A print Ezine

[EricJ]

So we've had so much interest in the first issue of the Wyrd Chronicles Ezine, and enough people asking if it'd be available in print, that we started looking into it. I'm just looking for feedback from all of you on the subject! The first issue was 46 pages, and we're expecting future issues to increase the size to between 50-75 pages per issue. We would keep it full color with a nice cardstock cover.

The questions are:

Would you be interested in a print version of the Ezine available for purchase?

What would you be wiling to pay? $8? $10? $12? More? Less?



This actually takes quite a financial leap of faith to start printing these things, so just wondering if it would be worth while to make the effort! I know I want to see it in print...that's for sure :D

[diehard]

I'd buy one, and considering it's in a niche market I could reasonably see it in the $8-10 range. After that it'd probably be dependent upon the printing quality.

[demonherald]

well I know I would love to seee it in print I can only look at comp screens for a short tme before fading into ga ga land....

as far as price regular magazines I purchase here are in the £5 region although those are monthly .. The only system specific ones I have purchased are White Dwarf and the occasional No Quarter and Cry Havoc depending on what was in them.

two things I would say on it are 1 .. make sure there are a pile of article resources to be drawn on .. especially with the extra pages

and 2 .. a faction specific approach is good for it but other extra content should be added.. I only bring this up because recently the New UK White Dwarf format focuses on 1 system at a time.. Last months was Lord of the rings and I wasn't gonna get it but a totally unrelated Ork article pryed the cash from my pocket....

I can imagine the leap of faith element and I think that makes it more crucial that there are the extra articles and good hobby content to stop any delays.......

[firesion]

I loved the e-zine, but would only buy it under if the following were true.

- It remained color and contained at least 96 pages of information
- It supported more then one product line (RPG, CCG, Board game, Minitures)
- Contained some sort of game support bonus (NQ i buy because of the bonus I do not buy WD)

Price point at max would be $7

What I would rather buy would be game supporting pdf files, fluff, painting guides, or miniatures.

Lets say you release a e-zine that focuses on using wyrd miniatures for use in D&D 4th edition. So basicaly you do a page for each miniature and stat out the miniature along the lines of the pages from the D&D monster manual. This I would buy in pdf for a few dollars depending on the number of pages and systems the rules supported.

If you have a fluff and preview document that previews new things to come along with a few fluff stories I would pay about $2 for. Possibly more if the fluff became really good.

I would pay for video tutorials on painting if they can be as effective for me as say Bob Ross painting techniques.

[Nightgoblin]

I think I'd buy one, too. I like physical things much more then electronical things.

I've to think about how much I'd pay...

Maybe it is an idea to make the e-zine and an alternativ print version as 'best-of', let's say all four or five issues. I know it would be difficult to decide what is 'best-of' and which things are not.

But you might get a feedback from the e-zine, before printing. That means standard of the print-version would be very high.

[Hinton]

I would love to see a print version, as long as it stayed full color and had as many (if not more) pages as the first issue.

Cost? I'd probably pay as much as $12, but that would be the absolute top limit. I think I'd rather see it in the $8 - 10 range.

[EricJ]

Thanks everyone. The main problem is that the print costs for a print on demand project in full color is quite steep, and until we get much larger, and know we'll have a lot more interest, it's hard to bring those costs down, we just don't have the volume yet.

As for content, we're obviously only working on our 2nd volume now, but we're already getting better at it, and the scope of the thing will be expanding to some degree, but this is also a learning and growing process.

feedback is good :)

[Valmont]

I'd rather just have access to either a multi-part or grey scaled version that is easier to print myself.

Maybe once you have a decent amount of material (Not ads, like most companies but actual game/paint/sculpt articles) then we could purchase a compilation.


Of course I'd rather efforts were put into new models and rules rather then a lot of focus on the ezine :)

[demonherald]

The idea of an annual best of compilation is quite cool....maybe in time for Gencon or similar...put a few bonus extra articles in there and some best of the year Wyrd Submissions ..... definitely a good thing....

[Deacon]

I think I would pay around $5 for it if it was 50 pages or so. It would depend upon content as well. A lot of articles and pictures tend to make me buy magazines.

[Illustrange]

honestly I really like the magazine and magazines in general

but I agree with the last comment.. wyrd is not a company with the size to have different departments etc. etc.
that means that every hour and every penny thats put in the magazine is an hour and a penny not put into the game nor the miniatures range. Id rather say, game first magazine later ;)
yeah yeah games take time to develop but
when I worked at my dayjob as a game designer (videogames.) my boss would constantly have little projects coming up in between a major game we were developing, its all fun and well, but in the end it slowed the game down enormously, because the best way to work on something containing fluff a rich world and a system (in short a game ) is to take it everywhere : if you go to bed you see the world, on the toilet you calculate how much energy it would cost XX character to take a crap, during dinner you wonder would character Y like the taste of it.

other projects will only distract from that, and while the magazine is fun, and I loved everything in there, but make issue 2 at least contain some solid pre info about the game, and issue 3 coincide with the games releasedate, as neither stands solid, Id say dont even think about issue 2 now, think only malifaux :)







but to answer the question
yeah Id dig a print version :D

[lauth81]

I'd like a print version and I would pay up to 10 Euros for it, if it remained at the current layout of the ezine.

I could easily live with a mag that has a part of b/w or greyscale and only some full colour pages (for showcase minis e.g.)

I normally can't sustain interest in online only mags. I was a devout reader and buyer of Dragon even when I didn't play the game for years, but after it went online only, I checked it maybe once ...

The only other game-related mag I buy every month is Knights of the Dinner Table. So my artistic expectation in a mag is kind of low ;-)

[EricJ]

Don't worry! We're not talking about becoming a magazine company and diverting resources from the game and minis, those are our first priorities. However the magazine has brought a lot of interest and people to wyrd, and as such isn't going anywhere any times soon. It also gives us way to keep people with more regular updates/peaks into the work of Malifaux without having to release full books to do so. As such, it's not going away! The question was whether it was worth while to put in the extra work to make it available in print, as the only real benefit would be making you guys happy, as with printing costs, it can't really be a money maker for Wryd I don't think.

I appreciate all the honest answers!

[thewartoad]

$8-$10 range is OK with me. White Dwarf runs $7, this magazine would be way better though. LMO

[Wren]

I'll pay upwards of $10 for a mag that I know is for a niche interest. Based on what I've seen in the magazine publishing industry in general over the past few years, it is not at all easy or cheap to get and keep one going, so while I am not a huge fan of online publications, I'm happy to have that over nothing at all! I do like the idea of looking into publishing compilations of the key articles for the game and/or hobby stuff.

[goblyn13]

With the costs of on-demand publishing for color, you're almost better off with going the traditional route for publishing and bulking up and ordering. My opinion is you'd be better served with the regular on-line publishing and revisit the though of producing say an annual compilation in print format. however knowing its a niche and i've considered printing it out myself,

[Rorik36]

I think an annual compilation is something I would pick up. That is something I would easily pay $30 for if it was in color.

The E-zine is just so convenient for what it is.

[demonherald]

@Illustrange...... I think rather than a worry that the e-zine would get in the way of game development I think it's more the opposite as it really has greased the wheels so to speak and is a good testing ground for layout and writing styles and getting the feedback from others on the look and content ensures that things are pushing along at a fair old rate....

[LavronYor]

I would pay $12.42 and not a penny more. Well, maybe a little more if it came with a free limited edition wyrd mini. (which would then be like paying extra for a free mini, so not free) but I would pay more for a limited edition mini. and maybe more if each issue had a contest for a wyrd studio painted model. and maybe a little more if it came with a studio painting guide with good photos. and possibly a little more if it came with a limited edition Wyrd die ( singular of dice) like GenCon and Origins does. and finally if it came with a mini- calendar or appointment book with the wyrd logo, I might pay just a little more.

and maybe a pocket knife with Nathan scratched on the side of it.....

and a flashlight with supervike on it....

and one of those little personal fans with Eric on it...

and an expert painting brush with Anders on it....



Oh, and it must be bound with IRON staples...

mmm, Iron.....

[Morf]

I'd vote for the annual that could serve as a catalogue, rules and fluff all together. With max price of 12$.

[Bexley]

Thanks everyone. The main problem is that the print costs for a print on demand project in full color is quite steep, and until we get much larger, and know we'll have a lot more interest, it's hard to bring those costs down, we just don't have the volume yet.

Just print it in China. It'll cost you almost nothing.

Shipping, however....

[DeafNala]

My Uncle Gus used to tell me never bet more than you can afford to lose. If you publish a printed version of the magazine [I'd love this] without seeing ANY return on the expenditure, then go for it. I've seen more than one mini maker disappear into the realm of fond memories by over extending themselves with rule books, magazines, etc.; you make such beautiful stuff & I'd hate to see you guys go under.

[Nathan Caroland]

I wouldn't worry about that, I keep a tight pinch on the pennies and follow everything going on and around and I don't expect we'll be going under any time soon.

[DeafNala]

Glad to here that amigo. We old fools do tend to worry about you kids.

[stubbdog]

Ok, I guess I have a slightly different opinion than others.

Interestingly, the magazine that I look at and buy the most is one that I cannot even read. It is the French mag SAVAGE. I cant read a lick of French but I buy it, and it costs a pretty penny too. I spend upwards of $25-35 for each issue.

The reason?

Simple... It has a TON of pictures of some awesome paintjobs in it.

I would love it if they would do a copy in English, but they already said they dont plan to.

I would love it if they included more tutorials like the Confrontation Cry Havoc mags, but they dont do that very often.

I used to buy the Cry Havoc's too for the tutorials, but ever since AT- came out, those have gone down hill.

I really have no idea what is intended for the Wyrd ezine. I know that you asked for a show of hands and for people interested in being published to submit samples. I thought about it but didnt think I was good enough at the time.

Trying to end a long rant as best I can, I guess my opinion is, if you want your ezine / magazine to be more of a support product to the new Wyrd game, then I would try to pattern it loosely around the Cry Havocs and No Quarter mags. And so would maybe keep the costs hopefully a little cheaper (around $8-10). If you are more trying to use the zine to just show off paintjobs (Wyrd and others) and throw some game related stuff in there, then I wouldn't pull any punches and I would go the way of an English version of SAVAGE and charge more as it is worth it.

I think for me the biggest issue of the whole thing is the quality of the print job. I'd rather pay $20 and get a top of the line really cool very very detailed picture, than I would pay $7 and get an inkjet looking output that you can see colors but lose the detail.

[Nightgoblin]

I agree with stubbdog, it is not the only point to make my decission to by a magazine, but if it has fantastic pictures I buy it and I'd spend more money if the pictures are in great quality, too.

[Xenon_Wulf]

Stubbdog, don't you mean RAVAGE?

[stubbdog]

SAVAGE.. RAVAGE... Whats in a little letter? :laugh:

I already told you I couldnt read it... :laugh:

[stubbdog]

Dude!!!

I guess it has been too long since i was really able to spend more than a few minutes over here.

Here my few responses in this thread were based on personal opinions of theoretical magazines. That is if you were just now starting to create it nd asking for suggestions, those would hold up.

I just NOW noticed that you already uploaded the online version of your EZine.

Man, FF, hope you didnt take my comments as a put down on your zine. It looks pretty good.

My opinions related to an unknown magazine still apply, but since your current EZine is not an unknown anymore but online, my opinions only partly apply.

The tutorial that was put in there related to the water base was great! Now I just need that person to do two more tutorials just like it, except using square bases and the diorama in which that square base would fit into.

Story stuff for the Maulifaux is pretty good. Not sure this particular zine has enough info in it tho to justify going to professional print. Me choosing to print it personally yes, but pro printed, I think I would wait for future additions when more true information and/or more paintjobs could be included.