SUPPORT US

SICK is an independent print magazine that is largely reader-funded. In 2019, we began with £600 and a priority of paying all contributors, remaining ad-free, and increasing our contributor rates over time. We are not interested in selling things to our readers, but rather paying contributors well, maintaining an affordable retail price, and offering a sliding scale. Contributor rates for each issue are dependant on sales from the previous issue, donations, and any other products we produce.

In May of 2023, we received a $5,000 grant from The Kindling Fund, a grant program administered by SPACE as part of the Andy Warhol Foundation For The Visual Arts Regional Regranting Program. This will allow us to increase contributor rates for issue 5, host a launch party, provide free copies to disabled people on low/no income, begin with a larger print run, pay myself, and more.

Please consider supporting us on Patreon! There are three membership tiers available, two of which get you access to an exclusive newsletter from me (Olivia, founder & editor)!

Finances

Our currently monthly maintenance costs are £46 (website hosting, online shop, google suite, canva, bank account). The cost to produce issue 4 (including all contributor fees, design fee, & two print runs totaling 1,025 copies) was £6,322. The majority of money spent on each issue comes directly from sales in our online shop, stockists, and fairs. Issue 4 has produced a profit of £3,534 from 244 online sales across a nine-month period, $1,080 in fair sales, and £2,766 from stockist sales. 

There are many things I am working towards and hope to achieve with SICK that I currently do not have the funds to do. I would love to have more administrative assistance, consistently provide free issues to disabled people on no income, make a more accessible website, produce more merch and other illness-related products, create bigger issues, and much more. With more funds, we would also be able to potentially increase production (health and body dependant). After publishing an issue, we essentially cannot begin work on another one until we have a similar amount of funds in our account as we did for the previous issue. As of May 2023, our bank account balance is £3,938 - about the minmum we need to start working on a new issue. This will be supplemented by the Kindling Fund.

We use sliding-scale pricing options in an effort to remain as affordable as possible, knowing that many sick & disabled people live in poverty or low/no income. We hope that those who are able to afford to pay more or offer monetary support will do so in an effort to keep SICK an accessible, ongoing project. 

You can make a one-time donation via the form below, or by sending directly via PayPal to olivia (at) sickmagazine.co.uk or Venmo @sickmagazine. All donations go towards paying chronically ill & disabled writers, artists, designers, and illustrators, as well as printing costs.