|
Post by funkdooby on Jul 31, 2010 11:29:57 GMT
Letters - I used to enjoy letters from fans.
Where are they now - would be interested to know what people like GR founder Andy Hurst are up to these days. Is he still a fan and club member, I wonder?
Would be great to see serialisations of uber rarities like Tobacco Culture (and indeed all the non-fiction GNS books, nearly all of which are now very hard to find). I think the heavily illustrated ones in particular are begging to be released on CD as graphic e-books.
Concur with stepped re the cover and a theme for each issue.
The early issues were very much cut and paste affairs - having looked through several today, I kind of like that look and think it suits the fanzine well, particularly in view of what a luddite GNS is lol
Was thinking it might be good, with so many years having elapsed since the first issue of GR (17!), if some of the early articles got another airing. I particularly enjoyed Andy Hurst's Ones That Got Away, relating details of GNS novels that reached the outline or synopsis stage but were never completed - or at least never published.
A GNS Q&A thingy might be good too. Fans ask questions (not related to getting published, which is covered in the Writers Forum) and Guy answers them (lol). Such as, what did he make of the delay in the publication of Fiend...and did he or anyone ever take issue with Graham Humphreys over the 'so poor it couldn't be used' cover. Has Humphreys ever spoken about this? Is there any truth in the rumour that Mania was a novel written in the late 70s for NEL but then shelved, only to appear in 1989 from Sphere? Etc.
|
|
|
Post by steppedonwolf on Jul 31, 2010 11:34:33 GMT
Great suggestions, Funk. I forgot about the fan letters. And a Q&A is a knockout idea. Have a karma.
|
|
|
Post by Calenture on Aug 1, 2010 14:53:56 GMT
Letters - I used to enjoy letters from fans. Absolutely. We have the ability to communicate more easily than at any time before. But people generally don't do it. The letters section in a fanzine was always the one I turned to first, and it usually had me turning to earlier issues of the 'zine to see whether I agreed. They were evidence that the 'zine wasn't just being sent out into a vacuum. But these days...
|
|
|
Post by ceriadelle on Aug 3, 2010 16:58:29 GMT
thing is people I had no letters.... If I had put some emails in somebody would have said I shouldn't these days You cant just do it.. So please send them in.. I will read through all your comment and hopefully produce the GR you want
|
|
|
Post by ceriadelle on Aug 5, 2010 13:46:30 GMT
Also we no longer have Wayne Donahue or Kath Pilsworth. The NAFC logo lapsed. We do have some stories from Gary Smith - they are coming on disc. To have a thicker cover cost MUCH more. The cover price would then have Increased as a result. Please send in all your letter Q&A's . We are looking at themed issues but again - Ideas... There is a short story competition... At the back after the quiz. Fonts will be changed. And finally.. No Mania wasn't written originally for NEL.
|
|
|
Post by funkdooby on Aug 6, 2010 7:43:44 GMT
Tell you what, I will personally pay the cost of a thicker card cover for GR if GNS is short of a few bob. How's that. I can't believe the level of penny pinching going on. Not long ago GR was A4, 50-odd pages, card cover, £1.50.
|
|
|
Post by steppedonwolf on Aug 6, 2010 20:51:18 GMT
Tell you what, I will personally pay the cost of a thicker card cover for GR if GNS is short of a few bob. How's that. I can't believe the level of penny pinching going on. Not long ago GR was A4, 50-odd pages, card cover, £1.50. The last A4 issue was number 22, in 2000. And the price then was £3.50. I have fond memories of the Sandra Sharpe days of producing GR (biased, I know - I had two stories published in them, as did you, FD!) and I'm curious to know why she left. But regarding the penny-pinching - well, that's a bit unfair. (Although there really is no reason why not to put a card cover on GR. It won't break the bank.) Remember in the old days non-fan club members would have to pay £3 to come along to the convention (that included spouses and partners) - these days it's free to all. And Jean puts on a very good spread - and there's booze now, when there wasn't before. What I'd really like to know is why the website hasn't had a major overhaul. It's still got the same structure and content done by NJ. Surely it's time to revamp?
|
|
|
Post by funkdooby on Aug 7, 2010 16:56:38 GMT
Paper cover is penny pinching, IMHO lol
I stand by my offer - Ceri, let me know how much extra it would cost for GR to have a card cover and I'll pay it. Well, so long as there's a note inside saying 'This card cover was paid for by Funkdooby as Guy Smith couldn't raise the funds to provide one.' ;D
I've never been to a convention. And I don't drink. Put the cost of the food I would have eaten over the years and the booze I would have drunk towards the cost of a card cover. Hahahaha.
Shortly before Dan took over from Sandra, I offered to produce GR. It would have had a card cover, cost (today) about £1.75 and had about 48 pages. And it certainly wouldn't have been sold at a loss. Can't believe costs have spiralled all that much.
|
|
|
Post by steppedonwolf on Aug 7, 2010 18:54:42 GMT
Paper cover is penny pinching, IMHO lol I stand by my offer - Ceri, let me know how much extra it would cost for GR to have a card cover and I'll pay it. Well, so long as there's a note inside saying 'This card cover was paid for by Funkdooby as Guy Smith couldn't raise the funds to provide one.' ;D I've never been to a convention. And I don't drink. Put the cost of the food I would have eaten over the years and the booze I would have drunk towards the cost of a card cover. Hahahaha. Shortly before Dan took over from Sandra, I offered to produce GR. It would have had a card cover, cost (today) about £1.75 and had about 48 pages. And it certainly wouldn't have been sold at a loss. Can't believe costs have spiralled all that much. Here's an idea, based on Simon Maginn's earlier comments about Shaun Hutson: To say the characterisations are cardboard is an insult to cardboard. Perhaps we can make up some covers for GR from Hutson characters? ;D
|
|
|
Post by funkdooby on Aug 7, 2010 19:52:45 GMT
Brilliant quote there from Simon Maginn - whose novel Sheep is one of my favourite horror books of all time ;D There's enough cardboard floating around in Hutson's stories to keep GR in covers until issue 100, at least lol
|
|
|
Post by steppedonwolf on Aug 8, 2010 8:26:04 GMT
Brilliant quote there from Simon Maginn - whose novel Sheep is one of my favourite horror books of all time ;D I agree, it's a great work. I was fortunate to have a copy with me when I met him in Smoker's Corner at WHC. It's now signed, and one of my most treasured possessions.
|
|
|
Post by ceriadelle on Aug 10, 2010 15:10:16 GMT
Paper cover is penny pinching, IMHO lol I stand by my offer - Ceri, let me know how much extra it would cost for GR to have a card cover and I'll pay it. Well, so long as there's a note inside saying 'This card cover was paid for by Funkdooby as Guy Smith couldn't raise the funds to provide one.' ;D I've never been to a convention. And I don't drink. Put the cost of the food I would have eaten over the years and the booze I would have drunk towards the cost of a card cover. Hahahaha. Shortly before Dan took over from Sandra, I offered to produce GR. It would have had a card cover, cost (today) about £1.75 and had about 48 pages. And it certainly wouldn't have been sold at a loss. Can't believe costs have spiralled all that much. We were quoted an extra £70 just to have a thicker cover put on. We looked at it as well as having GR in A4 but Guy decides not me.
|
|
|
Post by Dreadlocksmile on Aug 11, 2010 9:56:06 GMT
We were quoted an extra £70 just to have a thicker cover put on. We looked at it as well as having GR in A4 but Guy decides not me. An extra £70!!!! How many copies of GR do you guys get printed? I work in an office (for my sins), so may well be able to get the covers and possibly even the whole issue of GR done for next to nothing (with a thicker card cover). It all depends on how many copies you guys get done.
|
|
|
Post by funkdooby on Aug 12, 2010 7:12:46 GMT
Paper cover is penny pinching, IMHO lol I stand by my offer - Ceri, let me know how much extra it would cost for GR to have a card cover and I'll pay it. Well, so long as there's a note inside saying 'This card cover was paid for by Funkdooby as Guy Smith couldn't raise the funds to provide one.' ;D I've never been to a convention. And I don't drink. Put the cost of the food I would have eaten over the years and the booze I would have drunk towards the cost of a card cover. Hahahaha. Shortly before Dan took over from Sandra, I offered to produce GR. It would have had a card cover, cost (today) about £1.75 and had about 48 pages. And it certainly wouldn't have been sold at a loss. Can't believe costs have spiralled all that much. We were quoted an extra £70 just to have a thicker cover put on. We looked at it as well as having GR in A4 but Guy decides not me. If I had sold the number of books GNS had and continued to make the kind of money he does from current sales, both of current(ish) work and oldies, I'd consider a mere seventy quid to be an excellent investment. As it stands, with the e-book version of Moonlight being sold for no reason at double the price of the others, and with GNS refusing to part with so small an amount of money to make GR look reasonable and last more than a few readings without falling apart, the rumours are starting to seem justified. As per Dreadlock's post, adding a card cover should cost next to nothing, as should getting the whole mag knocked up. IMHO, Guy is going to the wrong place if he can't afford a card cover despite the high price being charged for the mag.
|
|
|
Post by Dreadlocksmile on Aug 12, 2010 10:43:38 GMT
If the numbers involved are relatively small (i.e. 20 or so copies per issue) then I may be able to sneakily knock out full colour covers for free. It all depends on the number of copies that are required per issue. For the card cover, you can pick up a pack of 250 sheets of card for around £7-£8: www.monkeyoffice.co.uk/productinfo.aspx?tier1=Office+Supplies&tier2=Paper+%26+Card&tier3=Card&cmd=list&resultsperpage=40&catRef=XX90800So (as long as I was reimbursed for the card) I could order a pack which would hopefully last for many future issues of GR, and print off the full colour covers in work. The rest of the pages would be no probs as long as it stayed at B&W on normal white paper. Just a suggestion innit!
|
|