Progress Report: Free 1st Issue Proposal & Article Request -- Squad Leader Discussion Forum

[ Show ]

Support VoyForums

[ Shrink ]

VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 01:03:40 08/16/04 Mon
Author: Tom Cundiff
Subject: Progress Report: Free 1st Issue Proposal & Article Request
In reply to: Tom Cundiff 's message, ""Old Soldiers" Magazine ... a proposal" on 23:58:11 08/09/04 Mon

Howdy Ladies and Gents,

After a flying start things have slowed down to a crawl. This was not unexpected. There�s always an initial burst of enthusiasm in all projects. Success goes to those who work to obtain the results desired. To that end, you, and I have to work to enlist the aid of our fellow wargamers, that is recommend, beg, and cajole them into subscribing. We�ve reached 45 subscribers. Since Wed. last there has been only 5 more people subscribe. I�ve spoken with Bruce Monnin as to what type of initial interest he had when first he floated the Boardgamer, and it took him 6 months to get 100 subscribers. One thing Bruce did that is probably a good idea is to produce a sample issue as a marketing tool. That would probably serve us well too, and I note several of you have mentioned the same thing. To that end, I hope those of you who have offered to write will forward articles for that first (free) issue. As one subscriber humorously wrote, �you probably have enough old articles and as yet unpublished articles to populate a magazine for a year�. Well, he�s correct of course, but diversity of authorship is of value in a magazine. To that end I truly desire the work of other authors than myself overall, as well as for this �free trial issue�.

Getting to that golden number of 110 subscribers will be hard work and require the devotion of us all. Only the dedication of all of us will see �Old Soldiers� succeed. Don�t let this effort fade away. I�m asking for your help to make this a success.

Article Guidelines:
The only type of article that is probably not useful is the �Review� article for old games, though this is probably just fine for new games from the smaller game companies. Older games have long since seen review articles written on them, so the need for more of the same seems redundant to me.

Strategy, Tactics, & Variant articles are all fair game. Series Replays are well received also. But, there�s a difference between a SR and an AAR (After Action Report). AAR�s don�t interest me in a publication such as this. The difference is the neutral commentary. I was asked if purely historic articles would interest my readership. I am guessing that being wargamers we all would enjoy reading the occasional good military history article. Book reviews of military history books, spy novels, nautical fiction, etc. would probably also interest the readership. I�d be especially interested in an analytic look at the best of Napoleonic Literature, or Age of Sail Literature, US Civil War Literature (even on specific battles since there is such a plethora of books on the US Civil War). Book reviews of this type done in a scholarly manner are a boon to all interested in military history. There�s so much to read and so little written to help us decide exactly what is of value amongst that which is published. Perhaps half a page or so can be devoted to such each issue.

Articles should be submitted in MSWord.doc format. Pdf is a strict no-no. My computer simply doesn�t like Adobe products. If you submit graphics with an article, and they are copies of copyrighted material, please provide a method for me to contact the game company possessing the copyright so I can clear its use in the magazine. I�ve no desire to tread on the all too touchy toes of copyright holders. In this context, the use of small sections of boards or counters should be seen as good press for those who hold the copyrights, but the ways of mankind are all too illogical.

If you do send an article to be used in these first few free issues, or for any other purpose for that matter, please provide me a name and address for the author(s).

Well, I think that covers it for now. If you want to see �Old Soldiers� grow, you and I need to move our friends off the fences to subscribe. And the writers amongst us need to write good articles. Bad articles, though they may occasionally get through, and we�ve all seen them, are really bad for free sample issues attempting to demonstrate the value of a new publication. So, the first articles need to be really good ones to show case the value of the writers and the magazine, for afterall a magazine is nothing but a cover for the pens of its authors. After that, let�s use those first excellent articles as a benchmark by which to judge our work in the future. Hopefully, those few bad articles that always exist, will have a jaundiced eye to brave before they see print. Quality work is very important.

Hopefully enough of you will take up the gauntlet and go tilting at windmills to see this venture succeed.

Sincerely,
Tom Cundiff

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

Old Soldiers Magazine Weekly Update 1 Sept. 2004 -- Old Soldiers Magazine, 22:11:18 08/31/04 Tue