Coffey is the co-founder and financial manager of Banksia Journal. She’s also a writer and devourer of historical fiction with a speculative twist and an avid fantasy RPG-er with more books and games than sense. She’s a full-time editor with a BA in Linguistics and an MA in Professional Writing and Publishing.
Brittany Lee is the co-founder, and editor of Banksia Journal. She is a writer from Perth, Western Australia, with a BA in Linguistics, and Postgrad Diploma in Journalism. Her work has appeared in AntipodeanSF, Dusty Attic Publishing, and Perth’s Raine Square Story Dispenser. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, knitting, and taking photos of flowers (such as banksias).
You can find her online at brittanyerinlee.com.