What is Coilhouse?
Coilhouse is both a blog and a print magazine that focuses on alternative culture. For a complete explanation of what that means to us, please read our Mission Statement. Our blog launched in October ’07, and the first issue was published in August ’08.
How often is the magazine published?
We’re quarterly. Okay, okay: we’re quarterly-ish. Our ambition is to publish more frequently in the future.
Is it possible to subscribe?
Unfortunately, not at this time. In order to offer you a good subscription deal, we need to obtain a Periodical Permit from the United States Postal Service. Having this permit will enable us to mail the magazine inexpensively, thus giving us the opportunity to offer an affordable subscription rate. However, applying for this permit is a costly, rigorous process that’s currently outside the scope of what our small staff can handle. Offering subscriptions is definitely on our agenda, but unfortunately, we don’t see it happening until we’ve published at least 10 issues. We are extremely grateful to everyone who has supported us so far by buying single copies!
Is Coilhouse available in my area?
Coilhouse Magazine is available in Barnes & Noble, Borders, Books-a-Million, Hastings and in select campus bookstores, large newsstands and specialty music/comic/zine shops across the country. We’ve posted a complete list of Borders and Barnes & Noble locations where you can buy Issue 01, as well as a concise list of special stores that carry Coilhouse that we’re aware of.
I want to carry Coilhouse in my shop/art gallery. Is this possible?
If you already deal with a magazine supplier that carries Coilhouse, no problem. If your supplier is Ubiquity, you can order it here for your shop. If, however, you don’t have supplier, unfortunately for the time being we’re not able to make arrangements with shops individually. A lot of incredible stores have contacted us over the past year, and we’re very grateful to all you guys for wanting to distribute Coilhouse. As our staff grows, we’ll be able to accommodate unique shops that don’t have a magazine supplier. Thank you!
Who do I contact if there’s a problem with an order placed on your site?
Please email Gretta, our lovely Shipping Mistress. She’ll sort you out! Please definitely reach out to us if you have not received your magazine within a week if you’re in the states, and 14 days if you’re abroad.
Can I submit to Coilhouse Magazine?
Absolutely. At this moment, we’re most interested in hearing from writers who have ideas for interesting, fully-developed articles and illustrators who are willing to come up with unique custom images. We’re also interested in hearing from other artists of all stripes (photographers, musicians, fashion designers, etc.), but be please warned that due to the high volume of submissions that we receive, we may not be able to respond. Please drop us a line if you’re interested with “Coilhouse Submission” in the title. Give us a brief bio, a short pitch, some links, and include a handful of jpeg attachments if it’s a visual submission. (Please, no PDFs!)
Is there any sort of corporation/financial backer/sugar daddy behind this project?
Nope! Coilhouse is a labor of love, and is published independently by the editors. We do hope that the magazine eventually succeeds as a business, but our primary goal is to create a beautiful art/culture magazine and a genuine online community of strange, smart, creative people.
Once an issue goes out of print, will it ever be available again?
Nope. Once they’re gone, they’re gone. Both Issue 01 and Issue 02 are completely sold out. We’re not going to say that we’ll never reprint, but it’s unlikely. We’d much rather print new stuff! Occasionally, once issues of Coilhouse sell out here, you can still find them in the Australian Wildilocks Shop, but that’s about it.
Is it possible to advertise in Coilhouse Magazine?
It sure is! We have a special program that makes advertising quite affordable for small, indie businesses. Click here for information about our advertising program.
Why don’t you guys cut costs by shipping the magazine via Media Mail?
According to the USPS, magazines are not eligible for Media Mail because they contain advertising.
My photo appeared on your site and I wasn’t credited… BIOTCH!
We are so, so sorry! We always try to research the photographer and be as thorough with the links/credits as possible, but sometimes things slip through the cracks. If you’re the author of the image, please email us and let us know. We’ll work with you to append the appropriate credits and links in the blog post or remove the image if you wish.
How does someone become a guest blogger on Coilhouse?
Some of our guest bloggers are friends of ours, and others are blog readers who were inspired to get more involved. If you’re interested in submitting a post, drop us a line and let us know the topic you want to write about. Please provide samples of your writing style so that you know what to expect. After making several posts, we will be honored to add your picture and bio on our Staff Page as part of our growing family.
Can I submit a link for you guys to blog about?
We’ll be brutally honest: we used to have a submission form, but we got completely, utterly overwhelmed with the deluge of links that we received. We’re positive that there was some good stuff sent to us in the past 6 months that we missed, but somewhere between the between the huge amounts of spam and the completely inappropriate links that were sent to us every day, we somehow lost track of the blog submissions. We’ve removed the submission form for the time being. We hope to restore it when things get a little less hectic around here!
My comment has not appeared on the site. What’s the deal?
Sometimes, comments end up in the spam filter by mistake. We try to check the spam filter once a day and restore any comments that our system marked as spam. Once or twice, we’ve hit “delete” accidentally. Sorry if that was you!
There are, however, some comments that we’ve deleted because one or all the editors felt they were not appropriate – or just lame. Here is an example of a super-lame comment. Mer’s response sums up our very informal moderation policy. We welcome those who disagree with our blog posts, and relish a well-informed, articulate, respectful debate. However, as time goes by, we find ourselves with less and less patience for commentary that’s dismissive and/or inarticulate. That’s what YouTube’s for!
But in general, we’re pretty lenient with the comments. We’ve been very lucky to have an intelligent audience and lots of great discussion on the site. If you posted a comment and it hasn’t appeared, please feel welcome to drop us a line.
Where else can I find you on the web?