- 1). Decide on a theme for your magazine. It could be about anything: dogs, movies, fashion, poetry you write, even your family's activities such as vacations or school events. You want it to be unified under a single idea, but otherwise, the limits are only what you wish to write about.
- 2). Determine how many articles you want to write and how many pages they will fill. Many magazines are based in 16-page sections, but if you're self-publishing, you can make the magazine, sections and articles as long or as short as you like. Font sizes plays a key role in whether a given article fills up a page or not. You can use a large font and write only 300 words per page or you can use a much smaller font that will give you 1,000 words per page. As you go on, you'll figure out how many articles work for your comfort space.
- 3). Write the articles for your magazine or assign them to enthusiastic writers to generate for you. Take pictures to accompany the articles if it's appropriate to do so, or download images from the Internet. If you're artistically inclined, you can make sketches or drawings instead of photographs. Write your articles using software such as Microsoft Word to make it easy to transfer articles to the layout.
- 4). Prepare a template for your magazine using a software program like InDesign or QuarkExpress. The template should contain blank pages for your layout, including columns for the text and spaces for the pictures as needed. Each page should have a certain amount of white space around the borders where no content should go, as well as a little white space between the columns. (1/4 inch around the boarders works well, and 1/8 of an inch between the columns.) Put page numbers in the lower outer corner of each page and maybe the title of the magazine and an issue number in the upper outer corner. Be sure to set the first page aside for the cover and to include one or two pages for a table of contents immediately thereafter. If you're ambitious enough to sell ad space, set aside a number of pages for the ads you have sold.
- 5). Lay your magazine out in the template you have built. Articles should fill a set number of pages exactly---don't leave any white space on the page when the text runs out---and ads should be interspersed throughout the magazine rather than bunched into a few pages. Use the cover to mention the various articles inside the magazine and fill in the titles and page numbers on the table of contents when you're done.
- 6). Print out your magazine, page by page, and bind it together. Use both sides of each page for content; it you're really ambitious, use long paper and print out two pages on each side of the paper, then fold the paper in half and staple it in the middle to make your completed magazine. Otherwise, you can simply staple the individual pages together on the left-hand side, or you can use a binder to hold them together.
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