OGL Magazine?

[jezter6]

Not to mention, although EN World may have a small support base, we are a niche market who is more open to 3rd party OGL development. The other 98% of gamers are WotC core only, and won't buy anything that isn't official.

 

[tadk]

Everyone is gets so focused on the "e-zine" format, they ignore what I figure is probably the majority of gamers, who prefer their magazines in paper format.

No science or data behind that. Just my suspicion.

Greylock you totally have a point. I personally do not print out pdfs, unless they are just a few pages long. So I do not buy them either.

But as I am contemplating expanding my own zine thing, I cannot produce it in hardcopy for purely financial reasons.

 

[Roger]

I've been relatively happy with how I've approached this, and I'd urge others to consider the approach as well.

Basically, I release, on a very irregular schedule, a one-author, one-article zine. This makes a few things more difficult but it makes a lot of things easier. No volunteers or amateurs to wrangle (other than myself), no schedule to angst over, no page count quota to meet.

Someone else who has had success with this (and on a much more regular schedule) is the One Thousand and One Nights and One Night zine at http://1001nightsand1night.110mb.com/ -- it's great.

So if you have an idea for an OGL article, great! Write it up, ship it out, tell everyone about it. People will read it.



Cheers,
Roger

 

[GMSkarka]

I have heard from too many magazine publishers that the paper magazine format is normally a losing proposition to not believe that it is true. The cost of art, editing, and publishing demand a certain level of sales in order to just break even and it is very hard for a publisher to obtain that many sales.

True, but it's not just the sales.

In mainstream publishing, most magazines are heavily subsidized by the ads. The ads provide most of the income, which is why you see such heavily-discounted subscription offers -- the sale price of the magazine itself is only providing a small part of the income.

The problem is that the game industry does not have enough companies that can afford to purchase ad space at anything close to that sort of level -- and a lot of smaller companies that end up renegging on ad contracts, etc.

 

[Darrin Drader]

Not to mention, although EN World may have a small support base, we are a niche market who is more open to 3rd party OGL development. The other 98% of gamers are WotC core only, and won't buy anything that isn't official.

I appreciate the ENWorld community for its willingness to accept materials that are not core, but the WotC core only crowd has always irritated the ever living f out of me. It simply makes absolutely no sense to think that one company or one brand has a stranglehold on good gaming. While WotC stuff is good, there are gems out there that go virtually unmined because people refuse to give it a chance. Right now I have the satisfaction of running a couple of my friends who used to be WotC core only through True20, using no WotC products. Actually, other than the core True20 book, all the material is mine.

At any rate, I sadly agree that a non-Dragon/Dungeon branded magazine on the shelves is doomed to failure (or at least not widespread success) and I think that sucks.

 

[Darrin Drader]

Greylock you totally have a point. I personally do not print out pdfs, unless they are just a few pages long. So I do not buy them either.

Better start changing your buying habits now. The future of the industry is E-publishing. Retail is going down the toilet which means that unless you can get your books into the mass market (something that is incredibly rare for a small game publisher), you have very few alternatives.

What I do personally is buy the e-titles that look interesting to me and then I go through a PoD outfit to turn the PDFs into printed books when I think I can use them. This method benefits the publisher because you are buying directly from them, it benefits you because PDFs cost less, and it provides relief for crowded bookshelf space. I've actually come to prefer it.

 

[Knightfall]

I have heard from too many magazine publishers that the paper magazine format is normally a losing proposition to not believe that it is true. The cost of art, editing, and publishing demand a certain level of sales in order to just break even and it is very hard for a publisher to obtain that many sales.

That's why producing a PDF OGL e-zine with a Print on Demand model might be the best alternative. Only those people who want to pay for a printed copy have to pay for a printed copy. This would greatly reduce publishing costs.

And if such a magazine becomes popular enough (longshot) then it could switch to a printed format.

 

[Alzrius]

I've been relatively happy with how I've approached this, and I'd urge others to consider the approach as well.

Basically, I release, on a very irregular schedule, a one-author, one-article zine. This makes a few things more difficult but it makes a lot of things easier. No volunteers or amateurs to wrangle (other than myself), no schedule to angst over, no page count quota to meet.

Yeah, but in the meantime, us fans of your 'zine are left hungry for more! When's the next issue coming out?

 

[Pat]

As a note, I really wish MODERNIZED were still available for download somewhere. It seems to have disappeared off the face of the internet.

I'm not at all familiar with it, but is Modernized: Gaming in the Modern World the 'zine you're looking for?

 

[tadk]

PDFs and IP

Better start changing your buying habits now. The future of the industry is E-publishing. Retail is going down the toilet which means that unless you can get your books into the mass market (something that is incredibly rare for a small game publisher), you have very few alternatives.

What I do personally is buy the e-titles that look interesting to me and then I go through a PoD outfit to turn the PDFs into printed books when I think I can use them. This method benefits the publisher because you are buying directly from them, it benefits you because PDFs cost less, and it provides relief for crowded bookshelf space. I've actually come to prefer it.

Hi Whisperfoot

Ok so you are asserting that in a few years or so I won't be able to buy either in a brick and mortar store, large chain bookstore, or through someone like IPR ANY hardcopy game books?

I do disagree with that, which is a separate assertation and discussion.

Personally, I do not look to buy a PDF over a Hardcopy book.
I personally will spend $20 for a softcover over $9.95 for a PDF.
Just a personal preference, like I will spend money for a better cup of coffee than I can make at a "Coffee Shop" over .99 cents for schlock at a Convenience Store.
I chose where I indulge for my preferences.

As far as my own creativity, anything I write that is gaming related is all for free. I turn them into PDFs because it is easy for others to get a hold of, not everyone likes Word Documents, the PDFs are physically smaller in size (easier to email), and to save for myself on my own flashdrive. But otherwise this is my hobby.

I had heard of that use a POD service for PDFs you buy. Can you give me more details, how, where, etc. That would be nice information for me to have for personal use potentially someday if you are correct.
Thanks
Tad