design for mankind: best. news. ever.

Thanks, MagCloud, and Mankind Mag's lovely advertisers [to be revealed on Monday] for making my dreams come true! -- design for mankind: best. news. ever.

Wow, to be someone's best. news. ever. is a dream come true. MagCloud couldn't be more proud! I wish my blog had more than 3 readers so I could send some more love back.

MagCloud publisher invitations

For those folks who have requested MagCloud publisher invitations, thanks! Just wanted to let everyone know that we've received a few ;-), and are churning through them as quickly as we can. We're not running a secret MagCloud Idol competition with a panel of judges, so if you haven't heard back yet there is no need to worry that we've deemed you unworthy. We're simply trying to ramp up reliably and predictably; we're accepting invite requests somewhat randomly to try to sample many different types of publishers, with a bias toward first-come, first-get.

For all our new Beta users, publishers and non-publishers, thank you on behalf of the MagCloud team. Never have I seen such supportive bug reports :-). Can't tell you how much that helps as we're stomping the bugs.

If you have an existing account and want to use an invitation to upgrade it to have publisher capabilities: when you click on the accept invitation link, look for the link highlighted below.

POD goes Mag | photostream

POD goes Mag | photostream:

I guess that a lot of people are about to find out that producing issue one is fun. Producing issue two is easier and a bit less fun. Producing issues four and on is plain hard work. But somebody will make a success of it. And good luck to them.

Oh, so true. Giving anyone access to magazine printing and distribution services does not mean anyone can make a living publishing magazines. There was at one time a similar giddiness about AdSense ("wow! I can make money from my blog!") and eBay ("wow! I can make money selling my junk!"). Only a small percentage of people ultimately figure out how to make a living from the new opportunity.

However the rest of us still benefit, though perhaps in more incremental ways, from the more efficient marketplace that results. Personally I can't wait, assuming MagCloud can take hold, to see the opportunities that emerge for independent designers, illustrators, writers, photographers et al. (Pixish provides an early glimpse of that future, I think.)

MagCloud Shipped

MagCloud Shipped, originally uploaded by fraying.

I've printed dozens of prototype mags in-house over the past months, it's been fun. Only about two weeks ago did I order my first issue and have it mailed to me at home.

Totally different experience! Somehow having that sucker come in my mailbox, with postage on it and stuck in a bag, felt very different. Reminded me of the excitement I'd have as a kid waiting for new stickers to show up.