Pre-order Bitcoin Magazine - Quality control, final revisions on proofs

[Matthew N. Wright]

Finally able to place my order.  Looking forward to reading it, and not having the magazine ruined if it rains. 

Haha good call.

Absolutely fantastic!
I was just about to order a 12month pack, printed, intl.
It says "Nothing will be shipped for this order." on checkout, is that to be ignored?

Ente

Questions with your orders at memorydealers.com should be asked to Roger@memorydealers.com

[cyberlync]

Absolutely fantastic!
I was just about to order a 12month pack, printed, intl.
It says "Nothing will be shipped for this order." on checkout, is that to be ignored?

Ente

Questions with your orders at memorydealers.com should be asked to Roger@memorydealers.com

I think he meant on bit-pay, I just checked, and it's correct, if you select the physical magazine (only worked if I selected 1x12 month international subscription) it says "No physical items will be shipped on this order." under the "Save Changes" link/button.

[Matthew N. Wright]

Absolutely fantastic!
I was just about to order a 12month pack, printed, intl.
It says "Nothing will be shipped for this order." on checkout, is that to be ignored?

Ente

Questions with your orders at memorydealers.com should be asked to Roger@memorydealers.com

I think he meant on bit-pay, I just checked, and it's correct, if you select the physical magazine (only worked if I selected 1x12 month international subscription) it says "No physical items will be shipped on this order." under the "Save Changes" link/button.

That's so strange. Where are you guys seeing this exactly? When I go to the last customer invoice, I see this:

Your order has been paid in full.
A copy of this receipt will be emailed to you. DO NOT LOSE this receipt.
You may also bookmark this page for proof of payment.

EDIT: Easiest solution. PM me the info you used to order and I'll just make sure it went through so that we know not to worry

[Ente]

This is how I found that bug:

http://bittalk.tv/?page_id=314
click "INTERNATIONAL": "12 Issues (Print + Digital)"
being forwarded to bit-pay

Even there, already, comes
"No physical items will be shipped on this order. "
(right under "Save Changes")

I went on and filled my info, next page that line came as well.

I guessed maybe I overread something in this thread, thats why I asked..

Want screenshots or anything to see what exactly goes on?
I can just go on with my order too.

Ente

[Matthew N. Wright]

This is how I found that bug:

http://bittalk.tv/?page_id=314
click "INTERNATIONAL": "12 Issues (Print + Digital)"
being forwarded to bit-pay

Even there, already, comes
"No physical items will be shipped on this order. "
(right under "Save Changes")

I went on and filled my info, next page that line came as well.

I guessed maybe I overread something in this thread, thats why I asked..

Want screenshots or anything to see what exactly goes on?
I can just go on with my order too.

Ente

Fixed! Thanks for letting me know. 

[cyberlync]

I ordered some time ago, I don't recall seeing it back then, and I was also contacted by bit-pay to clarify shipping country, so I think Im good. Just wanted to see if I could replicate that message Ente got, and I could, so I thought I would share it, just in case.

[Matthew N. Wright]

I ordered some time ago, I don't recall seeing it back then, and I was also contacted by bit-pay to clarify shipping country, so I think Im good. Just wanted to see if I could replicate that message Ente got, and I could, so I thought I would share it, just in case.

Thanks mate. It was my fault-- somehow the little ticker for "Digital goods" had been clicked. It doesn't matter to the actual item though, the invoice for the item is saved just the same and we go off the title of it not the radio selectors. Everyone should be fine.

[Boussac]

Hmm, will it really cost 50 $ to have it shipped to EU???

Can't be right...

What shipping option should an EU buyer use on memorydealers?

I have no idea why it says that. I think his shipping is based off of usual products and not a magazine. I'll talk to him about it. Thanks for bringing this up.

I wish you the best for this magazine whose time has come. I am waiting for the clarification about overseas shipping to order the first issue.

[Ente]

Nice, thank you Matthew, will order right away! :-)

Ente

[BitLucky]

this looks awesome, just ordered a copy!

[Matthew N. Wright]

UPDATE: Good news and bad news ladies and gentlemen.

Good news

Barnes and Noble's supplier is working with me right now to get everything ready for distribution (and guess what, the manager I'm working with saw the Good Wife episode and is very interested in Bitcoin  ) and it looks like we'll be hitting the majority of the stores. We need to do our own budgeting for additional advertising packages etc to make it attractive for the stores to carry it, but that's all boring business stuff we're taking care of.


Bad news

The entire process could take several months. As anyone with basic math skills could figure out by now, printing out 2,000 issues is probably not cheap, and we only get the revenue of the issues that are actually sold, the rest of the issues being thrown in the garbage by the stores. This means that we have an interesting choice to make on design+quality. Should we:

• Go as cheap as possible for printing quality and binding until we sign the paperwork for distribution by major stores, at which time we have all the bells and whistles (and even up it to 100 pages); or
• Do we treat the community as our main target, run on the revenue we get from the community only, and see if we last 3 months on that alone.

It's one of those difficult management decisions, and I'm the one who has to make it so I'd like some kind, non-judgmental, and constructive advice on the matter.


P.S. My own personal feelings (which don't count for shit btw in the face of the entire community, i.e. our livelihood) are that we should run lean for 3 months, secure the magazine on a small platform in the community only, then come bursting out the gates in style in 3 months time with the more expensive binding styles (look up saddlestitch vs perfect binding and remind yourself that the difference is $3,500 for us at current volume)

[Technomage]

There is a third option which is to simply postpone the first issue for a couple of months. I'm sure the people who preordered will understand because there is actually a good reason for that.

My other comment is regarding the amount of issues and I was especially shocked to see the comment on increasing the amount of pages to 100+. I don't think you commented on my post earlier but I really, really recommend rethinking the amount of magazines you plan to publish each year and the amount of content in one magazine. Here is the post: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=61017.msg712004#msg712004

What tends to happen to many niche magazines is that they have great content in the beginning but then they have to come up with fillers which can be disastrous. I don't want this magazine to die like that.

[Timbo925]

IMO would be the best to come out with the digital and the saddle stitch version at first. Only selling it online. This way you also have a idea of the volume you need to print from all the preorders.
After some months when all the BN stuff is figured out. (And you made a small profit from the online selling) You can make the transition to the better perfect binding and release it in stores with issue number #001. So all the issues before the first BN magazine is kind of a soft launch (This way their is room for change and maybe even helpful input form the community to do some fine tuning before the official launch).

Just my 2 censts  

[ptshamrock]

IMO would be the best to come out with the digital and the saddle stitch version at first. Only selling it online. This way you also have a idea of the volume you need to print from all the preorders.
After some months when all the BN stuff is figured out. (And you made a small profit from the online selling) You can make the transition to the better perfect binding and release it in stores with issue number #001. So all the issues before the first BN magazine is kind of a soft launch (This way their is room for change and maybe even helpful input form the community to do some fine tuning before the official launch).

Just my 2 censts  

+1

[istar]

UPDATE: Good news and bad news ladies and gentlemen.

Good news

Barnes and Noble's supplier is working with me right now to get everything ready for distribution (and guess what, the manager I'm working with saw the Good Wife episode and is very interested in Bitcoin  ) and it looks like we'll be hitting the majority of the stores. We need to do our own budgeting for additional advertising packages etc to make it attractive for the stores to carry it, but that's all boring business stuff we're taking care of.


Bad news

The entire process could take several months. As anyone with basic math skills could figure out by now, printing out 2,000 issues is probably not cheap, and we only get the revenue of the issues that are actually sold, the rest of the issues being thrown in the garbage by the stores. This means that we have an interesting choice to make on design+quality. Should we:

• Go as cheap as possible for printing quality and binding until we sign the paperwork for distribution by major stores, at which time we have all the bells and whistles (and even up it to 100 pages); or
• Do we treat the community as our main target, run on the revenue we get from the community only, and see if we last 3 months on that alone.

It's one of those difficult management decisions, and I'm the one who has to make it so I'd like some kind, non-judgmental, and constructive advice on the matter.


P.S. My own personal feelings (which don't count for shit btw in the face of the entire community, i.e. our livelihood) are that we should run lean for 3 months, secure the magazine on a small platform in the community only, then come bursting out the gates in style in 3 months time with the more expensive binding styles (look up saddlestitch vs perfect binding and remind yourself that the difference is $3,500 for us at current volume)

3rd option:
Raise the price for the following editions and single copies sold in the stores?

[Phinnaeus Gage]

Subscribers could order two copies, giving one as a gift.

My other idea would take a little more effort, but doable. There's plenty of niche Brick & Mortar outfits that this type of periodical would cater to their clientele without having to go through a magazine distribution center. Forgive me for not offering up some or even one example, but would others here be so kind as to give us examples?

Then you have those stand-alone newspaper/magazine racks that display only their periodical, albeit most of them are for free, but some are for sale. I'm not sure what the percentage payout would be, but I envision something like this at 7-11's (for example purpose only) where the proprietor has a vested interested in having these sell out. What doesn't sell, is returned to the distributor, in this case would be you--possible at your cost. But with a little math (assuming you're good it at), you'll be able to calculate your ROI as a whole.

Another route, is MLM or direct market the mags. Or put in a referral system of sorts.

This is just a little snag, one which can be overcome provided extra thought and effort is put into it.

God's speed,

~Bruno~

[Phinnaeus Gage]

UPDATE: Good news and bad news ladies and gentlemen.

Good news

Barnes and Noble's supplier is working with me right now to get everything ready for distribution (and guess what, the manager I'm working with saw the Good Wife episode and is very interested in Bitcoin  ) and it looks like we'll be hitting the majority of the stores. We need to do our own budgeting for additional advertising packages etc to make it attractive for the stores to carry it, but that's all boring business stuff we're taking care of.


Bad news

The entire process could take several months. As anyone with basic math skills could figure out by now, printing out 2,000 issues is probably not cheap, and we only get the revenue of the issues that are actually sold, the rest of the issues being thrown in the garbage by the stores. This means that we have an interesting choice to make on design+quality. Should we:

• Go as cheap as possible for printing quality and binding until we sign the paperwork for distribution by major stores, at which time we have all the bells and whistles (and even up it to 100 pages); or
• Do we treat the community as our main target, run on the revenue we get from the community only, and see if we last 3 months on that alone.

It's one of those difficult management decisions, and I'm the one who has to make it so I'd like some kind, non-judgmental, and constructive advice on the matter.

P.S. My own personal feelings (which don't count for shit btw in the face of the entire community, i.e. our livelihood) are that we should run lean for 3 months, secure the magazine on a small platform in the community only, then come bursting out the gates in style in 3 months time with the more expensive binding styles (look up saddlestitch vs perfect binding and remind yourself that the difference is $3,500 for us at current volume)

3rd option:
Raise the price for the following editions and single copies sold in the stores?

Check out the price of this magazine which sells out quickly at B&M and other fine book stores. The crafters swear by it, some paying a premium to purchase back issues on eBay. http://www.stampington.com/prims/

If magazine normally sell for $6.95 but yours is offered at a premium of $9.95, it gives the sense of value provided, of course, there is value in having the magazine.

[Matthew N. Wright]

Then you have those stand-alone newspaper/magazine racks that display only their periodical, albeit most of them are for free, but some are for sale.

Those spots are typically around $800 per store in fact. Also, have no misconceptions-- everyone goes through a distributor. The market is pretty well owned. I've researched it and what we're doing now (and some of the things I haven't mentioned in this thread) seem the safest and most logical direction to go. Understand that when I mention things here, we're already balanced the risks and done the homework. We're just looking for the feelings of the community on A or B.

My other comment is regarding the amount of issues and I was especially shocked to see the comment on increasing the amount of pages to 100+.

We're not doing it for sure, and we'll only do it when it's financially possible. Your fears of quality of content are well heard and felt all across the board, but money fixes all problems as they say. When you can afford good writers from existing major magazines to cover certain subjects, your problem stops being "how much content" and "how can we make this other dumber shit look good in the face of this newer awesome shit". I'll be more than happy if that was our biggest issue.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

Then you have those stand-alone newspaper/magazine racks that display only their periodical, albeit most of them are for free, but some are for sale.

Those spots are typically around $800 per store in fact. Also, have no misconceptions-- everyone goes through a distributor. The market is pretty well owned. I've researched it and what we're doing now (and some of the things I haven't mentioned in this thread) seem the safest and most logical direction to go. Understand that when I mention things here, we're already balanced the risks and done the homework. We're just looking for the feelings of the community on A or B.

My other comment is regarding the amount of issues and I was especially shocked to see the comment on increasing the amount of pages to 100+.

We're not doing it for sure, and we'll only do it when it's financially possible. Your fears of quality of content are well heard and felt all across the board, but money fixes all problems as they say. When you can afford good writers from existing major magazines to cover certain subjects, your problem stops being "how much content" and "how can we make this other dumber shit look good in the face of this newer awesome shit". I'll be more than happy if that was our biggest issue.

There are plenty of good writers still enrolled in higher education that would love to have a chance to get published, some free while others at a very low cost. They'll know the subject matter one way or another. Remember, they have strong opinions and view points of the world that we current reside in.

~Bruno~

[Matthew N. Wright]

There are plenty of good writers still enrolled in higher education that would love to have a chance to get published, some free while others at a very low cost. They'll know the subject matter one way or another. Remember, they have strong opinions and view points of the world that we current reside in.

No offense but, I've seen the difference between "writing" and "entertaining writing"  and that difference spells out "career".

I'm always open to what people submit though, I just hope they realize that just because it came from their fingertips and it's technically accurate and factual, doesn't mean it's fit to be published in a magazine. That said, one of our own writers is from the Bitcoin community