Thoughts on new magazine...

Methuslah said:
Actually, I was the reviewer for those pieces. I bought the books personally.

Well, we can't have that! I'll be sure to put you on the list for review copies and thank you for your consideration.

Also, received the Email, will check it out and send my feedback (if that's not out of line as a publisher in the reviews).
 

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Curiously, do you have plans to subscribe for year-long subscriptions at cheaper prices? And yes, I also believe that $3 is a bit on the high side for a 44 page pdf.
 

I do, but I was waiting for the launch of Issue 2. Still, here are the planned rates...

For Six issues - $13
For Twelve issues - $24
For Twenty-Four issues - $40

These issues can be spread across our whole range - which will include five titles by December (one still TBA). Back issues can be included as part of the subscription. I already have a couple arranged - some of the writers wanted them as part payment.
 


I did consider releasing Issue One for free, but decided against it.
I have prepared 'Issue Zero' of Lemurian Dreams and Concept Horizons, which will be released for free next month - these basically just have one article in them that is a sample of the material in the magazine (but is unique to the 'Zero' issue).

As a side note, what do people think of the other announced titles? (See earlier in the thread).
 

Methuslah said:
Is a PDF magazine welcome?

Not particularly, IMHO. I hate having to read them on the 'puter; scanning up and down, then across and down again, before going to the next page. Yech!

Is Three Dollars too much?

No, but high quality AND low price are the only things that would induce me to buy such a product.

Should adventures be featured in the magazine?

At least occasionally, yes.

Should reviews be featured in the magazine?

Depends on the audience you're trying to reach. I like them, but only a few to an issue.

What are people's general thoughts on the layout, writing, artwork, etc?

Haven't seen'em, so don't know.
 

I designed Almanac specifically to be printer-friendly, with the artwork picked to be light on ink, and no draining borders. In addition, each article has its own pages - so you won't print half of an article that isn't wanted. There are five reviews in Almanac One, totaling three pages of the magazine.

The next issue of Almanac will be quite adventure-heavy - about a third of the magazine (three seperate adventures are planned), and Almanac One had one long adventure (about a sixth of the magazine).

A sample of the magazine is now avaliable to take a look at (the URL is on this thread). I took the contents page, editorial, two sample pages and the OGL and pasted them into a PDF - its fairly representitive of the quality.
 

The Other Mags

Methuslah said:
Lemurian Dreams, launching on August 1st, will be a bimonthy fantasy fiction magazine aimed square at D&D readers. As well as the stories themselves, it will contain notes to enable the stories to be easily used in a campaign.

Royal Griffon, launching on November 1st, is essentially a module with a magazine wrapped around it. We take a full-length module (Issue 1's is being written by Jeffrey Quinn) and wrap a magazine around it - a couple of short site-based adventures, and a couple of articles reinforcing the main module.

Concept Horizons, launching on September 1st, will basically be covering D20 Modern. It will be monthly, and will cost only $1.50 (but will be shorter).

As for Almanac, it was designed as a basic D&D magazine, covering the whole spectrum. Each issue has a specific theme (Issue 1 was 'Dungeons', Issue 2 is 'The Apocalypse', Issue 3 is 'War', and so on...) The magazine is designed around ideas rather than rules - rules are available in spades on the net, but idea pieces seem to be harder to come by.

The names aren't particularly descriptive of what the magazine covers.

I hate the name "Lemurian Dreams", but then, Evil Outsiders are my favored enemies!

One of the folks at AEG (formerly put out Nexis) was wondering if there was market for another RPG-related magazine... You're putting out quite a few! I would be most curious about the survival of LD, as a short-story-only magazine... How well do fiction-only mags tend to sell, I wonder?

I'll have to go download the sample PDF, and see what that's like. More input, later...

PS: No Writers' Guidelines? I saw that you intend most articles to be staff-written?
 

Well, each magazine covers a seperate niche in the market, so I don't think they are competing with each other. Lemurian Dreams, I think, has potential in that it should appeal to two markets, albeit related ones - the RPG market and the fantasy fiction market. We have some excellent material planned for Issue One! I think that the 'author's notes' aspect will help it greatly - to my knowledge, nothing of this type has ever been tried before.

All details are in the 'Submissions' section - the ideas avaliable there are free for anyone to take up (but please ask me first!). Issue Two is actually full, and most of the topics for Issue Three have been taken, but there are still some free if you are interested.

P.S. Another review has just gone up on the Transfinite Publications Yahoo! Group. The archives are open, so you can have a look - here is the URL: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/transfinite/
 

First Glances:

Downloaded the sample: Haven't read most of it, yet, but here're some quick impressions...

No cover?

That fantastic artwork isn't well represented. The first (silly) one is pretty cartoonish, and the second is adequate, IMHO.

The Editorial says $5/issue. That'll need to be fixed, if the price is $3.

Both of the sample articles are yours!

With most articles being staff-written (according to your web page), the problem I foresee is, the people who like your/their writing will like your mag, and those who don't, won't. :( Seems to me that the more writers you have, the better.

Just my 12 cents' worth... More on the writing and content once I've read it! :p
 

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