Some people have asked what’s taking so long to publish the first issue. We’ve had enough content to fill an issue for months, so my vague answer has always been “business stuff”. To be more specific, we need money to print, advertisers to get the money, subscribers to get advertisers, and we need to print to get subscribers.

Because advertisers only pay out after the issue has been printed, even if we sort out all of the above there’s still the small matter of finding enough money to pay for the first print, a more than modest sum. We looked at Canadian and Ontario grants for art projects, but none of them fit what we’re doing. There are several grants for publications, but they all require that the publication already printed at least three issues. Grants are available for existing publications that wants to expand, but none for start-up Canadian magazines, at least as far as I can find.

We’re going to keep looking for other sources of funding, and if we secure any we’ll be able to print enough issues that our distributor will be able to distribute Squid & Ink into Chapters and Barnes & Noble. Meanwhile, we've figured out a way to print without external funding. That will just mean that there will be a limited number of copies available of the first issue, and you’ll only be able to order it from our website. To that end, subscriptions and pre-orders will be available soon.

We’ve also set up an RSS, by reader request, here so you can use your favourite news reader to stay informed and be the first to order an issue.