[PR] EN World Print Magazine to be Published by Goodman Games

[chatdemon]

Interesting that people will pay $10 for a 32-page book, but paying $6 for a 100 page issue of Dragon magazine is too much. I'm just saying.

For the record, I don't have a problem with the price of Dragon or Dungeon. $6 for 150 pages of Dungeon is a good deal, even considering the fact that I only buy the mag for Polyhedron, which is usually about 1/3 of the mag lately. The extra material (in Dungeon) doesn't always interest me, but it's there, and now and then I'll breeze through it and find a map, encounter or plot idea I can use.

Same goes for Dragon, $6 for a 120 page mag is a good deal.

You're talking about roughly the same price for half as much content. While I do understand and sympathize completely with the higher production costs for a smaller scale mag and the intention to at least break even on the thing, I'm not sure that I would personally be willing to spend the $5 on it, but as I said, I'll check the thing out when it hits the local store, and if it the quality is high enough (which I'm guessing/hoping it will be, given the vast pool of creative folks here), I'll plunk down my 5 bucks and take it home.

 

[annadobritt]

One question: If you take all the ads out of Dragon magazine, how many pages would you have of articles?

 

[Cyberzombie]

Re: Paypal and EnMag Opinions

4) IMO, themes tend to suck. Nothing worse than getting a magazine and finding 95% of it is useless because it only covers a particular idea I have no interest in. I'd rather have a magazine that has a little bit of offering for a variety of things so at least something might be useful. If themes are a must, might I suggest a vote in advance, so the themes offered are useful to the most people?

I would just like to loudly second this comment. Yeah, sometimes a theme issue of Dragon turns out cool. Like the drow issue -- it was pure old skool 1e drow goodness. But, more often, the theme is one I will never use, like knights. It's the same for everyone -- some people will use drow, some knights, some swashbucklers, but the other two themes will be mostly useless for them.

So no theme issues. If people want themes, direct them to Dragon.

 

[trentonjoe]

Re: I Know It's Dangerous, But It's My Hobby

I've been thinking. Who here would be willing to pay $10.00 U.S. for a 200 page quarterly? Pack it full of good stuff and make it something to anticipate four times a year.

Your thoughts?

I'd probably but that. I wouldn't but a subsciption until I saw the first copy (which I would buy without seeing).

I tend to buy alot of crap though. I may not be the best example.

 

[sotterraneo]

Actually, if you think your local game store will carry it, I'd recommend bugging them before subscribing. In the long term, the EN World community will grow more if this magazine sits on more store shelves, and you bugging the store owner to get the magazine will probably put it on the shelves!

I wish we could base Europe subscriptions in the UK, but there's a logistical snag: the mag is printed in the US, so one way or another, it still has to cross the ocean. Basing Europe subscriptions in the UK wouldn't reduce postage costs; if anything, it might increase them -- you'd be paying for shipping twice (once from USA to UK, then from UK to wherever you are), and if the first shipment were ground mail (to reduce costs), you'd then STILL have the long wait. However, if I think of something (or if anyone has any ideas), I'll act on it...

As for how to contribute, check out the page with all the info:

http://www.enworld.org/journal.htm

OK: I am the owner of said store so I think I'll find an agreement with his management 8-]. I hope of course the book is distributed by the Alliance/Diamond conglomerate, virtually the only supplier of US 'pop culture' products here (US distributors, please teke note) where here is a country of 58 millions of people.

About contributing, well, what about interviews? Are they acceptable for publication? After the posting of the Gary Gygax interview (its number of reads made me really proud!), I did an interview with Davis Arneson, co author of D&D, vith various juicy questions...

Of course I'll read the guidelines. As a side story, it seems that the Italian edition of Dragon magazine will have, in the first issues at least, virtually no space for Italian writers (it has ben goven a page for the Italian Triad of Living Greyhawk). Isn't this funny and irritating at the same time?

Yes, I know about contractual obligations, the need to translate articles in English for Paizo's approval and so on, but seeing an Italian edition of Dragon and not being able to contribute to it breaks my hearth.

Oh, well, I'll pester you 8-]

 

[Morrus]

About contributing, well, what about interviews? Are they acceptable for publication? After the posting of the Gary Gygax interview (its number of reads made me really proud!), I did an interview with Davis Arneson, co author of D&D, vith various juicy questions...

Sure, that sort of thing can be interetsing. but all magazine content must be original and not available elsewhere (even on the internet), otherwise there wouldn't be much point in poeple buying the mag.

 

[davewoodrum]

Yes... exactly. I agree with you entirely! Plus, the individual who wrote that bit that you responded to has to be... I'm sorry... an absolute moron if they are approaching this industry in hopes of getting rich through greed and a demand that their work is only the finest of quality.
THIS IS NOT THE COMMODITIES MARKET.
(Okay, sorry for the yelling to all)
As for my own story I've been working for Dark Quest now for over six months and I make a reasonably good profit in comparison to what I was hoping to receive originally from working with the industry. I still keep a day job but my ventures in this business has helped make life a little more comfortable and I also now have a nice overflowing bookshelf of game books... my hobby is pretty much free now plus I get a nice bit of coin to go with it. Yet, despite my comfortable state from my efforts I have only recently (as in the last thirty minutes) sent off my fourth proposal to Morrus in hopes of making an appearance in Player's Journal. Two of which I've already sent in the submissions to be looked at.... one I hand drew concept art just to help out the artists who may be assigned to the project... All For $30 An Article!
Why? Am I desperate.... NO. I do it because I really love this industry and this hobby. People think that D&D, D20, and all of that will be around forever but if you honestly look under the surface, it's alot more interest driven than it is economic driven. If it was purely economics, our hobby would have probably died out altogether in the mid to late 80's. I love to contribute my own work because not only do I create in hopes that my offerings will help keep the hobby going but also because many of the different things that I have designed are not yet in the game but I would like to see them in the game. Also, some of the stuff that I contribute towards publications like Player's Journal are ideas that are really neat and I would like to see in print but do not happen to go with enough other material for my publisher to consider using in one of our books. Also, my publisher encourages me to submit because when my own name gets positive exposure, the products that I work on in house gain that much more credibility. Sometimes contributing to a magazine, now matter how "little" they offer is like being paid for advertising your own talents.

Wah.
Unfortunately, in the real world where the rest of us dwell, you aren't BORN a "professional". Writers AND artists need a foot in the door.

I've seen you naysay every attempt at getting 'nobodies' published that has come along in the last 2 years. And as downright ironic as it is coming from me, do you ever have anything positive to offer when it comes to industry business?

The only problem I have with this idea is the page count vs. price tag. $5 seems like an awful lot to pay for a 60 page mag. But I'll wait and have a look before actually passing judgement.

I look forward to something that spotlights up and coming talent, and hey, if the low pay rates keep arrogant jerks like you out of the magazine, even better.

 

[sotterraneo]

Yes... exactly. I agree with you entirely! Plus, the individual who wrote that bit that you responded to has to be... I'm sorry... an absolute moron if they are approaching this industry in hopes of getting rich through greed and a demand that their work is only the finest of quality.
THIS IS NOT THE COMMODITIES MARKET.

Albeit I strongly disagree with the tone of the reply, I concur with its message: GMS was really too harsh in his comments about the magazine.

What is exactly 'professional' work, anyway? I have seen many books written by professionals seriously lacking and a lot of pieces written in 'informal' or 'fan' publications of high quality. I'm sure that the only way to recognize a good piece of work from a bad one is reading the piece itself, not the author's name.

More, how many of the writers of this industry earn their living (I mean a decent one, not living in their parents' houses...) writing and editing gaming books? I'm sure that most freelancers are people with a 'day job' and that they consider freelancing a good way to do something they love and earning some bucks in the process.

When I did my interview with Gary Gygax, I spent many, many hours researching my questions in a lot of old magazines and then editing it and translating into Italian: there is NO WAY that ANY publication, print or on line, could have paid me enough to justify in monetary terms all the time I spent on the interview. But I'm not a 'professional' so I did the article for my personal interest and the desire to acquire and disseminate knowledge about the facts of D&D and TSR's history. Did this make the article of low quality? Judgind from the feedback I received and the number of reads, I don't think so.

But I'm not a 'professional', I'm a games retailer so interviews or articles add nothing to my sales 8-]. When I pester 8-] Morrus for contributing to the Journal, I do this because I like the idea of writing and publishing articles, because I like the idea to see some Italian names in gamng magazines and because I'd really love seeing an independent journal surviging and prospering.

Now for a concrete suggestion: what about posting on the site and in others too (GamingReport, RPG Net if this is possible of course...) extracts of some articles of the Journal to entice more people in buying it? I see magazines doing this all the time in other fields, perhaps this could be worthy for the Journal too.

 

[davewoodrum]

Albeit I strongly disagree with the tone of the reply, I concur with its message: GMS was really too harsh in his comments about the magazine.

Yes..I apologize. I was a wee bit harsh when I gave my two cents on that one but alot of it comes from many years of personal sacrifice to this hobby and a couple others. I've been involved in stuff where you got a little money but the employer didn't care (but at least you were paid so it was hard to argue), then I've been involved in stuff (independent pro wrestling) where you gave your 250% (yeah, that much) and took over the duties of half a dozen people for nothing and nobody cared....
When something like this comes around and you get an honest warning up front that you're not going to make a great deal but the outfit has at least set a standard, expected amount that one will be rewarded for their efforts, personally I tend to look more towards the quality of the overall product and the experience of working for the product.
Let's face it, Enworld sees alot of publishers and fans... likewise, I'm sure many of these individuals will be reading the magazine when it comes out. Considering too who will be publishing P.J., I can figure that it will be a top notch product....
In my opinion this is "opportunity knocks" for alot of lesser known writers and artists... again, this can essentially be looked at as getting paid $30 for someone to advertise your talents to the open market.

 

[DDK]

Three things:

1. You might want to edit your submission guidelines page. There are numerous instances of poor grammar. Take that criticism however you will but it was meant as constructive input. I won't point out specific instances because I'm sure you are more than capable of finding the errors and correcting them yourself and this was just an oversight, as we are all prone to at various times.

2. I'm curious to know where the funding is coming from for this endeavour. Obviously with this site costing you so much money to maintain, you are not the financier but surely neither is Goodman Games since it's such a large risk and even if successful is a meagre reward. Of course you have a perfect right not to elucidate upon this issue however I see no reason for any secrecy on the matter.

3. I feel it is necessary that an answer to the following question, presented in the thread given, be forthcoming immediately, so as to clear the air and your good name: http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=31182