Our Plans Going Forward

From the Editor's Desk

Pulp, Pipe, & Poetry Magazine (P3 as I call it…not sure if it will catch on) is approaching its three-month anniversary shortly. With nearly 400 subscribers, including twelve paid subscribers (and one at the Founder level - shoutout to Dani P!), the Partners and I have much to be grateful for.

To each one of our readers, I wish to say “Thank You!” I believe we are at the beginning of a new movement that seeks to honor the giants that came before us, but also looking to carve out something fresh and new.

This is why we are looking to make improvements and build upon the strong foundation that our readers have helped us build.

Without further ado, please read our plan below.

What We Are Building

Change in Schedule

We are now publishing two stories a week with one “variety piece” (film reviews, playlists, poetry, tobacco recommendations, etc.) on Wednesdays. The first story (published on Mondays) will be available to all readers. Friday’s story slot, however, will be for paid readers only.

Paid readers can expect an original short story every Friday. Starting today!

In addition to what P3 is producing this year, I’ve highlighted some of our plans for 2024 and beyond.

Physical Media

My original proposal for the magazine, when I presented it to the Partners back in late Spring of 2023, was to produce a printed issue alongside our digital publication here on Substack. The goal was to ship a physical magazine in the Fall of 2023, the first of a quarterly printing. Circumstances being what they are, we decided to table the project for 2024 due to the tight turnaround, cost, and production timeline.

However, having a physical product is currently sitting high on my list of priorities. We are still in talks of publishing a quarterly print edition, as well as other books, anthologies, and other physical media under a P3 Imprint, original fiction, poetry, essays, and cultural articles published exclusively for the print issue.

2024 will be the first step in planting an offline presence while we continue to publish quality fiction online.

Vocal Vistas and Aural Oddities

As a writer, I have a deep respect for the written word. With that being said, I am often in awe of the spoken word. The cadence, rhythm, flow, and sound of the human voice, specifically for one who occupies the title of “Narrator” or “Storyteller“, I find to be sweet as candy. Having recently picked up a collection of audiobooks and procured a YouTube watch list of classic radio dramas, I’ve come to appreciate a variety of unique voices such as Orson Welles, Roscoe Lee Brown, Harlan Ellison, Christopher Lee, and many, many more.

All this to say, P3 has recently made investments in building out a series of recorded dramatic readings based on our body of work. Today, many of our current recordings are produced (and narrated) by myself, but I would love to invest in a small band of freelance voice actors and engineers to help enrich the listening experience. The scope of this project is in the infant stage of full development, but my vision for a compendium of vocal vistas and aural oddities stands in my list of “Wants for P3”.

Boys Fiction

If you ask the Partners which authors made a significant impact on their reading habits thereby stoking the flames of love for the written word, you would hear the following names: Jules Verne, H. Rider Haggard, Robert Louis Stevenson, G.A. Henty, Ian Fleming, Robert E Howard, Mickey Spillane, John D. McDonald, Louis L’Amour, Max Brand, along with several others. These writers wrote stories of high-octane action and pulse-pounding thrilling tales that drove many men and young boys flocking to the spinner racks and bookstores.

We at P3 want to reinvigorate young male readership and pen stories of pulpy goodness; tales of high adventure in faraway places inspired by Haggard and Stevenson, lost worlds uncovered (and revisited) inspired by Edgar Rice Burroughs, blood-pumping thrillers stories like L’Amour and much more. We wish to tell stories that will excite, entertain, and set the male spirit ablaze.

In addition to what we are already doing, our future plans include developing the next generation of readers as well by supplying young boys with fresh new sagas of heroic, aspirational figures that have long since appeared in old fables, myths, and legends.

In 2021, Deloitte published a study on the widening gender gap between boys and girls. The results are interesting, if not distressing not just because I am a writer of fiction but because I am the father of my one-year-old son and uncle to two young nephews.

We will look to invest in a separate product line of physical books and media for younger readers. It is our hope to help close the gap and contribute to the canon of fiction.

You Can Help Us

Our goals may seem ambitious and grand to many of you. Yet, I am truly inspired not just because I am working with some of the best practitioners of the storytelling craft I know, but also because so many wonderful readers support our young publication. Whether it’s comments or monthly or yearly subscriptions, I am pleased to know that many readers love and support what we are doing.

That is why I am writing to you.

To help build out our full Imprint and keep P3 going, I am inviting readers of this letter, wherever this may find you, to support our publication by being a paid subscriber of the magazine.

The money from our paid readership will be used to directly finance our plans for 2024 and beyond, including everything I have stated above.

Below is a special 20% discount offer for readers who sign up for a paid annual subscription. If my words resonate with you, if you believe in our mission to produce quality stories, poems, and more, then you can join the P3 community by following the Editor’s Special link below.

We at Pulp, Pipe, & Poetry Magazine are building not just a catalog of fiction, but also a movement for readers. If you’ve been searching for fast-paced escapist fiction, imaginative stories, pulpy prose, wild yarns, or strange tales, you’re in luck.

Subscribe and start reading.