Anybody know how to get noticed?

[kailhofer]

I'd just love for more people to be looking at Aphelion's stories and the challenges, especially since this one is a new format and it helps out the Bill Warren's Aphelion Project Universe the editors are trying to start.

Of the 60+ views the challenge thread has I figure equates to around 20 people looking at it. The rest were probably the same checking the replies or looking again at the rules. Chances are, it will turn into 4-6 stories submitted from the faithful.

I dearly love the stories that come in, and am ever so thankful to those who submit time after time. I think we're doing good writing, and I think I'm helping other writers with no strings attached. That's a warm fuzzy feeling for me, I promise.

But, man, I'd love for more people to see these entries. They're good, and I think they were a lot of fun for the authors to write. I'd love for more people to enter. I'd love for there to be more people commenting on the regular stories in the zine. This is an outstanding magazine and one hell of a good forum.

How do we get noticed? Honestly, I think we're missing a step somewhere.

Nate

[kailhofer]

I've looked but I couldn't find the list of marketing suggestions from GLP when we were talking about improving the board & readership last? year. I know Rob did the update of the look (and very well, too), and he did the RSS feeds, but apart from that, I can't remember what was on that list.

If we wanted the quickest result, I would suggest the most easy to reach market for Aphelion is other writers. That way things can be targeted to people who already want to read/write SF/F/H. Also, there's a lot of them out there, and they might be more likely to participate in a forum of other writers.

To that end it might be best to spend some time updating Aphelion's listing on market listing sites like Ralan to include the other shared universes and contests. (But I think that has to be sent by an Editor.) Most of the listings for Aphelion I've found are pretty sparse, and maybe only mention the Mare. Anybody hang out at writers sites, like Absolute Write or anything like that where you could post a plug? Rumor Mill is dead, isn't it?

To reach a general, fiction-loving audience, I don't know how do that.

As to books, I've thought about this a lot, since I work at a printing plant, and I do the estimating. My English degree was heavily slanted toward book editing & production, so I know a lot about how to publish books (as of 20 years ago, anyway). The big problem (after you have enough orders to keep the per price down to something reasonable) is distribution. A lot of these small publishing houses expect the authors to do distribution. Well, friends and relatives will only buy so many copies, and then they gather dust. I'd love to see something with my name on it in Barnes & Noble but without an established distributor picking you up, forget about it. Every inch of the space in those stores comes at a premium. We've got a customer that's been negotiating to get his historical newspapers in there for must be close to a whole year now. Yikes! Plus, what if they don't sell, and you have to remainder them back? Headache city!

Conventional mail/ship distribution is no easy feat, either, especially when your orders could come in from anywhere on the globe. (I've never done any international shipping. Don't know how that works.)

Nate

[kailhofer]

There are self-publishing options like lulu.com that claim to be "free to publish with no set up fees". They are print-on-demand and so keep the production costs Nate was discussing very low. And print-on-demand means no unsold copies collecting dust. They also apparently can take care of distribution if you want to sell through them. A best of issue of Aphelion could be made available and then promoted for web site visitors and contributors alike.

I've been flirting with the idea of self-publishing some old writings and family projects through lulu to see if they are what they claim. Maybe someone else here has already tried something like this and has some advice.

The only other problem I see with a best of issue is copyright. From my reading of the submission guidelines here it looks like Aphelion is only retaining first online publication rights which would not cover a print edition.

Davidson Hero

First of all, welcome to the forum!

I've never tried POD. Lulu was rated as honest by Predators & Editors, but that was about all it said about them. I myself am awfully leery about the virtual storefront they offer. I have asked other authors at small houses how well their storefronts worked for them, even the ones that cross-connected to Amazon, and not one of them said their sales went well. Apparently, just having a book in a storefront was no guarantee that sales would follow.

Also, I was a typesetter for over 15 years, and the idea that one can just grab a template and dump a book into it... never struck me as realistic. Any we did always needed too much customization, but then again I'm amazed how far templates and project wizards have come since those days.

Publishing so that we can have a book may be worthwhile. For me, it would after all feel satisfying to see it and hold it in my hands. However, if the goal was to attract new people by seeing regular editions in racks somewhere, that may not be quite as successful. If we went through all the work and basically still no one was reading it... that may be too much to bear.

Dan has always said Aphelion wouldn't lay claim to even the first online rights if it could, but just publishing the stories used them up by technicality. Any other reproduction would require separate copyright agreements with all authors involved, of course.

More ideas? Keep 'em coming!

Nate

[doc]

[quote]The only other problem I see with a best of issue is copyright. From my reading of the submission guidelines here it looks like Aphelion is only retaining first online publication rights which would not cover a print edition./quote]

Correct. Actually, Aphelion doesn't even retain "first online", simply "online". We've published stories that have appeared elsewhere on occasion, though the large bulk of our material is original to the zine.

You'll also note that every story carries a copyright notice explicitly stating copyright belongs to the author, not the zine.

I've toyed with the idea of a one-off print copy of Aphelion, best of or whatever, over the years, and I keep deciding that as much as it would be cool, it's likely more hassle than it's worth. And you're right, we'd have to renegotiate the rights on every single story.

[doc]

The intended demographic is science fiction readers. Thus, there are several options. Publishing a book is a good one, but has (as indicated) several problems. Large posters in bookstores are another possibility.

Or trying to get mentioned on a bookstore's email newsletter. (There must be a lot of bookstores who use email for marketing purposes; perhaps some can be asked if they'll include a link at some point).

Honestly, posters would be largely useless. If I had a dollar for every website I saw mentioend on a poster or billboard that I never remembered to visit by the time I was near a computer, I could afford to buy Aphelion a 30 second Superbowl ad. It might get noticed, but it's not likely it would be remembered.

A better approach would be much smaller -- if we could design a cool looking, eye-catching business card sized ad, we could print up several thousand of them and ask bookstores if we can leave a stack of them on the counter. They could also be taken to SF conventions by people attending them and left on the freebie table (which is probably closer to reaching our target demographic anyway. If people have something to take with them, they're more likely to actually visit the site. Also, pound-for-pound, business cards are relatively cheap.

[Megawatts]

Donald H. Sullivan---dsullivan--has just published a book with Lulu! The Psionic Man. You can go to his web-site and download it, or order it from Lulu. I ordered a copy from Lulu and am reading it now.
So far, a good story!

[kailhofer]

So, someone designs a bookmark or business card that plugs Aphelion, then it's kept on file. Does someone going to a con get them shipped to him or her, or just downloads a pdf, then prints a small pile on their own printer? Something like that?


Ok... [clears throat]

I need to find a way to get more votes cast in the challenge before Wednesday night. Since Thursday, there's only 4 votes. Frankly, that's pathetic. I know for a fact that one was mine, and another was my guest vote from my wife (if I could only get her to vote for me :(). There are 2 other authors... There is a strong possibility the other votes were from them.

How about you Editors? There's 8 active on the contact list, and at least that would be a chance of getting a representative sampling. If you haven't already, could you take time off your busy schedule to read 3,000 words and vote? I am trying to help our fearless leader get some momentum for the Bill Warren universe, after all.

Anybody else out there? Hello?


Nate

(PS-No, I'm not asking just because so far I'm getting my butt kicked in the vote.)

[kailhofer]

Have you thought about selling a PDF instead of a hardcopy? It would be cheaper for all parties involved, and it could always be printed by the purchaser. It would give you the freedom to do full-colour pages, and maybe even have mini author biographies will small photos. You could produce one a year, or every 6 months, or whatever, and have "best-of" stories, feature authors, have articles about some of the shared universes, writing advice, interviews, and all sorts of neat stuff. I think that would be kind of cool.

Hello, and welcome to the forum!

That could be cool. You skip the print cost, but still have the headaches of design. Obviously, one would still need to negotiate the applicable rights, plus figure out how to divvy any royalties or defray expenses. I don't know how far Dan wants to go as a publishing entity, or if someone would have to form a separate corp/org to serve as legal publisher as well as carry any liability in the case of libel or pornography claims. (A lot of people can be offended by surprisingly little.) Plus there's a storefront to sell the thing... Unless you mean someone donates all the time & it's all free? Don't know what the impact would be to Dan's bandwidth...

Also, you could have a section of the site that has several promotional tools. Different sized banners or linkbars, so people can link to Aphelion from their personal site if they choose to do so. Also maybe several different sizes of flyers-- full page, half page, and quarter page-- that people could print and post in areas they find appropriate (community bulletin boards, tables at cons, comic and game shops, bookstores, and the like).

I'm no editor, but that sounds easy enough to do. I'd even volunteer. I haven't been a graphic designer for years, but I could still make something that won't look awful.

Another idea to look into, is I know that for comic sites there exists several sites that rank them (via open polls, which also creates a searchable database), and even do annual awards (where they make a banner for you if you win and you are plugged on their site). I bet that something exists like that for sites that feature writing (fan-fiction and the like is ever-so-popular at the moment) so finding it and getting this site on the polls and therefor noticed would be a good thing.
You may have to devote some time to scouring the internet looking for communities of people who you think would be interested in Aphelion.

Ah, but who would do that? That's probably key. Do you know anyone willing to be a "goodwill ambassador"? Somebody good at selling, perhaps?

I also had a couple suggestions and I thought I would stick them here as I think they are related to bringing new people to the site. I don't think the site is very "new-people-friendly," if that makes any sense. The forums could have a FAQ thread and maybe also a thread for new users to introduce themselves. In addition to that, from an outsider's point of view, a lot of things are left unexplained (maybe an "About" section on the sidebar?). Because of this, the community feels a little closed off (and mildly intimidating).

Any changes in format are up to Rob Wynne, but I do remember feeling the same way when I first started out. I lurked for a month, posted a message, a few weeks later another, then gradually joined into conversations.

I've been around for too long to remember the things I wondered about then, so out of curiosity, what questions would you like to see answered in a FAQ? What would you put in an 'About' section?

Nate

[Megawatts]

What’s the possibility of have a quarterly or semi-yearly or yearly magazine in print?  I don’t know zit about publishing or advertising----I’m the first to admit that.

I sing with the Barbershops and we used to have concerts. However, over the years our membership has declined----death and members having to move for employment.

Leading up to one or our yearly concerts, we would sale advertising space in our program booklets. It was a nice additional income to our ticket sales.

I was thinking that if a magazine published by Aphelion sold advertising space, then that might offset the cost of publishing, and donations from the core readers might make up the rest.

Just a thought!