“The idea of Unicorn came to me, when I was looking for publishing opportunities which don’t differentiate between writer’s experience. I searched around but there was nothing I could find that accepted articles without getting rejected. It was then that I realised the need of a magazine which gave a chance to every writer to express their opinions and emotions without the fear of rejection” and since 2020, there has been no turning back for Romila, Founder, Creator and Editor in Chief, Unicorn.
Romila, has made a family of writers, authors, artists, photographers, bloggers and brands with Unicorn. Romila was a freelance writer who partially gave up her writing to pursue her passion and love for literature through Unicorn. Romila has always been a book/magazine person! She always knew she would not be any other person having nothing to read with her cup of coffee. Romila chose literature over gossip and that’s how it all started.
Story of Unicorn
“I started looking for magazines in digital and print and I found every magazine very boring, typical Page3 and had lots of lifestyle and Bollywood masala. I had certain ideas of magazine segments in my mind – like columns, non fiction, so I started to look for such printed works. After a few days of searching, I realised nobody is interested in poetry, prose and literature anymore because everything micro took over the long reads. I decided to start my own magazine and revive written words in a long form so that poetry (of more than 200 words) doesn’t vanish from this world. Unicorn was born during the first phase of global pandemic in July 2020”.
Vision
“The goal of Unicorn is to add every writer into the Unicorn family. And, that every writer would love and feel happy to see their work published without any conditions. We were the first magazine in contemporising poetry and still we do when poets thought their work won’t be read anymore. I have spent a lot of time researching magazines about what readers prefer, will classic literature style be loved again, do bloggers have any magazine where they can see their work in printed form? Keeping in mind the mindset of the new generation, as editions came out, we introduced new segments to cater to different writers. The segments in our magazine are extremely unique and extraordinary”
Beginning
“I am a writer with a business management background and Unicorn was my first business idea to do something with literature with a contemporary twist. The idea was to do traditional things – magazine and printing, in a classier and elegant way. The goal is to create something for every kind of writer who comes to Unicorn”.
Team
“I started Unicorn all on my own. The first edition had only 6 contributors with 9 copies in sale. It was not a successful launch to be honest. It did put me down and I went into hibernation for 5 months. I could not accept my failure and I came back with 2nd edition in February 2021 with Smriti Malhotra joining me. From my Assistant she rose to Design Head and Illustrator who makes everything beautiful and memorable at Unicorn. The universe blessed me with Sushant Zutshi, who joined as Creative Consultant and today he’s Creative Director and Marketing Head. With his efforts and ideas, Unicorn has been able to successfully establish itself as a recognisable and reliable name amongst the literature industry. I owe my success to Smriti and Sushant wholeheartedly who believed in my dream and trusted me. They made 2021 a successful year. I am grateful for everything they did and they are doing, to make Unicorn a name every writer, artist, blogger or a brand wishes to get associated with”.
Learnings
“I do not think there was any mistake I could have avoided, as every mistake I make I take it as a learning experience. Every profession has failures and I feel the writing and publishing industry has more because every writer and every designer’s mind and method of working differs and to work with so many minds everyday is a huge challenge for me. In 2021, touch wood, Unicorn grew at a pace I never imagined. We tasted success but that gave rise to work more hard and be amongst the top in 2022 too. I do not sleep or I should say I cannot sleep if I have something pending on my table for the day or have a big thing arriving. For me, even if a single reader or writer complains, that’s a failure. I want to maintain 100 percent satisfaction at all levels for everyone who picks up a copy of Unicorn or gets associated with us”.
Future plans
“We would like to reach as many writers and readers globally compared to what we’re reaching out today. We have our annual anthology, monthly journal and weekly blog apart from our quarterly magazine in digital and print editions. We have spread across 10 countries apart from India and we hope to make Unicorn reach different directions of the globe. We have supported teenage writers last year and still do and we hope to venture some segments of our magazine with children below 13 years. Age of the artist is never a barrier at Unicorn”.
Challenges
“The most important part of my business idea was to keep literature alive and to sustain it with every edition of the magazine. My biggest challenge is that we want to get more people on board since we believe in giving every writer an opportunity without any harsh conditions. The second challenge is knock off ideas. We spend a lot of time on our designs and ideas but somehow they get copied by other communities and magazines who implement the same and bring them before us”.
Last word
“I stopped listening to people who commented a lot of negative things about me and Unicorn. People kept telling me who would read magazines, but I was stubborn enough to ignore and started off. Today we’re a team of 3 passionate individuals who contribute their best to the brand Unicorn, we have 130 + published writers, 100 + readers globally, we have a presence in 10 countries with 6 digital and paperback editions of the magazine, 4 flip book journals and 1 successful anthology. Unicorn is my life today, and it’s all because of Smriti and Sushant who showed belief in me. To honour their faith and to keep my own identity alive, I continue to evolve my publication to make it one of the best contemporary art and literature magazines of its times. I’m fortunate enough to get a very dedicated team and working with them is never dull”.
In a world full of micro literature, Unicorn is thriving to be a classic with poetry as the main segment that would never go out of reading.
Unicorn is a printed treasure to hold in your hand and a treat to be a part of it.
To join the Unicorn family, you can follow us on Instagram @magazineunicorn or email us – writerforunicorn@gmail.com or visit our virtual office –
https://www.theunicornmag.com/
