Backferry Consulting 

Affordable problem-solving for small-circulation magazines

Linda Gardiner, PhD

backferry: a highly effective whitewater paddling technique for avoiding dangerous
obstacles and making your way safely downstream in rough water

Consulting work projects

Before moving to France, where I am now a freelance editor and translator, I worked as a magazine management consultant with individual clients in the US and Canada, and with two major organizations that provide technical assistance (and much more) to small-circulation magazines: the Independent Press Association (formerly in San Francisco, now, alas, defunct) and the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses (New York City).

Independent Press Association projects

I wrote or co-wrote several of the IPA’s technical assistance manuals, including

Feeling Fulfilled: List Management and Subscription Fulfillment

From Print to Web: Magazine Publishing on the Internet

Advertising Sales 101

Working with Libraries: Subscriptions, Displays, Events

Some Internet Legal Resources for Magazine Publishers

The USPS and You: Postal Rates and Mailing Options for Small-Circulation Magazines

Council of Literary Magazines and Presses projects

I gave a series of weekend-long workshops in CLMP’s “Literary Journal Institute” series, funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, focusing on subscription management, low-budget circulation development, renewal design and strategy, and web site planning.

I also gave training workshops for magazine interns, funded by the New York State Council on the Arts, covering all aspects of magazine publishing.

I co-developed CLMP’s subscription management template, designed for small-circulation magazines as a low-cost alternative to commercial fulfillment systems.

I contributed extensively to the Publishers’ Toolkit, an on-line technical assistance resource available to CLMP members: for more information visit them at www.clmp.org.