Proposal One: A small monthly publication schedule* 

This Mutant Life: Monthly Journal

   24 pages - A4 (210x297mm) (8.26”x11.69”), 160gsm colour cover

   Approximately 15,000 words which would equate to perhaps six ‘stories’ a month

   Cost: $1.50 (Australian) per issue

   Sell: $3.00 (Australian) with a free PDF version available

   Postage: $1.65 in Australia, or $4.20 to USA or UK (5-7 working days) (would probably have overseas customers combine issues, so they only pay postage once but get three issues in a pack).

·         While this proposal is for a monthly publication, I would plan to print off three months at a time to save on costs, so while January would be released in January, I’d already have February and March printed as well, and would then solicit for new material for April, May and June.

·         At the moment the costs above don’t include paying for contributions.  I haven’t worked that out yet, but I think I may be able to pay half a cent per word, so a 4000 word story would get $20.  Not sure if this would be feasible for the first three issues though.  The sell price requires I sell 18 copies to break even, before looking at contributors’ payment. 

This is exciting stuff Ben!  I wish you so much luck with it.

I think it would be all kinds of cool to see a publication with names/authors that I recognize.

How do you envision the submission process working?  Obviously,  you'll be looking for high quality contributions that fit into the 'theme or era' of your publication.  Once you have an idea, I'd be interested in knowing how you'll choose the pieces that are published, and how you would like to see them submitted.

Well, today I started to think more about costs and so on and am now of a mind to offer the journal free.  The costs are pretty low for such a short monthly journal, but then I realised that if something is free then thousands of people will take it just because it is free, so there goes that idea.  So the price will have to stay, but be really low.  Obviously contributors would get free copies.

Okay, side thought done.

Thanks for setting this up, China.

I'll work out submission times and get a website up and running by the end of August.

If I go with the monthly journal I would like to open submissions for the first three issues soon, so they could be finalised by the beginning of November.  Publication would happen in December and release date would be January 2010.  So an unofficial submission date would be, say, August-October for Issues 1-3.  Of those issues I would say two would be mainstream, and one a special 'issue' (probably a Golden Age one).

I'm a little worried about choosing which pieces to place in the issues, actually.  We're all excellent writers, of course, so the quality should be there.  It might be a matter of saying to a writer, "Yes, I like what you've done, but could you make it a little shorter? Or maybe focus a bit more on the ending." and then it could also be a matter of "Yes, you're in, but I've scheduled you to appear in Issue 3 which is in March."

Should be fun.  Any which way it goes.

I'm not really into Superheros, but I relish the challenge of writing some fiction in that genre.
What is the meaning of 'golden age' etc?

/me cherishes Onk for not knowing what that means.  *grin*

I get all those ages mixed up and confused too.  I think Golden Age was the old happy one.  ...but I know nothing of this stuff.

One of the things that I liked about Ben's idea, originally, was that he planned on having a non fiction bit at the beginning of some of the issues to explain the era and that seemed cool.

The Golden Age of superhero comic books was the earliest age, starting in the late 30s. Superheroes were obviously the good guys and everything was black and white. Its when superheroes fought in the war against Nazis (etc), often killing them. Simple (though sometimes brutal) times and very patriotic.

The Silver Age came around the mid 50s until the early 70s. It was the era of the Comics Code so killing and the like was frowned upon and characters were more colourful. Many more superheroes appeared, superhero teams were born and Marvel comics started with a more soap-opera like feel to them. Adventures were weird and wacky.

The Bronze Age started in the early 70s until around the mid 80s. Real world issues started to feature and stories became more mature and not so innocent. Titles like X-Men started.

Then followed the Modern Age - phrases like Iron Age (grim 'n' gritty) and Chrome Age have been used. So say we're currently in a Gilded Age.

There ya go. And Ben - this sounds like a great idea!

Is it purely superhero stuff you'd be looking for or are you interested in urban fantasy / Dresden Files / Night Watch-esque stuff?

Oh, and if you're wanting a hand with the website, give me a shout - there's me and a few other talented individuals on this site who could lend a hand...

I think I'd be happy to include urban fantasy in the collection.  In my eyes the writing I'd include would be about extraordinary people in rather ordinary situations or environments.  So a Superman story would work, and so would a wizard-private detective.  I would probably print a horror story (Cthulhu-style) once in a while but not as a recurring thing.

I'm hoping that most of the stories would be dealing with some aspect of the character's life, hence the title.  It could be an epic story or a mundane one.

Thanks for the website offer.  I'm not quite there yet so have no real plan in mind.  I'll keep you posted!  Cheers.

I've got the domain name for the journal, and a heading.  More to come over the next few weeks, including submission dates and hopefully some cool pictures.

www.thismutantlife.com

Great news!  Thanks for the updates. 

This is a really cool project. Look forward to more updates. 

Just noticed I never commented on this.

So...um...consider this one of those "I'm interested" and "great idea" kinda posts and just move on already. Sheesh.

Okay, the submissions page is up (unofficially).  I'll launch the journal next month (September) and the first issue should be published in January 2010.

Comments would be great.

http://www.thismutantlife.com/submissions.htm

Looks good, Ben. The only things I would suggest are instead of a generic Google link for the exchange rates you link to a site that provides them and add what format you want submissions in.

I don't remember if I chimed in before but this is a great idea.

Thanks guys.  The link was supposed to go to a currency converter.  Must have copy-and-mispasted!  I'll fix that up.

The specific issues and deadlines, etc, will be on the main page.  This one is for submissions only.  Still trying to source artwork to make the pages look more lively.  Working on my art students at school. 

I'm hopefully travelling to Europe in January (thankyou Mr Taxman) and I would like to take issue one with me to conveniently leave in bus stations and subway carriages!  So I'd be looking to publish Issue 1 in December, which is a month earlier.  More information to come, but by all means, set to writing people. 

Yay for Mr. Taxman and Yay for Europe. 

Is there any specific era or focus for the first issue?  Or is it a free for all? ...so long as it's in the realm of the extraordinary.

Issue 1 will be standard, which means any story that is somehow related to 'supers'.

Probably Issue 2 will be the same, and I'll bring in a theme for Issue 3 (if I can get someone to write an article on the Golden Age, for example)

If you happen to come to Glasgow and need a place to stay, You're welcome here

Always best to get local protection when you're in Glasgow!

Make it as far as Shetland and you'll have a room if you're wanting.  Of course, you might take one look at the place and hop right back on the plane.  It's a tad bleak.

Thanks guys.  That's cool.  I've actually got a friend in Glasgow already and stayed there last time I was over, but this time I think the most north I'll go is London!  Going to be based in Paris for most of it.  Never been to Shetland... isn't that cold during Winter? 

:/

Surprisingly, no.  You'll be colder in Glasgow than you will in Shetland.  With the sea never far away, we're insulated from much of the really poor weather.  What you get instead is DARK.  We get 24-hour daylight during the summer, not-quite-24-hour darkness during midwinter.  However, there's very little pollution up here so the stars are spectacular and we get the Aurora Borealis to make up for things.  Coldest time for us is around the end of February when the sea's had all winter to cool down.

So, we sort of average 4 degrees C over the winter, 15-20 over the summer.  Never really warm, never really, really cold.  Who says global warming's a bad thing!

That's a really great to describe your landscape.  Very nice.  Not quite tempting, but still... :o)

That's just exciting!

I love seeing mock ups, makes it feel all real.

I like how you went with a realistic look for the first issue.  I think it really supports targeting the audience that you're going for. 

Heya Tribe,

I didn't know if you were following the Advertisement thread in the forum or not, so I wanted to mention this to you here as well.  We'll be opening the site up to advertisers soon, but I'm thinking it will take a while to get any serious bidders.

I don't really want the space to be empty for too long, so if you'd like to post a banner advertisement on our site, you're welcome to.  The details are in the advertisement thread, but basically, I'd set the price to $0 and approve you for the space until we get some serious bidders. 

Don't know if you're ready for that yet or not, but I wanted to let you know. 

4. Submissions should be emailed to editor@thismutantlife.com .

In what format?  Word? what version? 

Text pasted into the body of the email would be the safest route unless you scan for viruses when the email is sent.  Should the document or email follow a specific formatting, such as title author name, author address, etc.?

JOE--

Coming soon.  Just finalising a few layout things.

And thanks China, the ad banners look great, but I don't think I'm ready for that.  The ones you've got up are really good!

And thanks, also, to artexercise - I should have thought of that.  I'm happy for the story to be put in the body of the email or as an attachment (text file or Word).  I'll revise the website with the details soon, but if you want to send in a story now feel free.  I think the 'zine is going to be small enough to keep track of submissions, but adding your name etc would be good.

The more journals I've seen online the more intimidated I'm feeling!  My current thought is to make the issues free for the first year - to send them out to contributors or those interested in reading them (people on a list).  People would just need to pay postage.  Again, I'll have this up on the website soon.  August is fast ending!

I'm so excited for you!!

Wow, congratulations! You must be super excited and, I hope, proud.

Do you need artists too?  

Artists would be fantastic!
I've had to do the art myself, in various mediums to make it look different, but I'd love to get different people in on it.  Interested??

Why yes. Yes I am. 

I have a few quick-and-dirty things here, just to give you a sense of my style. This weekend I can comb through my hard drive and put together something more like a proper portfolio.

Actually I wouldn't mind putting my hand in that arena as well. 

Okay this is a fun development!

General 'superhero' stuff would be good, as well as some unusual takes on the theme.

A cover shot would also be good which wouldn't necessarily have to link to an individual story.  Cover image dimensions are 11x8 but it can be a bit wider if required.

Otherwise I could shoot you off a story and see what you could come up with - whether new material or something you've done before.  Of course, I haven't actually got any stories yet for issue two - none that are completely done - but there are a few with character ideas that you might be able to use for inspiration.

The cover art for Soldier Boy and the Swear Jar (.pdf), was done by Bunty.  It's another example that  you've seen.  

The first issue is now available.

I've sent out 14 copies today, so if you're expecting one (contributors and customers!) you should see it in your mail box by the end of next week.

Issue 2 is set to be released in May so I need some more submissions.

Check out: www.thismutantlife.com to buy a copy, or you can even find it on eBay by typing in the title. How versatile!?

New Prices:
$5 for Australia
$8 for everywhere else
This price includes postage via air mail

I'll paste this to a few of my solicitation friendly RPG lists. 

And I'll be putting in my order today.  :)  Had to wait for the coveted pay check for my frivilous spending. 

I received my issue today!  Thank you for the quick shipment.

A couple of things.  First, my cost was approximately $7.26 in USD after the conversion rate.  So that was cool for me.  :)  

I haven't dug into the meat of it yet, but I'm really impressed with how much was packed in here.  The zine itself was smaller than I'd imagined in dimensions, but wow does it have a lot of stuff packed into it.  And the two column layout and text size was appealing to me.

Makes me want to create my own zine Conquistador Prequel stuffs.  Conquitazine!  lol

I meant to post as well.  I received mine, awesome!  I'll also that it was smaller in dimension than what I expected but it had a ton of stuff inside.  I think my preconceptions of the Barne's and Noble magazine rack tainted my expectations.  Great job.  Love the hand written page numbers.  Thanks!

Thanks people! Originally the size was going to be A4 and run to 44 pages, but postage was going to be a killer so the day before I went to the printers I changed it to A5 size and added an extra 20 or so pages.  Postage was halved, so that was good.

And I don't know how to get page numbers printed on that layout. It was all fine and automatic on the larger scale but the smaller one is beyond me - so the hand written page numbers are most likely going to stay. :o)

Next issue is starting to come together. Got some interesting stories so far, but I'm wide open for more submissions. I haven't made the final decision yet.

And Bunty's working on a cover - as soon as I can give him an idea for it. Which is actually harder than I thought. Too many options!