How to print a literary magazine or journal

Most literary magazines we print share a quiet recipe: a compact size close to A5, somewhere between 40 and 120 pages of uncoated paper, a 300gsm matt laminated cover and a glued spine with the title running down it. Shooter, a themed magazine of poetry and short fiction, has come to us with a version of that build across several issues. Below is why it works so well for writing, where you can bend it, and the setup details that stop a poem disappearing into the spine.

Why does uncoated paper suit poetry and prose?

Uncoated paper has no shiny surface, so long passages read without glare under a lamp or on a train, and a page of it handles more like a novel than a brochure. When a reader is spending twenty minutes inside one story, that matters. Shooter Issue 19 ran to 88 pages on a 120gsm uncoated sheet, and the Crafting Visions creative writing collections used 120gsm recycled uncoated for both of their books.

The trade off is imagery. Uncoated stock drinks in more ink, so photographs print softer and darker than they look on screen. If your journal mixes writing with artwork, keep the inside uncoated and give the cover a coated sheet, which is what Shooter does: 300gsm silk outside under a matt laminate, with 120gsm uncoated inside. Ephemera takes a bolder route, pairing a gloss laminated cover with 150gsm uncoated pages. Our free sample pack lets you test both against your own typesetting.

What size works for a literary journal?

A5 (210 x 148mm) is the default for good reasons: it slips into a coat pocket, sits happily beside paperbacks on a bookshop shelf and keeps a line of verse at a comfortable length. Plenty of journals adjust it slightly. Shooter measures 222 x 157mm, a little taller and wider than A5, which gives each poem more white space. Ephemera is smaller at 190 x 127mm, and Cunning Folk, which leans heavily on illustration, opens out to 240 x 170mm.

Should a literary magazine be perfect bound or stapled?

A literary magazine tends to be kept, shelved and lent to friends, which points towards perfect binding. A glued spine lets the issue stand upright in a bookshop and show its name and issue number on the edge, provided the spine is around 5mm or wider. Shooter's 88 uncoated pages produced a 6mm spine, enough for clear lettering. Gluing is on the table from 32 pages, the cover included.

Slim chapbooks and pamphlets are perfectly happy with staples. A stitched journal can carry eight to seventy two pages, provided the total is a multiple of four, it opens flatter for reading aloud at a launch night, and it arrives in 3 working days instead of the 5 a glued spine takes.

How do you stop words vanishing into the spine?

This is the setup detail that catches most first time editors. On a perfect bound magazine the glue grips about 7mm of every page at the spine, so the book will always curve towards the binding as you read. Keep all text at least 12mm clear of the spine edge, and avoid running a spread across the centre unless you can spare roughly 14mm of it to the fold. Poems with long lines feel this most, so widen the inner margin and bring the outer margin in to balance it.

Our perfect binding set up guide shows those margins on a template, and the spine size calculator returns the exact width for any combination of pages and stock, so the cover file fits on the first attempt.

Can an anthology be printed alongside a regular issue?

Yes, and matching them makes the pair feel like a set. When the Crafting Visions team brought us two creative writing collections, one of 40 pages and one of 68, we printed both at A5 on the same recycled uncoated stock with matching matt laminated covers. Universities and writing groups often do the same with a yearly anthology beside a termly magazine, and sharing one paper and cover finish keeps the family resemblance.

Where can I watch a journal being made?

Three of our video guides follow literary titles: an A5 perfect bound art and literary journal, a short fiction and poetry magazine, and launching a new art, poetry and literary journal.

Once the manuscript is typeset and you want a price, head to our magazine printing page for turnaround, formats and the quote form. To see the classic recipe in the hand, read how we printed Shooter Issue 19, and if this is a brand new title, our walkthrough on launching an indie magazine covers every first issue decision.