Since the last time I wrote one of these things, Reel Honey officially hit the one-year-old mark. (Right behind Rumi and Sir Carter, it’s my favourite thing to be born in 2017.) I want to start this by thanking all of the writers, visual artists, readers, and financial supporters who helped us get here. The last thirteen or so months have been fun and challenging and bizarre, and I feel extremely lucky to get to do this, even when there are sexist trolls or spambots or Microsoft Word has encountered a problem and needs to close.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll be rolling out some major changes to our site and our branding. The main goal is to make everything more accessible and easier to navigate, but we figured we could also use a glo up while we’re at it. If all goes well, it should be relatively painless to find individual pieces and to search them by author.
We’re also working with contributors to determine where they’d personally like Reel Honey to go next, since we’ve always been more interested in being a valuable space for emerging writers than merely a #content machine. (And, because I still get the odd pitch from new dads who want to write about the joys of parenting, we’ll be cleaning up and clarifying our About and Submit pages.)
In that same spirit, we’ll also be looking to pay contributors a more substantial fee for their work. We’ve made it a priority to pay them at least something since day one – this project was partially founded on the idea that the whole writing-for-free thing deters young writers from pursuing writing full-time – but it’s not by any means commensurate with the involved labour. If you’re a Reel Honey reader and like what we’re doing here, keep your eyes out for the crowdfunding campaign we’ll be launching within the next month.
Before starting this here site, I had no prior experience fielding pitches from writers, creators, PR reps, and so on. And while it’s not exactly my favourite part of the job, there are two aspects of the process I’ve come to genuinely love. The first is simply the range of people who reach out to me, both in terms of where in the world they’re writing me from and how they heard about the site in the first place. (I keep track of this stuff, so please do include it in your emails!)
The second, as I’m sure I’ve previously mentioned, is how differently our issue themes are always interpreted. This time around, “Reinvention” applies as much to writers’ personal lives and careers as it does to the content of the films and series discussed. I was also blown away by the cover art for this issue, generously provided by Enya Bresee. I’m a sucker for flowers, which, in Enya’s words, “symbolize change, growth, and rebirth.”
Otherwise, we’re already set to feature a number of new voices on the site. (And could always use more! If you were looking for a sign to send in a pitch, this is it!) We’ll also be publishing interviews with several accomplished women in media whose insights our readers will surely appreciate. In the meantime, you can keep up with us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, and feel free to email me any thoughts or suggestions regarding the project… unless you’re one of the new dads who wants to write about the joys of parenting. I promise there are other sites out there for you!
Here’s to our toddler years!
Sydney Urbanek
Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Reel Honey
About the cover: Enya Bresee is a fine artist whose works focus on a perspective of personal histories, ephemeral movement and stillness. Interested in creating works representational of social narratives of how moments are created, remain, and stream through life. Folded together with personal anxieties, joys and loss, her work mends moments into an approachable contemplation.