Friday, June 27, 2008

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.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

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.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

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.)

Thursday, June 19, 2008

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.