New website — and maybe print?
Hello, Snipette readers,
We’re very, very excited to announce that we have taken the next step on our journey: Snipette now has its own website!
That’s right — you can now also read our articles by visiting www.snipettemag.com. Of course, Medium was our first home, so we’ll continue publishing there, too. The website is still in beta, so if you find any errors or bugs, please report them to snipettemag@gmail.com.
You probably have some questions, which we’ve tried to cover below, but don’t hesitate to reach out if there’s anything else that we haven’t answered. And then, scroll on, ‘cos we’ve got more news for you below!
About the website
Q. Why a separate website?
A. While Medium is great, and was an amazing place for us to get started, we realised it was restricting some of the bigger plans we had for Snipette’s future (and present). For example, there’s no way to have extra formatting in Letters, and sometimes their system changes without warning and we have to quickly update our scripts and strategies to match.
Our new platform, Ghost, is self-hosted so it allows for a lot more customisation. It’s also programmable, which means we can automate things like social-media posts and the Weekly Email, leaving us free to focus on more productive things.
Q. So are you abandoning Medium?
A. No. We realise a lot of our readers and authors are committed to Medium, and often active participants in the Medium community. So we’ll continue to publish our pieces on Medium as well as the new website, at least for some time to come. The website is geared mainly towards non-Medium users, as well as for more customisable presentation.
This will also let our authors benefit from Medium features like the Partner Programme.
Q. Where should I submit my article?
A. Article submissions are still through Medium, for now. Since we have admin access to our new website and not to Medium, it’s easier for us to copy over pieces to the former once they’ve been prepared.
Q. Can I subscribe to Snipette outside Medium?
A. Yes, you can subscribe to our Weekly Email or via RSS feeds and social media, as described on this page. We’ll integrate this into our new website presently, so stay tuned for updates!
Q. What if I don’t want to have my articles published outside Medium?
A. We recommend putting your articles out on the new website for higher readership. However, if that’s not what you want, we’re open to keeping your piece on Medium and just linking to it from the new website. Let us know and we’ll figure something out.
And now, some other housekeeping…
Donations
We’ve consciously chosen to have Snipette articles be accessible to all, which means our authors and editors don’t get any compensation for work. We also now need money to pay our website fees, and host other tools we may plan to develop.
To help fund all this, we’ve created an account on Liberapay, for people to pledge periodic donations. If you like our articles and have a few bucks to spare, we’d appreciate it if you pitched in.
If you’re a paying Medium Member, then simply clapping or commenting on our pieces brings us money as well.
A print edition, perhaps?
Would you like a print edition of Snipette? Maybe you feel you’re spending too much time on the screen, or feel more comfortable reading paper pages, or just want something to hold in your hand.
Our new website runs Ghost which lets us automate a lot of the publication process — which means we could easily bring out a print version too!
We’re currently planning an experimental print run — but first we want to know what kind of magazine you would like. So we’ve put together a small survey, which we hope you’ll take a few minutes to fill.
When the results come in, we’ll start work on the magazine. Your feedback will help us tailor it the way our readers like it.
Now that you’ve read our updates, what’ll you do next? Visit the website? Send in donations? Take the survey? Or maybe all three‽
Whatever it is, thank you for sticking with us. We hope you’ll have fun as you join us on the next stage of our journey. See you online!
— Manasa and Badri, editors at Snipette
