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Words from Mordenkainen's Apprentice

  • May. 31st, 2007 at 9:49 PM
Kobold
I am done transcribing the interview with Paizo publisher Erik Mona for Kobold Quarterly #1. The whole thing totals more than 10,000 words, which he managed in just about an hour. The man can *talk*, ladies and gentlemen.

Now I just have to choose which half of those words will actually see print. As I have learned many times in many interviews, from Piers Anthony to China Mieville, this is why interviews are not just "free word count". But lemme tell ya, it's a crackerjack interview.

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[info]lby3 wrote:
Jun. 2nd, 2007 04:52 am (UTC)
"Now I just have to choose which half of those words will actually see print. As I have learned many times in many interviews, from Piers Anthony to China Mieville, this is why interviews are not just "free word count"."

Amen. I worked three hours of unpaid overtime last week cutting and cutting and cutting a piece trying to get to the size my editor wanted, sacrificing whole quotes, keeping the best half of others, all because I had too much it-feels-crucial stuff.
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[info]olaf_the_stout wrote:
Jun. 3rd, 2007 01:49 am (UTC)
Will Open Design patrons get to see the full interview?

Olaf the Stout
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[info]open_design wrote:
Jun. 3rd, 2007 03:40 am (UTC)
Nobody will see the full interview but me, since there's a bunch of material that's cut for good reason. But all the good stuff stays, edited for length and clarity.

I'm shooting for about 6 pages.
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[info]olaf_the_stout wrote:
Jun. 3rd, 2007 10:44 pm (UTC)
Oh I'm sure there's a whole heap on industry secrets and bitching about others in there that will be cut. ;-)

Will Open Design patrons see the (roughly) 6 page interview or will we only see a bit of it and have to subscribe to Kobold Quarterly to see it all?

Olaf the Stout
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[info]open_design wrote:
Jun. 3rd, 2007 11:45 pm (UTC)
Ah, I misunderstood the question, sorry. The Ari Marmell interview and the Sigfried Trent guest post are exceptions for Empire of the Ghouls, kind of like design essays started as freebies on top of the adventure work.

Spoken interviews are a ton of work, so now that I have a venue for them, the Mona Q&A will be published in KQ exclusively. It won't appear here except possibly as a teaser. The Wayne Reynolds interview is tentatively slotted for issue #2.

The intro subscription rate is $12, or 40% off the cover price. That rate probably won't last too much longer, and will certainly end as soon as the first issue ships. Of course, at that point, people can pick up single issues (though Lulu and/or Paizo) and decide whether they want to subscribe.
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[info]grodog wrote:
Jun. 4th, 2007 04:01 am (UTC)
print vs. .pdf costs?
Wolfgang---

Do you know whether the $12 will also provide some discount on the print/lulu version of KQ, or will the print version be an additional charge over-and-above the $12?

Thanks!

Allan.
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[info]open_design wrote:
Jun. 4th, 2007 05:48 am (UTC)
Re: print vs. .pdf costs?
Well, the $12 price is selling the PDF subscription at a loss, so I'm not clear how any print discount would be available. Certainly anyone who buys a print subscription will get the PDF as a free add-on.

The per-issue print price from Lulu will be set by Lulu based on length. I don't have an estimate there yet.

I'm still pricing out a physical print run, and when I have the numbers, I'll post them here. Postage alone is $9 per year for the US. If you have connections in the print business, by all means, I'd love to hear about them.
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[info]olaf_the_stout wrote:
Jun. 5th, 2007 12:59 am (UTC)
Re: print vs. .pdf costs?
I think the postage amount is going to be the biggest issue. $9 postage a year in the US almost doubles the cost of the magazine without even taking the actual printing costs into consideration. Unfortunately postage costs aren't really something that you can work around either.

Olaf the Stout
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[info]open_design wrote:
Jun. 5th, 2007 02:56 am (UTC)
Re: print vs. .pdf costs?
Yeah, it's very tough to reduce that cost. Being licensed as a periodical is a requirement (and takes rather a bit of paperwork the first time).

Presorted bulk mail helps slightly, but the main thing that drives costs down is volume (which I don't have).
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