Category: Writing and Publishing

Writing and publishing articles by author Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD

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Writing and Publishing

Magazine Goes Green – Sort of

A weekly (or almost weekly) magazine that I receive, recently announced that it was going to have four “green” issues this year, with the goal of being “carbon neutral” in 10 years.

I was curious how they would handle this “green” issue.  o their credit, they emailed me when it was ready and I went online to check it out. (Even though I proof the magazines I publish on a computer and online, I greatly dislike reading magazines on my computer.  To be direct, I don’t have a computer where I do my magazine reading.)

Upon clicking on the link, it took me to a sign in page, where I essentially requalified my subscription, which was a good idea on their part, as it will save extra work and effort for them later. Additionally, I didn’t need to pick a password and login, which is a good thing, too, as I have over 150 logins and passwords for the various sites I need to use and will thankfully be spared one for this site.

The presentation of the magazine was a PDF file (as I do with the electronic versions of my Connections Magazine and AnswerStat), with some hyperlinks in the table of contents to go directly to the articles. There were also links on the top and bottom of each page to speed readers back to the table of contents, to the next page, or to the previous page.

So, all is good — sort of.  The magazine had a green issue, it was relatively painless to access, and I could read it online — unfortunately, I don’t like reading magazines online.

Learn more about writing and publishing in Peter’s book: Successful Author FAQs: Discover the Art of Writing, the Business of Publishing, and the Joy of Wielding Words. Get your copy today.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an author, blogger, and publisher with over 30 years of writing and publishing experience. Check out his book Successful Author FAQs for insider tips and insights.

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Writing and Publishing

DMNews Scales Back

Weekly news publications, I am told, are the ones most squeezed in today’s markets.  They are wedged between the proverbial “rock” (instant news via the Internet that trumps weekly updates) and “hard place” (advertisers reallocating their ad dollars towards more established monthlies that target the same audience or online).

One of the magazines that I regularly read is DMNews, as in direct marketing news.  It is a weekly publication (actually 50 issues a year as I recall).  Although my work is on the peripheral of direct marketing, I find it an interesting read, usually picking up a tidbit or two as I thumb through.

It seems — this is not something I track, but I perceive it to be so — that in recent months, the number of pages in DMNews have shrunk, likely indicative of decreasing ad sales.  There is, quite succinctly, less of it to thumb through.

In the April 20 issue, in the “news briefs” section on page 2, there is a small notice that effective immediately, DMNews has switched to biweekly (an unfortunately ambiguous word choice that could mean twice a week or every other week — I presume it to be the latter).  It is again noteworthy that this comes just before the May 11 postal rate increase.

This is a wise move that I applaud.  Instead of a knee-jerk reaction that pulls the plug on their print publication (as I noted another publisher doing in “Another One Bites the Dust“), DMNews has a prudent plan to continue to serve their readers’ in a careful manner that addresses all stakeholders.

This should allow the page count to increase, as advertiser support is consolidated into 26 issues versus 50 issues, allowing them to be around for the foreseeable future.  Kudos for DMNews!

Learn more about writing and publishing in Peter’s book: Successful Author FAQs: Discover the Art of Writing, the Business of Publishing, and the Joy of Wielding Words. Get your copy today.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an author, blogger, and publisher with over 30 years of writing and publishing experience. Check out his book Successful Author FAQs for insider tips and insights.

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Writing and Publishing

Another One Bites the Dust

Today I learned that another magazine I read is ceasing publication.  This isn’t really a surprise to me.  In fact, I’m surprised that they have hung on this long.  They were an advertiser-supported magazine and their number of ads has been a bit sparse as of late.  From my perspective, their content focus and target market were never clearly defined, which makes it hard to attract and retain advertisers.

Interestingly they didn’t blame the economy, the rising cost of paper, or the upcoming postage increase.  (Postage and paper costs are huge expenses for magazine publishers.)  However, I have to believe that since their next issue would have been under the new, higher postage rates, that it must have been a factor.

What they did cite as justification was a change of advertiser preference from print ads to on-line ads.  Yet a perusal of their website failed to turn up a requisite amount of online ads to support this assertion.  I surmise that the truth is that their costs simply grew too much to be covered by the amount of advertising that they retained.

Having now slashed their costs by shuttering the print magazine, they are left with a website and e-newsletter.  They will have less revenue, but substantially lower expenses.  However, neither their website or newsletter are functioning at the same caliber as their print magazine.

I am not mourning the loss of this magazine, however.  Although I paged through it, I seldom read it (hence my claim that they lacked focus).

Besides, I’ve a backlog of other magazines to read anyway — so this actually helps me out!

Learn more about writing and publishing in Peter’s book: Successful Author FAQs: Discover the Art of Writing, the Business of Publishing, and the Joy of Wielding Words. Get your copy today.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an author, blogger, and publisher with over 30 years of writing and publishing experience. Check out his book Successful Author FAQs for insider tips and insights.

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Writing and Publishing

More News Than You Can Use

A few months ago, I blogged about the various random press releases that I receive each day. In that post, I committed the faux pas of labeling them all as spam — and was quickly chastised for making a sweeping overstatement that was not entirely correct. In this, I was reminded that spam is in the eye of the beholder. I also realized that just because I wasn’t interested in the press release, didn’t automatically make it spam — or so the argument went.

Regardless of the fallout, sharing the list was fun. So here is another one — all received within the last 48 hours, with the most arriving on Thursday. (Does that mean that Thursday is a good day to email press releases?)  Although many fall into the broad categories of telecommunications and medical, of which my two publications are very small subsets, none of them are close to news that I would publish and several are head-scratching mysteries.

The recent headlines are:

  • Bioethics Backgrounder on Torture Available
  • IPTV World Series Awards winners announced, PCCW and AT&T clinch two each
  • Members of President’s Council on Bioethics Raise Objections to President Obama’s Stem Cell Policy in Bioethics Forum
  • Cypress Communications Receives Phoenix Award
  • FDAnews Announces 6th Annual Medical Device Quality Congress
  • Windermere Exclusive Properties and McMillin Realty Reach Agreement
  • ISO standard for access panels aims to increase effectiveness of market, opinion and social research
  • Emmi + KidsHealth = Prescription for Informed and Involved Patients
  • Vhi Healthcare rolls out Sword Ciboodle for world-class customer service
  • DataCore SANmelody Storage Virtualization Software Wins 2009 Network Computing Award for “Software Product of the Year”
  • Leading NYC Web Development Firm Launches KeywordFriendly.com
  • ISC West to Showcase Latest Security Technology
  • Dialexia Communications Edges Out Competition When Selected By Billerica Public Schools To Power Backend of IP Telephony Services
  • Economy got you down? Use the principles of positive psychology
  • Virtual PBX and Gizmo5 Partner for New Business-Class VoIP service
  • Rutgers University Team Consulting Group Survey for MUTUAL decision
  • Enterprise application developers are integrating backup tools into their applications
  • Enhanced Windows Power Tools Suite Released
  • ProMarketing Inc. Celebrates 20th Anniversary

Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD, is an author, blogger, and publisher with over 30 years of writing and publishing experience. Check out his book The Successful Author for insider tips and insights.

Learn more about writing and publishing in Peter’s book: Successful Author FAQs: Discover the Art of Writing, the Business of Publishing, and the Joy of Wielding Words. Get your copy today.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an author, blogger, and publisher with over 30 years of writing and publishing experience. Check out his book Successful Author FAQs for insider tips and insights.

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Writing and Publishing

Seven, Eleven, and Zero

A few weeks ago, I lamented about the number of syllables in the letter W.  I asked for he be given equal treatment to the alphabet’s other 25 one-syllable letters.

Today, I have the same concern for seven.  You see, of the single digit numbers, all but seven enjoy one-syllable conciseness.

(In case you are wondering about zero, we already have “aught,” so there is no need to advance another alternative.  Nil also means zero, though I have yet to hear it used in this context.)

Therefore, to offer fairness to seven, treating him like the other single digit numbers, I propose we give him a nickname of “sev” (rhymes with “rev”).  I suppose it could be written like a contraction: sev’.

However, this brings up another problem.  Seven and Eleven rhyme.  So to maintain this convention, if seven becomes sev’, then eleven needs to become ‘lev’ (again rhyming with rev) for the purposes of consistency.

Adopting both of these recommendations will result in one syllable counting from aught to twelve.

What do you think?  Do you want to try it?

Learn more about writing and publishing in Peter’s book: Successful Author FAQs: Discover the Art of Writing, the Business of Publishing, and the Joy of Wielding Words. Get your copy today.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an author, blogger, and publisher with over 30 years of writing and publishing experience. Check out his book Successful Author FAQs for insider tips and insights.

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Writing and Publishing

How to Spell the Letters of the Alphabet

Recently  I pondered the correct spelling for W. Not finding an official answer, I went with “double-u.” Upon further contemplation, I realized having similar doubts about the spelling of many letters. Therefore, I advance this list, which I ultimately found in Google’s scan of the book “The Institutes of English Grammar” by Goold Brown. (I’ve parenthetically added my own thoughts and suggestions):

A – a (how about “aye”?)
B – bee
C – cee
D – dee
E – e
F – eff (TheFreeDictionary.com indicates “ef”)
G – gee
H – aitch
I – i (How about “eye”?)
J – jay
K- kay
L – ell (TheFreeDictionary.com specifies “el”)
M – em
N – en
O – o (how about “oh” or “owe”)
P – pee
Q – kue (I prefer “queue” or “cue”)
R – ar (how about “are”?)
S – ess
T – tee
U – u (how about “you” or “ewe”?)
V – vee
W – double-u (slang might be “dub-u” or simply “dub”)
X – ex
Y – wy (how about “why”?)
Z – zee

Although vowels are spelled with only one letter, I prefer an alternate, longer spelling.

Why do I need to know these things? It’s quite simple actually: I may need them for crossword puzzles. I’ve already used Cee, Dee, Ell, Ess, and Tee. I want to be ready in case the others pop up. (For the record, no self-respecting crossword puzzle will have a two-letter answer; perhaps that is why I gravitate towards three-letter spellings.)

Learn more about writing and publishing in Peter’s book: Successful Author FAQs: Discover the Art of Writing, the Business of Publishing, and the Joy of Wielding Words. Get your copy today.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an author, blogger, and publisher with over 30 years of writing and publishing experience. Check out his book Successful Author FAQs for insider tips and insights.

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Writing and Publishing

A Lament for W

No, this isn’t a post about George W. Bush.

Instead, this is a blog about the letter W. I feel sorry for W; you see, it’s hard to pronounce.

Consider the phrase, the “World Wide Web.” It is easy to say; it’s concise, with only three syllables, rolling off the tongue.

Ironically, its abbreviation, “WWW” is a veritable tongue twister, requiring a total of nine syllables to spit out—or six, if you slur your speech. Though I’ve heard a few utterances of “Dub, dub, dub” instead of “Double-U, double-U, double-U,” I’ve never heard of W being pronounced “Dub” in other situations.

I think it’s time to start doing so. After all, the other 25 letters in the English alphabet all enjoy one syllable brevity. I think W deserves similar treatment. We need equality for all letters, regardless of their origin or history.

Let’s strike a blow for balance and fairness by treating W with the same accord given to all other letters. Let’s be politically correct and call him “Dub” — like he deserves.

Learn more about writing and publishing in Peter’s book: Successful Author FAQs: Discover the Art of Writing, the Business of Publishing, and the Joy of Wielding Words. Get your copy today.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an author, blogger, and publisher with over 30 years of writing and publishing experience. Check out his book Successful Author FAQs for insider tips and insights.

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Writing and Publishing

Periodical Publishing in a Down Economy

The trend in magazine publishing is to migrate to non-printed forms of distribution (such as email, PDF files, and online reading) in order to reduce costs.  While I see this transformation as spanning many years or even decades for most publications, I also noted that the recession is accelerating this trend.

The reason is that almost all printed media (magazines and newspapers) are mostly or completely dependent on advertising for the revenue they need to produce their product.  When advertising revenue falls, it becomes harder to cover the costs of each issue.  When this occurs, they reduce the number of pages.  Fewer pages means lower costs and the potential to still make money or at least break even.  For several of the magazines that I read (and especially newspapers), the page count has been decreasing in recent months.

Another sign that a publication is having trouble is when they miss their publish date.  This happens when they haven’t sold enough ads to justify printing any size issue.  That just happened to one of the magazines that I regularly read; they were several weeks late.  I don’t expect them to be around much longer.

The final sign is that they merely eliminate an issue, giving them more time to sell ads for the following issue.

Typically, publications that market leaders are not affected too much during difficult economies, but secondary titles are.  The above example is one such case.

(Happily, I have not had to take any of these steps with the two magazines that I publish; one is staying even and the other has been growing — so readers need not worry!)

Learn more about writing and publishing in Peter’s book: Successful Author FAQs: Discover the Art of Writing, the Business of Publishing, and the Joy of Wielding Words. Get your copy today.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an author, blogger, and publisher with over 30 years of writing and publishing experience. Check out his book Successful Author FAQs for insider tips and insights.

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Writing and Publishing

Is Blog Readership a Microcosm of Overall Activity?

I enjoy math and like working with numbers.  It is therefore not surprising that I track weekly blog readership.

The week prior to the US Presidential election, I noticed that the reading of my blog dropped 25%.  At first I assumed this was because too many of my musings were about the election; perhaps people were sick of politics and were skipping my blog.  Then I noticed that the drop-off occurred across the board in all of my seven blogs, even though political content only appeared in one of them.

The week of the election, there was a slight increase in viewers, but still well below pre-election levels.

Last week, readership completely rebounded for all seven blogs, even setting a new record for the week.

I don’t know if blog reading is a microcosm of societal activity in general, but it would seem that the election fervor and furor was such that it kept 25% of the people from doing what they normally do.

If that is true, then things must the getting back to normal!

Learn more about writing and publishing in Peter’s book: Successful Author FAQs: Discover the Art of Writing, the Business of Publishing, and the Joy of Wielding Words. Get your copy today.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an author, blogger, and publisher with over 30 years of writing and publishing experience. Check out his book Successful Author FAQs for insider tips and insights.

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Writing and Publishing

Internet Sales Rise and Fall With Catalog Mailings

The DMA (Direct marketing Association) recently released their annual report on the catalog industry.

The report indicated that in 2007, 36% of sales [for the catalog industry] were conducted online. What is shocking is that this statistic is a decrease from 2006, when it stood at 40%. In fact 2007’s percentage was lower than both 2005 and 2004. To find a lower number, we need to go back to 2003, when it was a mere 29%.

What’s the deal? Is there a backlash against online buying?

No, seemingly it was a postage increase! This convincing theory blames the huge postage increase in May of 2007 as the culprit. Many catalogers drastically scaled back their mailings when their postage costs jumped 40%. Although some Internet buyers function strictly online, others are driven online when they receive a catalog or other direct mail piece. Ergo, less mailings equal less orders, and a decrease in sales.

I, too, feel the pain of the catalogers, as I experienced similar increases in postage for my magazines: Connections Magazine‘s postage increased 39% and AnswerStat, 41%. As a result, I began scrutinizing my subscriber list much more closely. Some magazines were pushed to e-publishing, dropping their print versions altogether.

So it should not be at all surprising that the USPS is seeing a drop in mail volume, which caused them to suffer a $1.1 billion loss for the third quarter. As a result, next year’s postage increase is expected to be the maximum legal amount. Experts predict that could mean magazines and catalogs will face a 5 to 6% bump.

Of course that means the affected mailers will scale back more, further lowering mail volume, and necessitating another maximum increase in 2010 — as mailing costs and post office efficacy spiral further out of control.

Learn more about writing and publishing in Peter’s book: Successful Author FAQs: Discover the Art of Writing, the Business of Publishing, and the Joy of Wielding Words. Get your copy today.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an author, blogger, and publisher with over 30 years of writing and publishing experience. Check out his book Successful Author FAQs for insider tips and insights.