Madness

Last May when Molly and I were discussing our plans for an online journal, we thought "how can we make a magazine important to Tony Tost's thinking?"

We came up with Testicle: Poems and Theory on Tost's Nutsack.

We thought it would express/construct a (at the least) possible view of what poetry is.

Oh, I'm teasing! We would not limit our journal to just Tost's nutsack, we would explore and contrast it with other nutsacks as well.

Some may find my publishing goals as simply an unambitious offering of (possibly) "good poems." Perhaps if you're not reading or just skimming (which let's be honest, is pretty much the same as not reading so why bother? just to say you saw such and such issue and know what's out there?) that would be a logical conclusion.

Others may expect more than just poems in a literary journal. Some want context and criticism or other genres and visual art.

You got me there. No Tell Motel doesn't offer any of that and won't in the future. Got nothing against any of that -- we just have limited time and resources and we want to do the best possible job with what can do -- which btw, isn't as easy as one may think. Besides, that doesn't really fit with my goals, and yes, one of those goals is to publish "good" poems.

But what are my other goals?

On the screen it's easy for a poet/poem to get lost among tens (or even a hundred) other poets/poems. This encourages skimming and skipping around. Sure, people have different skimming styles. My style is to first click on names of poets I know, then poets I'm familiar with and then unknowns-to-me. I often click on poets with unique sounding names. Sometimes I avoid clicking on poets whose work I've decided I don't much care for. That's a bad thing, I'm limiting myself, building a wall before I even know what I'm blocking off. A lot of online journals' navigation design makes it too easy to disregard and ignore.

So how do I make sure (or do my best job of making sure) each poem I publish is given fair attention AND make it a positive experience for the reader?

How do I offer an in-depth presentation of a poet's work?

How do I encourage readers to make reading/visiting No Tell Motel a regular habit? (What makes blogs so popular?)

How do I both sufficiently honor the poems without overwhelming or turning-off the reader?

I attempt to meet my goals by the following:

Putting the content top-level. Minimizing the amount of clicking one has to do to get to the poems.

Not overwhelming readers (especially new visitors) with too much at once. If a reader decides he/she likes what he/she sees and wants to read more, the achives are just one click away.

Offering readers an intimate introduction to poems, one poet at a time.

Keeping it fresh. I want every visit to be a new experience for the reader.

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I don't profess to not have an ego. If you're reading this blog, you are well aware otherwise. But I try to keep my ego out of No Tell Motel and keep it focused on the poems/poets. The context is what the poet offers and I have no intention of adding or taking aware from that.

There are other publications doing that just fine.