June 2007 - Posts
I almost forgot; this weekend is the last chance to sign up for
Kobold Quarterly at
the super cheap charter subscription rate ($12). After that, it's the standard 20% subscriber discount ($16 per year). Which is still a great deal, but why pay more? Subscribe today!
(Kobolds say "Click the button! Click the button! Subscribe, or we all perish horribly!")
The
Quarterly now officially has comics in it. I'm very, very pleased by this development.
Also, the queries from the industry professionals are picking up, including a few names you'd certainly recognize (hint: they have written boxed sets and many a fine Dragon article). Those queries mean good stuff for issue #2, and whaddya know, a subscription covers that issue, plus issues #3 and #4. So why not sign up today, before the rates go up on July 1st?
As an added bonus, my pathetic failure as an advertising sales guy is YOUR gain! I promise minimal ads in the first issue.
The issue is about 3/4 laid out and done, with a long interview, big ecology feature, and several shorter articles. I'm missing one article from a query (due in next week), one article from me (which I still have to write!), and one major piece of art (likewise due next week). So, everything is looking fine for an early July launch. I'm hoping for the week of the 5th, but it might slip to the week of the 12th.
I knew this launch was going to be tricky, what with establishing a look for the whole issue, trying to find art within the budget, talking to adventisers (not very many, alas), and oh yes, writing and editing like a fiend.
There's already a backlog of queries. I'm ignoring them as best I can, because there's no room left in the Summer issue. I think the Fall issue will feature at most one or two articles by yours truly, which is as it should be.
Subscription prices go up in a week or two. If you want your copy of
Kobold at
40%20% off, subscribe today!
I figured that the cost of printing a very short run magazine professionally would be high. I had no idea it would be quite so prohibitive. At the moment, it looks like a short run generates a subscription price of roughly $120 for 4 paper issues.
That's never going to fly.
So, I'm left with a few options:
1) stay with PDF and print using Lulu (the current plan — hurray!),
2) find a much cheaper printer, ie, print in China,
3) increase circulation and distribution substantially by investing a ton of money in advertising, selling into the periodicals channels, etc.
Actually, strike #3; I'm not interested in turning Kobold Quarterly into a full-time job — that's why it's a quarterly.
I have one more possibility, but it's a long shot. So far, Lulu still looks like the best route to print for a small press magazine.