Sell sponsorships without running it out of your inbox

Decide what you sell, once

Start with your slot types. A sponsored link that sits in the issue like any other item but marked as sponsored, a full-width banner with an image, or whatever else you offer. Each one gets a description and a normal price, so you are not working out figures from scratch every time somebody asks what it costs.

Then choose how sponsors reach you. Enquiry mode gives you a page explaining what you offer with a form at the bottom. Calendar mode publishes your upcoming issue dates and lets a sponsor pick the ones they want. Calendar mode does more of the work for you, because the people who get in touch have already seen the price and chosen their dates.

The calendar does the awkward part for you

Your upcoming issue dates come from your publishing schedule, and you can change individual dates and prices in a grid when a particular issue is worth more. Sponsors see what is free, what has gone and what each slot costs, then pick their dates and send one enquiry covering all of them.

The dates they picked move to reserved straight away, so you are not accidentally selling the same slot twice while you write back. If you have not acted within a week they release themselves, which stops an enquiry you never answered from quietly holding your best dates hostage for a month.

A confirmed sponsor turns up in the issue

Marking an enquiry as confirmed books the dates and saves the sponsor name and link. When you sit down to write that issue, the sponsor is already in the composer waiting to be placed. Declining puts the dates straight back on sale.

Issue Mint does not take the payment and does not take a cut. You invoice the sponsor yourself, on your own terms, which keeps you out of anybody else's payment schedule and means the money lands in your account when they pay you rather than whenever a platform decides to pass it on.