Observations / Suggestions

What did you think of the latest Journal?
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cranberry
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Observations / Suggestions

Post by cranberry »

Tony Summerfield wrote:For those that are interested Journal 50 was posted out today. If you are reading this but are not a subscriber, we still need another 32 UK subscriptions on this issue to break even, as at present it has gone out at a loss.
It's been four weeks since I happened upon the Enid Blyton Society's website, and I am still exploring the Cave and the forums, which has turned out to be a very enjoyable pastime indeed. That Cave is amazingly meticulous! From the forum posts I've read, it sounds like Tony has poured large quantities of blood, sweat, and tears into making the Cave as awesome as it is. So today, when I saw his post (above), it felt wrong to me that his good work for the Society should suffer a financial loss. I have therefore just subscribed to the Journal.

That got me thinking about why I didn't subscribe when I first found out about the Journal a few weeks ago. As Tony has said that any feedback is better than none, I figured I'd post my thoughts.

The answer is that I simply couldn't tell what the Journal actually was and thus whether I would like it. What sort of articles are published? What is the quality of the writing? Will the article topics interest me? Are they only going to appeal to Blyton scholars, or will I (just someone who loved reading EB books when I was a child, and still do now) understand and enjoy them too?

I looked at the Journal Catalogue to find out, but the contents headers don't give enough information for me to tell whether I would be interested in reading them. For example, this was my honest reaction, when I first looked at Journal 49's contents: What a Dilemma! by Terry Gustafson - dilemma about what? If it's about a book/character that I know, this could be interesting. Robert Tyndall - who is he, and what kind of article will this be - a biography? A tribute? Examples of his best work? [I know now from the forums that he's the Noddy illustrator, but when I first looked at the Journal Catalogue, I didn't know that.] Warm-Hearted Children by Enid Blyton - is this an excerpt from an unpublished EB manuscript? That'd be cool. Or is someone simply commenting on the warm-hearted children in EB books?

It was because I couldn't tell whether the Journal would appeal to me that I didn't subscribe.

Suggestion #1: Have a sub-title for each entry of the Journal contents, e.g.

Robert Tyndall
A tribute to the illustrator of the famous Noddy books

At that point, I thought well, I'll purchase the latest issue of the Journal and see if I like it. If I do, I'll subscribe. So I went to the Online Shop to buy issue 49...to find that only members are allowed to purchase back issues of the Journal - so I couldn't.

Suggestion #2: Why not allow non-members to buy individual issues of the Journal?

Another thing...my bookcases at home are stuffed enough as it is...and all the non-EB books I buy now are ebooks, so that they will neither take up more shelf space nor deteriorate over time. Also, postage costs are abominable these days, and it must cost a fortune to post copies of the Journal all over the world. So:

Suggestion #3: I think I read on one of the threads that Tony sends a PDF of the Journal to the printers. Maybe readers can now be given the option to purchase an electronic version of the Journal. After payment is processed, send them a download link, or email the e-Journal to them as a PDF. Naturally, the price of the e-Journal would be lower than the price of the printed Journal. This might encourage Journal sales. I know the e-Journal idea has already been suggested, and people said they like it in hard copy only because that increases its rarity value...but surely it's better for the Society to offer the electronic option, than to lose money on producing the Journal in the first place.

By the way - Tony, if you're reading this, I'm happy for you to email me the three Journals that my subscription has bought, rather than post hard copies to me. You can keep the hard copies for sale in the Online Shop, if you like - all proceeds to the Society! :D

Finally...

Suggestion #4: Have a DONATE button on the website for people like me who enjoy the site and want to contribute towards its upkeep, no matter whether we subscribe to the Journal.

I'm sure you guys have other suggestions...
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Re: Observations / Suggestions

Post by Fiona1986 »

I think most of those suggestions are excellent. The only thing is that non members can buy back issues from the Society Shop, just not the two most recent ones. Unfortunately the majority of old issues are sold out.
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Post by Julie2owlsdene »

I'm not sure I'd want the journal in any other format. I do like to hold a book etc in my hand, and with the current Journal as it is, this is possible. I'm afraid I couldn't sit at a computer or read a Kindle and appreciate it in the same way. :?

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Re: Observations / Suggestions

Post by Fiona1986 »

Well, having both an electronic version and a physical version would give people the choice. I think I'd prefer a physical journal, too, but for others an electronic option may suit them.
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Re: Observations / Suggestions

Post by cranberry »

:mrgreen: Swatithought, Fiona!

I was talking about this with my husband on the drive home tonight, and he said he'd definitely go for an e-journal rather than a hard copy. (He is techno-man, so that's no great surprise!) The thing is, there are a lot of techno-people these days, who might be happy with an e-journal too. Couldn't hurt to have the two options - paper version and electronic version - could it? He said if the hard copy version cost £10 for subscription, he'd be willing to pay £8 for the electronic version. Bearing in mind that:
Tony Summerfield wrote:Further to Katharine's post above, after doing the maths a couple of days ago I can tell you that that if you remove the postage, the actual cost of a UK Journal is £2.18!
an £8 e-Journal subscription should go some way towards subsidising the cost of printing and posting the hard copies that others subscribe to, no?
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Re: Observations / Suggestions

Post by Fiona1986 »

Sadly (as I'm sure Tony will be able to explain properly) it's not as straight forward as it sounds to create ejournal versions. I can't remember the exact details but I think the pdfs send to the printers are not suitable to simply send to subscribers.
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Re: Observations / Suggestions

Post by Katharine »

Cranberry, I thought your observations/suggestions were very interesting. I know I hovered for a while before I made the plunge to subscribe to the journal. This was for a couple of reasons, one was that I wasn't really sure what I'd be getting, and secondly the initial £10 up front seemed a lot to commit. Of course, now that I actually receive the journal I realise just what I'd been missing, and also that £10 is incredibly good value for money. I must confess that before I subscribed I bought an early journal second hand from E-Bay for just £1 to see what it was like. I'm not sure however, how easy it would be for a more detailed contents page would be set up.

I think the idea of e-versions has been discussed quite a bit before, personally I'd hate the idea of receiving it in that format, however, I would have no objection for it being a cheaper option for others, but I've a feeling that somehow the idea isn't practical at the moment.

The donate button is quite a nice idea, but I'm not sure whether it would generate much income. I do sometimes feel extremely guilty that Tony has so kindly shared all his hard work with us for free. I keep hoping that maybe one day I'll discover some rare book that he hasn't got in his cave and I can share it with him. The information that is, I don't mean I'd give him the book. :wink:
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Re: Observations / Suggestions

Post by Fiona1986 »

When I discovered the society I signed up really quite quickly, I think. Possibly before I had contributed to the forums much. I figured for £10 I was getting three journals and access to some on-site stuff and if it turned out to all be rubbish then I hadn't wasted much money on it. I thought £10 was an easily made gamble.

Edit: I joined the forums on the 1st of December 2007 and my first journal was Winter 2007.
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Re: Observations / Suggestions

Post by Tony Summerfield »

If I may I will deal with your suggestions one at a time and I will start with No. 2 as it is the easiest. As Fiona has already said, all available issues are in the shop for anyone to buy, apart from the current issue. The reason for this is simple as it contains the password for our Secret Passage which is only available to full subscribers. For the same reason, right at this moment Journal 49 is only available to members as well, as whilst I wait for all copies of No. 50 to reach their destinations the password is still the one in 49. This will also be available to all as soon as I put up the new password from the latest Journal.

On a general point, I am not sure how you can possibly judge the quality of the writing unless you actually read the articles yourself. Nothing I could do or say is either going to encourage or discourage potential subscribers. The only positive thing that I can say here is that I very rarely write any articles myself! :D
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Post by Francis »

Tony wrote
The only positive thing that I can say here is that I very rarely write any articles myself!
But the editorials are worth the money by themselves!
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Re: Observations / Suggestions

Post by cranberry »

Tony Summerfield wrote:as it contains the password for our Secret Passage which is only available to full subscribers.
Ah, so! :idea: I'd never tried to go to the Secret Passage before subscribing today, so I didn't realise the password is contained in the Journals. I'd expected to receive an automated email after my payment was processed, saying something like "Your subscription has been received. You now have access to the Secret Passage! The secret password is ABCDE" so that only subscribers can enter the Secret Passage, but non-subscribers can still buy individual issues of the Journal from the Online Shop (if in stock!).
Tony Summerfield wrote:I am not sure how you can possibly judge the quality of the writing unless you actually read the articles yourself.
:lol: True! I'm a dope, I forgot to make the suggestion here that I had meant to! I had meant to say, would it be feasible to publish on the Fireside Journal page a select few articles (from old issues) that you feel are representative of your Journal, as examples to entice people to buy/subscribe to the Journal? It doesn't even have to be the full article, really - just the first paragraph or two will do, simply to give a flavour of the sort of publication and quality that a subscriber can expect. Like The Times does if you're not a subscriber.
Tony Summerfield wrote:The only positive thing that I can say here is that I very rarely write any articles myself!
I am quite looking forward to receiving my first issue of the Journal now, so I can read your editorial! :wink:
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Re: Observations / Suggestions

Post by Tony Summerfield »

I should have said, that it is nothing personal but I am not allowed Cranberries! I am on Walfarin and along with grapefruit it is a forbidden fruit for me. :D

I should perhaps also point out that I am not the webmaster of the site. I do have total control of the Cave of Books and everything there has been added by me, but I cannot change anything on the Home Page or for that matter in the Author of Adventure which has the Journal Catalogue in it. I do have control of the shop and when I add the latest Journal to that it automatically gets put into the Journal catalogue as well. Areas that I do control have been made fool proof for me as I am a total dinosaur and wouldn't have any idea as to how to add anything new to the website. This might give you a clue about replies that you are going to get for some of your other suggestions! :lol:
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Re: Observations / Suggestions

Post by cranberry »

Katharine wrote:I do sometimes feel extremely guilty that Tony has so kindly shared all his hard work with us for free.
Me too. Hence I went in search of a DONATE button, but couldn't find one!
Katharine wrote:I keep hoping that maybe one day I'll discover some rare book that he hasn't got in his cave and I can share it with him. The information that is, I don't mean I'd give him the book. :wink:
:lol: Be still, Tony's beating heart!
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Re: Observations / Suggestions

Post by cranberry »

Tony Summerfield wrote:I should have said, that it is nothing personal but I am not allowed Cranberries! I am on Walfarin and along with grapefruit it is a forbidden fruit for me. :D
I am your forbidden fruit! :twisted: C'mon Tony, you know you want a bit of Ocean Spray! :lol:
Areas that I do control have been made fool proof for me as I am a total dinosaur and wouldn't have any idea as to how to add anything new to the website. This might give you a clue about replies that you are going to get for some of your other suggestions! :lol:
And here I was picturing you to be a hunky geek type! :mrgreen:

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Re: Observations / Suggestions

Post by Katharine »

Tony Summerfield wrote: The only positive thing that I can say here is that I very rarely write any articles myself! :D
Having just read an article by Tony (Journal 14 I think) I have to say the man is selling himself short. It was an extremely interesting article about the possibility of a very early Enid Blyton novel which had not been heard of before. Unfortunately the details of the book were rather vague, and unless further information has been made available since that Journal was printed, it's authenticity remains a mystery.

By the way Tony, I was quite indignant on your behalf with regard to the Canadian gentleman's comment about him not letting you see the book. Very rude and totally unnecessary.
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