Best Business Practice: Cooperation not Competition

If you have the first issue of The Polymer Arts, you may have read the back page Muse’s Corner piece written by Marjon Donker and Saskia Veltenaar, the editors of From Polymer to Art. It told the story of how we e-meet and why we decided to work together, not compete, even though we were all producing polymer clay magazines.

The thing is, I would not have started The Polymer Arts magazine if Marjon and Saskia were producing the same type of magazine I wanted to produce. Nor would I have done so if our other industry magazine, Polymer Cafe was covering the material I wanted to cover. So, when it came down to it, we weren’t at all competing, rather we were complementing each other. The ways things are now, hobbyists and those who just want to play with polymer have Polymer Cafe to look to for basics and fun projects while the more experienced clayer who wants to branch out can look to From Polymer to Art for more advanced projects and articles on issues that interest the polymer fan. For those who look at what they do or aspire to as serious art or are looking to make their craft into an income producing business, they have The Polymer Arts to push and challenge them, make them think, and help them build a better art business. As one of the attendees said during the magazine editor’s panel, we’re now covering the full range for polymer clayers.

Polymer magazine editors after our Q&A panel at Synergy 3. Starting top left and going clockwise, Sage Bray (The Polymer Arts), Anne Huizenga (Polymer Cafe), Saskia & Marjon (From Polymer To Art)

Do we have different philosophies on publishing for this community? Yes, we certainly do but we all have the similar goal of spreading the wonder and improving the work of polymer artists, regardless of their level of work.  We all four talked over the week in Atlanta for this reason. All the editors even came to my Writing for Polymer in Print workshop (get the guidelines from this workshop on The Polymer Arts website)which was fabulous as the attendees got to hear from us all once again. That’s exactly how it should be.

The thing is, my magazine really NEEDS these other magazines. Someone new to the material might be overwhelmed by The Polymer Arts (unless they are really gung-ho and determined, are coming from another art medium, or they got the polymer bug bad from the start!) So yes, if you’re new, you may want to start with one of the other magazines and if you find yourself getting serious and want to push yourself and your art, we’ll be here. Or just give in and get them all. I do! You just can’t have too much polymer information, can you?

If you are interested in writing for a polymer publication, please do consider sending us ideas. Any of the editors here would love to see your ideas. Just help us out and send it to us one at a time. If what you have doesn’t fit my magazine, for example, I’ll pass it on to one of the other gals. The more we share as a community, the better it will be for clayers everywhere.