The Enid Blyton Society

I am sure that many of you know that at the end of April we are facing a huge increase on postal charges in the UK. Second Class post is rising by 38% and if this figure is used for heavier postal rates and overseas mail it could cripple the Journal. Until we are told the new rates it is impossible to be definite, but assuming this percentage increase is applied across the board a year's worth of UK Journals will cost an extra £1, Europe £2 and Worldwide £3. Already 542 Journals are paid for (J48 286, J49 171 and J50 85) and all will make a loss and there are a great many resubscription forms yet to come back at the same price and obviously I will have to honour all of these. In the past few months I have already had to increase the worldwide charge from £13 to £14 as it was making a loss and it is now just about breaking even, but in order to continue to break even I would have to raise this to £17 and probably in doing so price us out of the market altogether; even at the current rate a fair number feel it is too much and are not renewing.

Anyway, enough for now, but I just thought I should put the warning out to all those who like to wait until they get reminders in July (a further drain on Society funds!), that either the price of the Journal will have to increase or it will have to close.

The quality of the Journal is second to none. It is not profit-making, only priced to cover its costs (and sometimes fails to do that). I know money is tight with many people, but I feel it must continue, albeit at a higher price. If it went to £24 a year, it is still extremely good value for money, and an amount that I would pay.

I can never understand why some people wait for a renewal reminder before deciding to renew. Come on, folks, don't you realise that this involves extra cost and workload for Tony? The second my renewal form falls out of the Journal, I am straight on to PayPal and re-subscribe.

Isn't the Journal worth it?

I'm rather glad I didn't resubscribe yet. If I already did, I'd have added 3 Journals to the 'loss' list.

I wouldn't mind a raised price, Tony. I think I'll wait until then before I renew my subscription.

Ming wrote:I wouldn't mind a raised price, Tony. I think I'll wait until then before I renew my subscription.

You can always donate the difference later so that the Society doesn't lose out. Subscribe now, old thing!

My dad deactivated his PayPal account.

And there's no way I'm sending a check. It's going to get lost the minute it's in the mail.

I have a question - is it possible to move the journal to an all electronic format? Don't get me wrong. I completely agree that the journal is awesome, and I would continue to subscribe. But as Tony knows, I have lost a couple of issues in the mail (yes, the US postal service does lose my mail, and has done so before), and I can't help thinking that an electronic version, that is also a subscription service, available using a password, might be a good idea. It might also help widen the subscriber base, if some people are holding back from subscribing right now because of lost mail issues. This would be especially true of people outside of the EU.

I know people love to hold a real paper copy in their hands, and indeed so do I, but given that virtually every publication is now available in an electronic format, I at least don't have a problem with the EB Society journal moving to an electronic format as well. Typically electronic documents are cheaper to publish than paper documents, so that might be another thing that would help widen the subscriber base. And certainly, in my view, it is preferable to the journal closing down. But I probably am in a minority on this.

I would love that too - it would perhaps also be fantastic to have ALL the back issues available for sale as a PDF. All my Journals end up going to Hong Kong and I don't get it till months, sometimes years later.

It's better with things from the UK - whenever Keith sent me a book from the US, to Hong Kong, it didn't arrive until at least six months later. The Journals reach my uncle's doorstep within a day or two.

I'm happy to pay more to cover the postal charge for future subscriptions and for the remaining ones in my current one.

I am more than happy with an increase in subscription rates. Always thought it was quite low to be honest anyway!

Yes, I'm more than happy for the increases. The journal is worth every penny, and you get a lot for your money. So on with the rise!

Ming wrote:My dad deactivated his PayPal account.
And there's no way I'm sending a check. It's going to get lost the minute it's in the mail.

Check? Still using American English then, old thing!
Don't worry about PayPal. I'm more than willing to fund your subscription, and you can pay me back when we meet up again.

I too would be happy to pay more for such a stunning Journal and even though I've already renewed, I am more than happy to make up the difference if you can send me the Paypal invoice Tony, or let me know of an easier way.

Ming wrote:I would love that too - it would perhaps also be fantastic to have ALL the back issues available for sale as a PDF.

Sadly there are problems here and I don't think PDF Journals are ever going to be viable. I do now send the Journal to the printers as PDF files, which is why the quality of photos and illustrations is so much better now. However, note the plural here, Journals 47 was actually 23 PDF files. I put the Journal together as Word files, but when they get to a certain size it becomes impossible to put illustrations where I want them and often I have to split longer articles into more than one file. The centre pages would also be a problem as they are done as landscape whilst all the rest are portrait.

The bigger problem, however, is getting them onto the website. I spent three weeks redoing all the first 8 Journals as single PDF files and I gave them to Keith nine months ago to be loaded onto the Secret Passage so that they would be freely available to all members. But Keith is extremely busy with his writing and I am not sure that they will ever get onto the website. At his request I also sent the last seven Journals on disc to Matt Roberts as he thought he would be able to do something with them. As yet he hasn't acknowledged receiving them, but that was only six months ago.

There is also the problem that I have referred to before and that is that the Journal needs the income from these postal subscriptions to survive and despite some of the kind remarks here, many people already feel it is too expensive. Unusually I have had two letters this time from long-term subscribers who will no longer be doing so as they are trying to cut down on expenditure, but most people just don't renew and that is how I know that they are no longer with us. We used to get about 80% renewing each time, but now we are lucky to get 50% and it is only new members that keep the numbers up.

Sorry to hear you are struggling a bit Tony with the expense of the Journal. I think the current price is very reasonable, so would have no objections to a price rise. I recently renewed, so I think I've got 2 more journals to come at the old price, but I'm happy to add the difference on to my next renewal if it will help.

I can sympathise with people who are having to cut back due to the current economic situation, but if it's any consolation, I'll be giving up (or at least cutting down) chocolate before I cancel my subscription.

Tony, a couple of things: first, although I am no expert in electronic publishing, I believe there are specialized software available for this. My office uses specialized software to produce electronic documents. I could check with the relevant people, if you like. Also, if I remember correctly, Fatty mentioned something called print on demand sometime back, so maybe he knows more about this.

Second, you mentioned that you need the money from the print version. That implies that you think the e-version will lose money, and I am unclear on why this should be so. Typically, electronic publications see greater circulation than print ones, so wouldn't the journal make money if more people subscribe?