Paging TOG - practical sportsbike magazine

I saw your name on the list of contributors...

I picked up a copy a couple of months ago but I've not seen it since.
Was it just a flash in a pan or is it going to become a regular mag.

Shame if it doesn't get off the ground as its seems to be right up my
'old fart with 80's/90's bikes' street.

 

I have a couple of copies here - pretty sure it's a quarterly
publication.

 

Could be, hopefully there's enough interest to make it a monthly mag.

 

AFAIK they're still testing the water with it. I think it's bi-monthly
right now.

I suppose the idea is that people tend to spend money on and lust after
bikes they couldn't afford or always wanted, say, 20+ years ago, and now
many of them have got the ackers to indulge themselves.

It's what keeps any classic bike magazine afloat. They've just set the
age bar a bit lower than Classic Bike, and it seems to be working.

 

when I used to freelance for tech. mags, the "bar" was around 18,000
copies per month[1] - is it similar for this sort of guff? Because I
find it hard to believe that many people are interested ;-)

[1] in the "heyday" of computer mags we were shipping >200K per month
per magazine - madness - of course, this was before people could read
the same shit on the web.

 

The cost of print, in real terms, has dropped like a stone. You have
print-from-PDF now, for example. Only a decade ago we were using DTP but
still had to send colour images to a repro house, for example.

The cost of staff seems to have fallen, as well. So many people want to
become hacks (especially bike, car, music, cinema and fashion hacks)
that you can get freelance contributions for very little money.

I think the bar is lower now - 12,000-15,000 copies per month. Much less
if you're subs only, of course.

 

don't remember that, though I was mostly working for Future and
Paragon who were both slightly ahead of the curve.

hah - I used to charge 10p per word[1] - fucking easy money.

wow - changed days.

[1] I mean, literally - write a thousand words[2] before breakfast,
that's a hundred quid towards the weekend's entertainment budget.
[2] I used to be able to churn out a thousand words in about 90
minutes, no problem.

 

Oh dear.
I had meant to bend you ear about this sort of thing at the EOSM.
Fashion hack is the career aim of the youngest daughter.

 

She's in for a tough ride. Email me if you want some serious advice.

(I once wrote a fashion column under a female peudonym, and if I can do
it, anyone can)

 

Bauer (EMAP that was) pay £150/1000 which just isn't enough. Sure, I can
churn out 1000 words in an hour or so, but there just isn't a big enough
market for the output IYSWIM.

As for the viable minimum print run, obviously the big publishing
companies won't be wildly interested in that sort of small run unless
the ad take is colossal. And distribution eats into your costs as well.
But cheap print and (these days) web hosting mean the game's different.

Print will always be around, depending on the product, but we're
preparing to shift my title 100% onto the interwebthingy.

 

the £100/1000 rate I mentioned was standard from Future/EMAP etc., but
that was back in the early '90s. I'm a little surprised that after
nearly 20 years it's only up by 50%.

I have to say, of all the publishers I worked for, EMAP was only
second to Paragon in the "not really having a clue what they were
doing" stakes.

 

Believe me, they are WONDERFULL compared to writing tech manuals for
the bloody military.

 

Do they not care about spelling either?

 

What will you pay me not to repost this to Reeky?

 

EMAP paid me £200/1000, and then Bauer slashed the rate, across all
their titles, to £150, and at that point I decided it wasn't worth the
effort. Except for Classic Bike which is basically getting paid to
tinker with SOBs anyway.

I had a near-30 year run at Bike, and it was all fun. I might do some
more, one day, if I have a decent idea and it doesn't seem like "work".

 

Heh. What do I care. It was a job

I've done odder writing.

 

Go on then, what have you written for Emap.

 

My sister did it for about five years. Didn't seem particularly
difficult for her to get into. It was about 20 years ago though.

Please god, no. You giving fashion advice is bad enough. Giving
fashion advice under the nom de plume 'Valerie Murray' is more than I
can stomach. Please don't tell me you wore a blue rinsed wig whilst
writing to 'get in character'.

 

It's the lingerie I'm worried about.

 

Put me down for a gallon!

Boxerboy