[1]: 51  The magazine published the work of many notable authors, including John Muir, Jack London, Mary Hunter Austin, Sharlot Hall, Grace Ellery Channing, and Sui Sin Far (Edith Maude Eaton).

[1]: 53  In the words of Jon Wilkman, the magazine "extolled the wonders of Southern California and had a major influence on the region’s early image and appeal to tourists".

[1]: 38 [7] It was originally ghost-edited by Charles Dwight Willard,[1]: 47  while Harry Ellington Brook and Frank A. Pattee were both also involved in the creation and publication of the magazine.

[1]: 43 At the end of 1894 Charles Fletcher Lummis was publicly named editor of The Land of Sunshine, and the first issue produced under his control was January 1895.

[1]: 47–48  Lummis promised that the magazine's coverage of Southern California would be "concise, interesting, expert, accurate" to the extent that it would be trusted by Eastern readers.

[1]: 51  Out West subsequently witnessed a succession of editors that included C. F. Edholm, George Wharton James, and Lannie Haynes Martin, and it "ceased to appear with any regularity" after its June 1917 issue.

[7] The magazine also had some semblance of an international scope: in January 1907, Out West claimed subscribers in England, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Japan, France, Sweden, Brazil, New Zealand, Mexico, Greece, Siam, and North China.

[1]: 64 Throughout its early existence, The Land of Sunshine had difficulty securing contributions from freelance writers, largely because of its specific focus on Californian and Western themes and its inability to pay standard rates.

[1]: 72  Members of this syndicate, which included different types of writers as well as artists, included George Parker Winship, Frederick Webb Hodge, Maynard Dixon, William Keith, Ina Coolbrith, Edwin Markham, Theodore H. Hittell, David Starr Jordan, Ella Higginson, John Vance Cheney, Charles Warren Stoddard, George Hamlin Fitch, Washington Matthews, Charles and Louise Keller, Charlotte Perkins Stetson, Joaquin Miller, Elliott Coues, Eugene Manlove Rhodes, Sharlot Hall, and Mary Hunter Austin.