Mid-August 2026

Moved to West Virginia, Morgantown on July 14th. Pursuing my PhD in Social Work. Volunteering at local shelter biweekly. Work on OTR had to take a back seat while getting settled in.

Infrastructure overhaul: Caard no longer functioned for what I needed. I felt I had deep lack of control and ability in functionality. I considered Ghost, but decided on Netlify instead. This is a static website with minimal backend needs. Saves me roughly $96 a year compared to Ghost-money I can throw into marketing or hardware instead.

Logo redesign: Rebuilt the logo from scratch. The original was hand-drawn then poorly traced in Photoshop. I dropped my Adobe subscription and moved to Photopea and GIMP. The new logo features an orichalcum tower inside a protective pink shield with texture. I'll continue tweaking it.

Marketing impact: Changed how I marketed the lit review for September, which resulted in significantly fewer submissions. No AI-generated visual submissions this cycle, compared to several in April-a positive shift.

Financial goals: My budget for OTR in 2027 is $400, including hosting costs through Porkbun. This money goes to marketing and necessary subscriptions. Since launch, I've made $35 in Itch.io tip donations. The goal isn't revenue. The goal is publishing cool fantasy work I can read instead of bland academic writing by Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck.

Upcoming theme: December issue will be themed around "Deserts."

Expansion plans: OTR will expand to provide writing tips and feedback. As I work on my own fantasy novel, I eventually plan to create a micro-publication press through OTR. This isn't on the agenda for the next 2-3 years.

Early May 2026

The April launch was a struggle. I had to reupload the issue multiple times after forgetting to include certain pieces of accepted work. We finally got it done, but I need a much more streamlined process.

Infrastructure changes: I cancelled auto-renew on Caard and am moving to Ghost in July or August. I'm opening up a June Micro Issue (accepting 4 new pieces, plus 1 already accepted) to help me develop and test infrastructure prior to the move.

Expansion plans: I want to expand advertising and may start a $100/month marketing campaign. OTR should have better reach and more people submitting work.

Timeline: Move to WV is confirmed for July 14th. I'll begin accepting pieces for the September issue in June. I'm planning a two-week block from July 13–27 where I won't actively engage with submissions.

Community outreach: I want to reach out to community colleges and universities near me. I can create flyers with QR codes and put them up around campus.

Future projects: Newsletter system will start in September, after the new website and September issue go live. I'm also exploring launching an OTR podcast in September, where I interview people who submit work and possibly other editors in chief.

Publishing format: There will not be a physical release of OTR issues.

Note: I'm surprised this is working as well as it is.

Mid-March 2026

I accepted 18 pieces for the April Issue out of 187 submissions. That means an acceptance rate of 9.63%, which is significantly lower than the December edition.

Cover art: I finished the cover design. I had accepted a cover from someone, but they didn't respond to my email. So I picked one from Unsplash instead.

Observations: The amount of AI-generated submissions I receive in the form of visual art is baffling. I need to reach out to other journals and see if they're dealing with this as well.

Infrastructure: Because I'm moving to West Virginia for my PhD in July, there will be delays on responses to submissions for the September issue. I need a better website besides Caard.

Late February 2026

Submission trends: So far for the April Issue, I have an 18% (ish) acceptance rate. I've received a lot more submissions than the December edition. Emailing local community college professors and English Departments in Michigan didn't result in submissions from Michigan-based students as I'd hoped.

Platform issues: Caard continues to be a giant pain. I'm very likely moving to Ghost in May, with the transition happening in early August. I'll rebuild the website for better UI control.

Submission systems: I'm considering moving to either Duotrope or Submittable for the September or December 2026 issue. I like the idea of a more formalized system for authors and artists, but I also like the email system. Still thinking about it.

Engagement: I want to create a newsletter system, likely starting as a Google Form. I'd like to do a biweekly newsletter. I also like the idea of having people involved not just as content readers, but as people who want to be credited as co-editors for different parts of the magazine's design.

Mid-December 2025

Oops: I accidentally deleted the submissions page yesterday. I rewrote it, but realized I had entirely forgotten to add author and artist rights. So I created a terms page.

Awards and payments: I'm thinking about adding "best poem," "micro-fiction," and "visual art" awards with a $20 payment and honorary mention in the issue.

Submission models: I might start a rolling submissions model. I like the idea of accepting 25 pieces per issue to stay selective. I may or may not come up with a blind submission model for September-it would be cool to design and execute one, even just to try.

Cross-promotion: Considering reaching out to other indie lit mags to see if we can do a cross-promotional event. Not sure what that would look like yet. Baby steps.

Branding: I applied for an ISSN for OTR. I added the CLMP and Chill Subs logos onto the main page-I reviewed other literature reviews and liked the professional aspect of having these logos.

Accessibility: Still debating how accessible I want to make myself to people who email and reach out.

December 2025 Issue Updates

Author bios: Now must be 2–3 sentences and under 120 words. I had difficulty formatting author bios into Photoshop page templates. I'll start enforcing this and requesting revisions if bios don't meet requirements.

Cover art payment: Instead of using Unsplash, I'll start offering payment for cover art. Starting in the April issue, I'll provide a $40 payment as an award for a cover artist.

Graphical art requirements: Because we're a digital publication, we don't need 300 DPI. I'll change this accordingly.

Poetry formatting: For poetry that goes beyond what I can fit on a page, I'll communicate with the author about how they want me to format it. Ideally, I'll set guidelines in submissions, but I haven't entirely decided what that will look like.

Prose limits: I may impose a character limit. Keeping it under 1,000 words is mandatory. It was difficult to properly format longer prose on my template.

Word counts: I'll mandate that each poem/prose has a word count attached. This way I can include word counts with pieces in upcoming issues.

Age limits: Authors will continue to be required to be 18 years old to submit. I like that and it saves me headaches.

Page limits: Keeping a page limit at 30 total for the publication is solid, allowing me to be selective and publish about 25 pieces. I may adjust this on an issue-by-issue basis.

Community: I explored Discord but decided against it. I don't want the additional responsibilities of moderating/administering a Discord server.

Platform: I don't really like the Caard layout and setup. While I'm okay using it for this year, I'll undoubtedly want to upgrade to WordPress or Ghost.