09-04-2016, 04:16 AM
(09-04-2016, 03:33 AM)Rick McDowell Wrote: Again, your thing, your rules. But from a contributor's point of view, and with a less than predictable publication schedule, asking to write articles on the spot as in this deadline, is almost adversarial. Maybe you have lots of article contributions. I think most will say, OK, the deadline is passed, I will try to get something next time, whenever that is. I just feel some sense of a timeline is not a bad thing.
Except, there is no schedule, and there is no deadline. So, no one is on the spot on a deadline that doesn't exist.
Every coin has at least two sides. There will be those who will say, "OK, the deadline has passed." There will also be those who will be relieved that, even if they miss what they think is the submission deadline, they can send it after that point in time and it will still appear by the following issue.
Can a magazine function, even thrive, without having either a hard publication schedule or a hard submission deadline? I am of the mind that it can.
I can include what I want to in any given issue. A case in fact - I included what you sent me for Issue #13, didn't I?
I can always revert back to deadlines, if this new approach doesn't work. Granted, not everyone may think that I have my head screwed on straight, with the approach that I take and with the concepts that I embrace, where publication of a magazine is concerned. I launch a PBM magazine, of all things, and I don't charge anything for it, and I don't charge anything for advertisements, and now I do away with both publication schedules and submission deadlines. Whatever was I thinking, eh? It's doomed for failure, right?
Not everyone takes advantage of the free advertising. Some do. Not everyone reads the free magazine. Some do.
Another case in fact, I am currently the furthermost ahead in the compiling process of probably any issue tackled by Suspense & Decision, to date. I am also closer than I have ever been to beginning to get articles amassed for the following issue. Could it all collapse on top of my head? Oh, sure. Absolutely. Positively.
Granted, I am doing things differently than other PBM magazine that have come before. They faced their respective challenges, and I face mine. To date, deadlines and publication schedules proved insufficient to the task at hand. When Suspense & Decision fell by the wayside, previously, did a set publication schedule and set deadlines for issues preclude it from disappearing? Obviously, they did not.
When I named the magazine for Issue #1, I went with a name that even I, myself, didn't originally conceive of. Ultimately, I am tasked with pairing up my drive and my energy with concepts that I, myself, believe in.
If people that read and enjoy Suspense & Decision want - truly want - a magazine that comes out regularly, like proverbial clockwork, then they need to be prepared to submit material for inclusion within its pages in that manner. They need to quit worrying over deadlines. Carol Mulholland worried over deadlines all the time. She was almost always at someone else's mercy - and I always felt a great deal of sympathy for her for being stuck in that position. She did what she could, and from that example, I intend to draw inspiration.
I feel that there's a better way to do things. I fully intend to demonstrate that there is. If time bears out that it isn't a better way, then w can adapt and improvise and transition to something else, to other - better - ways of doing things.
For now, though, we're going to try this. I do understand your concerns. They are so noted.
As Issue #13 said, Rick, to trek unchained and to boldly go!
I have a missing issue to remind me of the possibility of failure.