Bookmarks Subscribers discussion

Katie and Lisa,

Ah, what to do about those older issues. They were laid out with a different software package than the one we user now (with completely different style names, for the typographic geeks among us). Which means translating them to our new software and getting then into Web format would require a bit of work. The kind of work that sends people scurrying if you mention it out loud.

Reprinting them would be crazy expensive, so that really isn't an option.

So, I say "Boy, I'd like to get them up online." But I can't promise anything. NOT the answer you wanted ... ARGH! Sorry about that.

I would totally buy a Bookmarks-designed journal for keeping track of the books I want to read from the magazine. The cover of the journal could be a fun collage of magazine covers used so far. The pages could be set up with issue number and month, how many stars the book received, etc.

I would also buy a Bookmarks tote bag, since I ALWAYS need a bag when I go to the library. In the summer, sometimes I use TWO bags. My husband laughs when I come home with 30 books, then stares in awe when I actually read them all. :)

My library distributed reusable totes two summers ago, but I would buy one to support Bookmarks, especially if it had a neat design.

Just my input.

Maybe part of the proceeds could go to a literacy program. My husband and I are all about charity. We give every year - always to one specific one in December, and then a few others throughout. That could be kind of nice.

Stephanie wrote: "Maybe part of the proceeds could go to a literacy program. My husband and I are all about charity. We give every year - always to one specific one in December, and then a few others throughout. Tha..."

Hmmm ... a nice idea as well and good motivation to get something going ...

I'd but Bookmarks merchandise especially tee shirts.

I would love to see some Bookmarks merchandise. I'd definitely purchase totes and shirts!

Could you do t shirts with famous book quotes on them? What kind of process would that be? That could be fun.

Stephanie wrote: "Could you do t shirts with famous book quotes on them? What kind of process would that be? That could be fun. "

OOOoooo.....I would LOVE that. They would make GREAT gifts, too!

I'd certainly get a Bookmark's T shirt and tote. Not sure about other things though, it would depend on what they were.

Just a note on the T's though...I'm tall and I hate it when T's come in too short, so I hope you'd go for a quality T with a bit more length than some, if you do this.

Lynn wrote: "I'd certainly get a Bookmark's T shirt and tote. Not sure about other things though, it would depend on what they were.

Just a note on the T's though...I'm tall and I hate it when T's come in too..."

Ha! That's funny. I'm just the opposite. I'm short and the long ones look ridiculous on me. I have to wear them only for pajamas. I can't get them in a smaller size because I am of average size and can't fit into a small.

Jaime wrote: "Lynn wrote:
Just a note on the T's though...I'm tall and I hate it when T's come in too..." Ha! That's funny. I'm just the opposite. I'm short and the long ones look ridiculous on me."

This summarizes the problem exactly! How many different variations would we have to do to give folks what they'd like, and how large a run of shirts do you have to do to make it economical?

When we did this a few years ago (like, 6), we used cafepress.com, which lets you print one tshirt at a time. The benefits: people can choose the type of tshirt (or canvas bag) that they want, and we don't have to move our desks around to make room for 100 boxes of tshirts. The cons: frankly the quality wasn't quite as good as you'd like. It wasn't iron-on bad, but they definitely used a printing technology that gave slightly sub-par results. Also, for these one-offs, the price isn't cheap.

Has anyone here used cafepress.com recently? And now that you see it, do you want to go off and try making your own shirts? :-)

I would LOVE to do this kind of stuff, but it's a challenge for us w/r/t inventory, etc. So I am curious about the latest cafepress quality if anyone knows...

Jon,
I bought my husband a goodreads.com t-shirt from Cafe Press last year for Christmas and he loves it! I know he would love one from Bookmarks magazine too. The shirt won't last forever, but I still thought the quality compared with the price were reasonable.
I hope this helps.
Cheers,
Kelly

Hmmm ... well, let's pretend for a minute that a few more folks endorse CafePress.com. If we're going to crowdsource this, let's crowdsource it! :-)

Are there quotes from books that stand out to people as being something you'd like to see on a t-shirt? Is this the kind of topic that would interest people and perhaps we should start a separate thread?

Regarding fair use rights ... anything from before 1922 or so is completely available to us. One or two sentences from books since then are probably okay. More than that becomes a judgement call, but feel free to mention suggestions. Of course, more than one or two sentences wouldn't work on a t-shirt anyway ...

It'll be interesting to see what comes to folks' minds. Yet another product we were doing when we first started were greeting cards with passages from old books on them. Finding the right passage for the occasion was tough! I must have a few of those around here somewhere ...

Jon

"The more that you read,
the more things you will know.
The more that you learn,
the more places you'll go."
— Dr. Seuss

I love this quote and would especially love it on a shirt for my son.

"She is too fond of books, and it has turned her brain." - Louisa May Alcott
and
Bookmarks Magazine "For Everyone Who Hasn't Read Everything"

I'd love these on a hoodie, mug or tote. I especially like the tote idea for the Bookmarks statement, because it would make a great gift with a copy of the magazine and a book tucked inside.

I'll second both of Lisa's ideas on quotes. The Alcott quote is something that could be said about me and a few of my friends!

Great suggestions, Lisa! Here are some of my favorites.

"The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them." -Mark Twain

"Where is human nature so weak as in a bookstore?"-Henry Ward Beecher

Jon, I order from CafePress often and am satisfied with the results. I agree with Kelly that the quality compared with price was fine. I purchase t-shirts and coffee mugs from them often. The mugs are a bit steep, but they have unique items, so I'm willing to pay it for gifts.

Kelly wrote: "Jon,
I bought my husband a goodreads.com t-shirt from Cafe Press last year for Christmas and he loves it! I know he would love one from Bookmarks magazine too. The shirt won't last forever, but I..."
Did you have to special order the tee shirt or is it in stock? Thanks

I was exploring Cafe Press, and most of the quotes listed above are already available on a large variety of items. I think Lisa's idea of using Bookmarks' own tag line would be great. I also second the book journal idea and they are one size fits all!

I have a thing about great first lines in books. Could do something with that, or a play on "great pick up lines" as in pick up a book. We can start our own literacy movement!

Hi Jon - Just got the e-mail about the new issue. It sounds great and I can't wait to get it so I can dig into it!

Wow! That was fast. Bookmarks Magazine came today. That's 4 days after you mentioned it...and I live in a small west coast town! Mail service is certainly getting faster these days for mags. I read the first couple pages while walking in from the mailbox.

Just to let Jon know, I like the article on China and its writers in the newest issue. I hope you keep doing this with various countries.

Ah, that's great news, Lynn. We won't be doing it every issue, but we will be publishing future installments. Votes for countries are welcome!

J

I'd like to echo Lynn B's comments - excellent article on China and where we can get more info. I think the book China Road, would have been a great addition to your list of options about current China, but save that for next time!

I nominate Sweden for one of the country profiles. I'd especially like to have a better understanding of why their mystery/thrillers are always so dark. Is it because for long periods of the year it is actually dark and cold? I'm half Swedish, so I can get away with asking such silly questions.

Betsy, you make me laugh. :)

Hi Jon - Love the new issue of Bookmarks! I'm only part way through it, but I already have lots of sticky notes marking pages -- I can see this will not help my TBR pile!

LynnB, don't tease me, I didn't get my latest issue yet! I'm sure it is a good one!

:-) thanks Lynn! And Barb, you should have received it by now. Send an email to me @ [email protected] and we can send a replacement copy on to you if yours has gone missing!

Thanks, Jon! I will do that right now.

Hi Jon,

I love latest issue of Bookmarks. My library can always tell when I have read it because I load up on so many books. The only thing that would make the magazine better would be to go monthly. I know, I know, but a girl can dream can't she?

I don't have anything original to add. I loved the spotlight on China (but have like, 10 books about China I now have to add to by TBR queue) and I second the request for more country profiles. I request the Middle East because I was an Arabic major and I'm solipsistic :)

(I also liked the mini-spotlight you did on books about North Korea the issue before that.)

I get so giddy when I get a new issue to mark up so monthly would be a treat but I imagine it takes lots of time to read and collate reviews.

Monthly, Patti? We'd get no sleep! :-) Seriously, though ... from a business perspective, if you want a peak behind the curtain, our main challenge to publishing more frequently is that book publishers have no advertising dollars to support us. Sure, they take out ads in the New York Times Book Review, but that's about it. So if we published twice as often, our costs would double, but there's little to no advertising to offset it. It's a real shame.

Vanessa, I'm really glad to hear that you liked the China spotlight. I'm never sure when we've gone too far in that respect ... too "academic" ... too nonfiction. If we've found a nice balance, that makes my day. We'll continue to work on those articles ... not every issue, but with some regular frequency. Middle East is a big but deserving topic ... though I hear that contemporary Russia might be on deck.

I get it Jon. But like I said, a girl can dream. I will work on getting more people to subscribe to the greatest book magazine EVER! Thanks for all of your hard work.

No questions for Jon but I just got the newsletter and saw "We're continuing our reader-requested series featuring books from other countries with 'Literature of Contemporary Russia.'" I'm so excited!

I read one of the books from the China feature, Death of a Red Heroine (or maybe it was a later book in that series by the author, Qiu Xiaolong) and I really liked it. I learned so much about that era in Chinese history--it was set in Shanghai about a year after Tiananmen--and the Communist Party was like another character in the story. Probably just like if you lived in China.

I can't wait to stuff my to read shelf full of Russia picks. I hope Gorky Park gets a shout out.

Just got today's mail and, well, there goes my afternoon ... the Sept/Oct Bookmarks was there!! Yay!! (Love the cover, too.)

I got mine yesterday! It made my day. I also started a conversation with a stranger in B&N, and ended up getting her to buy a copy of Bookmarks.

Good going, Lisa!

Lisa wrote: "I got mine yesterday! It made my day. I also started a conversation with a stranger in B&N, and ended up getting her to buy a copy of Bookmarks."

You're the best! J

I loved this issue's cover as well. I already read mine, highlighted all of the books I want to read, and wrote out my list. This issue had a long list for me!

I can't wait until the best of 2010 issue. I love "best of" lists!

I'm still marking up my last issue. I tend to hoard them to get me thru the 2 month intervals.

Vanessa wrote: "I'm still marking up my last issue. I tend to hoard them to get me thru the 2 month intervals."

I wish I had your patience. I got one issue about three days before flying to Texas and my husband said there was NO WAY I could make it until flight time without reading it...that was the ONLY time I didn't read an issue the same day. Sigh.

Hi Jon.

This is sort of random, and likely out of your control...why does it take so long for Canadians to receive your magazine? I still haven't received the latest issue so lament the lapse between me getting my copy and everyone else being that much ahead on the latest good book stuff! I went to subscription service thinking I would be ahead of the game, versus purchasing a copy at the bookstore. Any thoughts?

Thanks!!
Jennifer

Mine hasn't arrived in Germany yet, but it doesn't matter to me, as I am so far behind reading the books from the last edition ;-)

Stephanie wrote: I wish I had your patience.

BTW Stephanie I finally finished the last issue and as I flipped back through it to make sure I didn't miss anything, I saw you got a mention for starting the Goodreads group. I was so excited for you.

A comment I wrote on a Goodreads forum got read on a podcast I listen to recently and I was quite chuffed. It doesn't take much to make me giddy.

Jon: Neither the Brooklyn nor the Boston Book Festival(s) felt right without Bookmarks there! I'd staff a booth at either one for you (I'm sure renting a spot is expensive?) Please, please, please -- sell mags, Bookmarks logo stuff . . . SUBSCRIPTIONS . . . please, please, please . . .

Kate wrote: "Jon: Neither the Brooklyn nor the Boston Book Festival(s) felt right without Bookmarks there!"

Hey there Kate ... it feels good to be missed, of course, and we'd have loved to be there. Early on in Bookmarks' life we got a spot at the New York Book Festival. It was great -- great! -- to be able to say hi and meet folks, but boy was it a money-loser for us.

My take is that there are magazine people and non-magazine people, and that there's a smaller overlap than you'd think between magazine people and book people. My experience say that we're betting off paying to be on the front rack and Barnes & Noble (we're doing that twice this year ... thousands of dollars ... what a racket) than we are trying to hand out samples or get people over to our booth.

But maybe I'm wrong? Did you see folks there like us who seemed to making a successful go of it?

We'll have you first on the booth sign up sheet! :-)

J

I think it would be neat to see staff favorites in Bookmarks magazine - I always used to love when video stores did this, and when local bookstores do this.

-any format...current books, classics, books of the past 25 years, or even as a "great books you might have missed in 2010" section

Well, Jon, I have been remiss. I am stunned that goodreads wasn't a hit at the book fests but, responding a year later, I understand how you might succeed with freebies but not necessarily walk away with a bunch of new subscribers. I did subscribe to creative nonfiction and one story but perhaps a lot of people did not. If anything changes, I'll be at your booth with bells on . . .