Into the Wild with Flipboard MagMaker Heather Green

MagMaker Heather Green lives in the wilds of southern Florida, 20 miles from the closest town, with her husband, two horses, five chickens, and one Great Dane. She also has 37 terrific Flipboard magazines covering a wide assortment of topics — from RVs and Jeeps to photography tips, Florida panthers, and… Bigfoot. Heather caught our attention shortly after we launched Flipboard magazines in 2013, and her magazines have only gotten better over time. We decided it was time to say hello.

Flipboard: Your magazines cover a lot of different subjects. Where do you find the inspiration for them?

Heather Green: Wildlife and nature are my passions, and landscape photography is one of my hobbies. Most of my magazines come out of my own interests. My magazines often start out as a mishmash, but then I find other people who are excited about the same things, and it’s a really cool feeling.

When you create a new magazine, do you do it for yourself or for an audience?

I create most of them for myself, but I keep my readers in mind. My photography tips magazine includes a lot of pointers I already know. But when I come across a really good tutorial or collection of tips, I’ll often include it for people who follow the magazine.

Do you have any favorites among your magazines?

That’s hard to say, but it’s probably Wildlife and Nature, followed by my Florida Panther magazine.

If you’re a wildlife photographer in Florida, getting a shot of a Florida Panther is like finding the Holy Grail. There are only about 150 Florida Panthers left, so they’re really rare. But after weeks of getting up every day before dawn to try to get one, one day I was able to shoot a photo of a mother and her two babies. It was amazing, so that magazine has become really close to my heart — even though it only has a few readers.

Have you created any magazines specifically to make them popular?

Yes, I’ve done that with some of my recent ones. My Rainbow of Colors magazine started when I started noticing a type of picture that I loved but which didn’t fit into my other magazines. So I created a magazine just for photos of rainbow-like colors. The magazine was eventually picked up by Flipboard Picks, and developed a big following, so I now maintain it regularly.

And your magazine about Bigfoot? How does that fit into all this?

Well, my husband is the one who’s obsessed with Bigfoot. I’m the kind of person that wants to see scientific evidence first… although I really do HOPE it’s a real creature!

Check out all of Heather Green’s magazines on her Flipboard profile page.