As someone who reads for escapism, I often imagine instead of act. I also often prefer fiction over reality. But you know what? Sometimes reality can be freaking cool, especially when you finally set out to create something meaningful. On that note, I’m happy to share some incredible news: over a month since we released the very first issue of Stay Bookish Zine, we’ve now hit 400 followers on Twitter and almost 2,000 reads since the debut of our magazine on Issuu!
Read the Stay Bookish Zine Spring 2017 issue
Although I’m astonished by the statistics, they’re not why I consider our zine’s debut a success. It’s a success because it’s finally a concrete output from the collaboration of many bookish, creative minds and it’s a success because it’s simply out there in the wild of the world wide web, being read by people who love books. It’s transcended from being just a concept and a dream to becoming a real-life resource for fans of YA books and an anthology depicting inspiring members of our community.
Of course, this hasn’t been an easy feat. First of all, it took two years for me to finally gain enough willpower to make an idea I had ages ago come to life. Yes, I wish I’d done it earlier but I think maybe there’s such a thing as right timing and 2017 was the year for this magazine to manifest.
Second, the amazing team I managed to gather only had two months to develop the first issue so we could publish at the start (the equinox really) of the upcoming season. On top of collaborating to create our content, we also had to figure out our brand and logo. I’m really glad to have Shannelle as one of our designers. She’s so talented at hand lettering and also has great knowledge about branding and design. On the right is a quick sneak peek of her sketch for our logo’s blueprint.
But there’s so much more to this zine than just its design, although I’m seriously grateful for our design team, Jamie, Selena, Bella & our photography team, Josephine, Nihaad, Erica, Keanna, Tiffany for making our first issue so wonderful to look at. At its heart, Stay Bookish Zine is about falling for YA and its many depths and hues. My writer and editorial team put together the most informative, thoughtful, and interesting articles so I need to thank each one of them: Marie, Sophia, Sophie, Pamela, Meia, Shelly, Lauren, Shanti, JM, Inah, KB, Angelica, Stacy, Emily!
There are a lot more bloggers and YA lovers behind the scenes who contributed ideas. I hope you’ll all see their work in our upcoming issues. We also already have some new staff on board for our second issue, which will be out by June! We’re also extremely grateful for all the amazing authors we got to work with this Spring and are excited to keep collaborating with new authors as Summer arrives.
Finally, we wanna thank all those who read our first issue and have sent us so much love since then. This magazine is for you. And with that, we’ll be giving away copies of some of the books we featured in our first issue (including The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli and The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas) as well as a preorder of any upcoming 2017 YA book!
P.S. Whether you’re entering the giveaway above or not, please help us by giving feedback on the first issue in the comments below. Do mention what you think of the following: News Articles, Opinions Article, Feature Articles, Lifestyle Articles, Design, Photography. We’d love to know your favorite sections/pages and what you want to see more of!
P.P.S. Our website recently got a makeover to match the zine! However, the design is not yet final and we still plan on adding other changes. Please do bear with us.
25 Responses
*fist pumps because hooray for putting things out into the world*
I love the popular – underrated books part! Congrats on this, Hazel!
We were really happy to share books that we think need more attention. Thank you, Mish!
AHHH I LOVE IT! i’ve known for a while that stay bookish have an e-zine, but when i snoop around i couldn’t find a link to read it, so i had to admit that this is my first time reading it. but as i said at the beginning, i really LOVED your zine! i love how diverse the content is, there’s serious discussion and in-depth review, but there’s also some chill content like bookish news, tag and playlist <3 i loved how it discussed topic that rarely thought about, like the beginning of ya and whether writing in english is inclusive or not. i also totally fall in love with the graphics and photos used! overall it's perfect for me, so keep up the amazing work <3 <3 <3
I’m so thrilled to see this little e-zine growing and being so well received into the community, I also feel so honoured to be in your thank-you’s part, Hazel! <3 It was and will be a pleasure to keep on working with you and all the team on this zine!
I'm part of it so I obviously love every single category and I can't choose my favorites – I do love all of the authors interviews though <3
Also YOUR NEW DESIGN is so stunning, I think I am in love. <3
I’m so proud to have been a part of this beautiful zine with you and everyone!
I really love the layout of the page and all the info!
I love the whole magazine, from the layout to the pictures to the features! My favorite part is probably the popular to underrated books section because it’s a great way to find new reads based on books I love. So excited to read even more future issues.
Just finished reading your zine! It’s fantastic, and everything I’m looking for as a bookworm. Thank you so much for being so inspirational!!!
I love love LOVE the fact that you’ve incorporated two different parts of publishing into one! Books *AND* magazines! Just finished reading the zine and loved everything about it–design, photography, articles, you name it! And the Spotify playlist? GENIUS! Congrats and I’m so looking forward to the next issue!
When I first saw the zine I just couldn’t help but be in so much awe of how aesthetically pleasing it is. I looove everything about the design, layout, and the photos!! I enjoyed reading the interview with Becky Albertalli because I LOVED Simon & was really looking forward to The Upside. I also really liked the lifestyle article about Books + France and I thought the books representing the four elements was a clever idea. I will definitely be on the lookout for the upcoming issues <3 <3
I am so thrilled and happy to be part of the team for June’s magazine!!! I absolutely LOVED this issue and I am so excited for to be participating in the giveaway. I love the article about Represent Issue is YA, because I found it was so interesting and relatable!!! I think the if you liked this book, then you’ll love section was also enjoyable.
Oh my… this is amazing! Are you still looking for contributors? I’d love to help out. Also, is there any way to get a printed edition?
I’m so glad I’m part of this team! Thanks for all the work you’ve put in, Hazel! <3 <3
Wow! Congrats on your first issue – I love the design! Gonna read the whole thing tonight :)
Congratulations again, Hazel and team! I really love all your contents and I’m so happy to see talented people from Bookstagram, and Blogging community as part of this zine. You guys are amazing!
Congratulation Hazel! (+ to your wonderful team!)
When you were still looking for contributors, I really really want to sign up but I know that I might not be able to give it full attention because of too much academic stress and work :( Still, looking at the zine’s debut makes me really happy to be part of the community – even as a reader only for now.
Btw, any chance you guys might think of doing print copies? Definitely would love to have my own!
Good luck guys! Looking forward to your next issues!!
Hearts,
Ailla @ Le Bibliophile~
PS.
SO LOVE THE AESTHETIC OF THE ZINE HUHUHU SO MUCH PRETTINESS! <3
Love it! The Magazine was so well done! I enjoyed reading it, there was actually a lot more varied content in it than I expected. The content is really high quality! I love it. Are you looking for more contributions?
Jordon @ Simply Adrift
oh my god i really hope i win, i am total becky albertalli trash
Like I already told you on Twitter, I think the zine is very aesthetically gorgeous—from the layout to the photos. But I think I loved the interview with Becky Albertalli the most (shocker!) and I appreciate the spotlight on books that flew under the radar. Kudos to everyone involved because you can just tell that everyone put so much into this. <3
Congratulations on your magazine! It was such a great a read, and beautiful too with the photographs and clean layout. I really liked seeing what everyone who contributed to the issue is reading, my other favorite parts of the magazine were probably the author interviews and the history of YA, I thought it was really interesting to see it broken down into eras and what was most popular in each time period.
Your magazine is amazing! Ah, I don’t know how to describe it, I just love it so much. I hope you can publish it too as I would prefer reading a physical magazine, hehe. I would just like to apologize because I have requested to join in your team but when you sent out emails, I wasn’t able to respond because I was preoccupied with other things too. I really would have liked to be a part of your team but sadly, time can’t permit for me to be, for now. Anyways, congratulations on your successful launch! I pray you more success, God speed! <3 xx
No need to apologize. You are welcome to contribute anytime, lovely! I’m so glad you enjoyed the first issue!
It’s an amazing experience to be part of a great team who works so hard to do this despite some of life’s struggles. Thanks again for coming up with this, Hazel, without you, none of this would have happened.
I LOVED IT ♥ As simple as that. From the design, to the sections. From the gorgeous photos, to the way every single page is written: with passion and true love for books. I’m not gonna go into details for every single section, because they are ALL perfect. But I will say YA is a genre still new for me, so reading this magazine is more than perfect to get to know it and read the best of it :)
I absolutely adored the chat with Becky Albertalli. I enjoyed her first book, and I’m really looking forward to reading The Upside of Unrequited * fingers crossed to win the giveaway, because I also need THUG *. I have the feeling that Molly is going to be a very relatable character for me ;)
And no need to say the “If you liked this popular book, try this underrated book” section is great! I’ll definitely give a chance to many of your recommendations, specially the one for Anna and the French Kiss – I loved it, and I’ve been looking for a read like that ever since I finished it :)
Great job, everybody! And I don’t know if I’m the first one, but here you’ll have a loyal reader from South America! I don’t need to think about this twice: I’m in! Ready to start this fantastic journey through awesome recommendations, interviews, YA and more!