On Music Publications, Initiative, and Creating Your Own Channel

Usually when I share markets in this column, I find a few in a specific category that are open to freelance writers—that is, they have rather expansive and detailed instructions on how to submit.

- ROBERT LEE BREWER

However, the music category is one that requires an extra amount of hustle and initiative—not only for writers but also for the musicians themselves. That becomes obvious when reading through the contact information for the several music publications covering the music industry today, and it reminds me of how I got started in publishing so very long ago.

I've been with Writer’s Digest for more than 25 years, but I actually got my start in publishing more than 30 years ago as a teenager in an unlikely place—a local “all ages” show in Dayton, Ohio. The headliner was a band named Brainiac at a club downtown that had a stage and a little record store filled with CDs, 45s, and these little publications called fanzines (many of them just 8" x 11" pieces of paper folded in half). The show was great, but those fanzines blew my creative mind, and it wasn't long before I was publishing my own fanzine (titled Faulty Mindbomb). It was a mix of poetry, fiction, art, music reviews, and interviews.

In the beginning, I reached out to local bands to ask for interviews, but it only took a couple months before the local bands were reaching out to me. Another month and regional bands were reaching out—and other publishers from other states. For a 16-year-old kid without a driver's license yet, it was pretty heady stuff (including the time a college band actually picked me up—because I couldn't drive—to take me to their show). However, I don't believe the biggest gift I received during this moment of my life was free albums, magazines, or even mix tapes; it was learning how hard so many people were willing to work to continue doing what they love.