This new variety was one of two rhyzome cuttings that I received from Jan and Marty at Joe Pie Weed ) Oh…reminds me, my Joe Pie Weed is abotu 20 feet tall, no kidding!). You may remember my post of the top 10 plants, my Muddy Boot Awards earlier this year. The Pardancanda ‘Heart of Darkness’ was sold out, so this is ‘Bountiful Blush’ When mature, the plant is said to have nearly 300 flowers on it. So far, I am happy with ten.
My first draft issue of Plant Society Magazine arrived today, my little venture into self publishing using HP’s new MagCloud service online. ( you can order your copy of the draft here.) I had a few concerns, mostly about the paper stock, and the binding. First, the paperstock is thinner, which is OK inside, but the cover is printed on the same stock, I wish I could print on a heavier stock or the cover on a glossy stock, but either would increase the price. Lulu.com prints beautiful books, which look like fine magazines, but I costed this prototype out on Lulu and it would sell at $26.00 US without shipping, with no profit. Not that I am looking for profit, but eventually I will need to if I want to keep this venture going. For now, this saddlestich ( stapled) version on 80lb paper from Magcloud comes in as the most cost effective at .20 a page, and they deliver directly to you.
Another option would be to print fewer pages, for if the document is less than 60 pages, the weight of the paper can increase to 60 lb, I may try that with the fall issue. Also, I might try an option on Lulu at the same time, if people feel moved to purchase a perfect bout issue on heavy paper and a high quality laminated cover for less than $30.00, if wouldn’t cost me anything, and the book would be available on amazon at the same time.
For now, I have more things to worry about, such as tweaking tiny errors ( many less than this blog since I had the document proofed twice!). Mostly, design issues such as thin type not reading well, font issues, and image numbers. I think most people would not catch these, but a designer may. Also, the body copy feels large, although it was set at 11.5, which is standard for annual reports, it feels large here when printed, so I will need to adjust both the leading and the point size to make it perfectly elegant, I am also I type geek.
Over all, the images printed far better than I could imagine, and once I got over the photo color-copyness of the paperstock, I actually felt a teensy bit proud about the photography and design, even though I am not a photographer, seeing ones images printed can still be exciting. I hope people are not too discouraged by the paperstock, but I would imagine that this project will only improve with time, and that most people will kindly understand that these sort of ventures begin not at big, glossy mags, but with this sort of grass roots naivete.
Some sample Spreads
The east coast of the US is experiencing very hot weather this week, but the greenhouse still needed to be cleaned out. Val and Travis clean out under the benches and helped lug out long Jasmine vines that had taken over most of the inside. Two large Acacia trees were cut out, and now the right hand side of the house is ready for some bleach spray and for the glass to be washed. With our first frost date a month away, I still need to address the big issue of buying a new gas furnace. Ugh.
Pots. ready to be washed.
My issue came! It is as good as I hoped for. I agree with you that some of the font on a few pages is too light(page 2 and some of the words on page 5 & 6). For my older eyes, the font in the articles is just right.
I have not read it cover to cover but I can say I am so glad you put in some sources.
Congratulations!