20 June 2010

 

 

 

Alright, this is a bit of a heads up so you all know where I am at with this, should anyone ask you about the Pinup Syndicate in the future.  Here's the deal, I am going crazy with correspondence from new people who want to get work published in Retro Lovely. It did get to the point where I was getting so many e-mails with "I love the mag, here's my work (with 5 gigs of files attached to the email, 16 links to portfolios including MySpace pages which I refuse to look at anymore), I want to have work in an issue"  And I could quickly determine this person never saw a copy... Now on one hand part of this puts me into a "how do you really know you want to be in it?" kind of mode.  I'll be honest, I bought a crapload of all the other magazines I could find that were pinup related that I could, to see what they were about.  There are only a handful that strike me as "Serious - REAL" magazines.  But those still don't print enough images for my liking and so Retro Lovely.  Now of all the other magazines, they are what they are.  But some are of a type, that I could see models adoring being in them, but as a photographer I myself personally would not be all that eager to actually invest effort to have my work in them, and borderline, having this "impression" of what they are about might even go so far as to think it a bad move to allow my work in them.  And I am not even in the same league with this as most of you who get this letter... but back to my point...  So given all that, knowing these people contacting me couldn't have seen a copy of Retro Lovely  (some poor kid bluffed me out in the mid-west, told me he bought a copy at a show.. I asked what he thought about the shot with the gal and the x-mas tree...  he told me he loved it... and well, there wasn't a shot like that in issue #1) I so need to stay on track as I type... but the thing is... why would you want to "assume" your work would be in something of quality?  Wouldn't you want to know?  So I began insisting people buy a copy to get info on submissions  (Deadbeat does this).

 

So this helped weed out some non-serious parties, but still inquiries remain high  (some of you on this mailing are in the bunch who did buy, and at a premium I might add, a copy to get this info, and you absolutely will have my attention as we review your work / consider you to join Syndicate ranks...)

 

But the reason for this note.  I am going to return to a policy of the Syndicate actually having a membership fee.

 

I need to reduce further still, those people simply looking for a "fix" of getting published.  It is what it is, it has value, it is advertising, it is an endorsement.

 

BUT for those of you whe were with me at the beginning, you know very well, that all along I expressed a desire to build a resource here we could take advantage of.  Something that could provide us better business opportunities.

 

The key here is opportunity.  That word is critical.  It's about being able to take advantage of what the project can offer, not do it for you.  Two way street.  I think most of us in issue #1 can reflect back on it now and say "Yeah, you know, a bit of effort and collectively we managed to do something we could not have alone with not a phenomenal amount of effort or expense, and yeah the beenfits outcome have definately exceeded even that work. Being able to have copies at cost, and even on consignment has been more rewarding than most other publications like this. Being able to really have a voice on which models were used, and having buy-in on the way my work was presented was also something I appreciated"

 

So the thing here is, I am not for an instant saying to anyone in the Syndicate that there are going to be "fees" to remain... NO NO NO.... not remotely my point.  The original outline I had for it was that right out of the gate there would be a fee, but that fee bought copies, so it was really more an up front agreement to "help" promote and move some.... and my original syndicate outline had in it a provision that artists who did well enough.... earned space enough that in very short order that fee would be re-imbursed.  I did not want to make money off the Pinup Syndicate.  I did want something in place to weed out the non-serious though. And I find it nearly amazing to think about it this way... it's always been about partnering.  Help us move enough copies to warrant your space, that's all.  And it's pretty modest.  15 copies per page.  I had a model in issue #1 contact me about getting some copies as she needed a lot... for family, friends, fans.... she needed 20.  I said sure, you can have them for this much at wholesale and... guess what? that kind of effort means you just earned yourself another page in another issue if you want it.  Of course she did.  She chose an image by a Syndicate Member and in that process helped them have the appearance of more "space"

 

So anyway, if by chance new photogs might contact you about Retro Lovely, what it's been like, what you think about it...  and they are in the future ones who will see a new Syndicate that has a sign up fee and they ask about that... feel free to be up front on how you managed to become a member there... but also feel free to comment to them about what the whole process has been like and if you feel it  has been worth it.  This is mainly about me letting you know it might happen, and what it is about.  For the few parties on this mailing list who indeed bought a copy of the mag recently on the Syndicate etc.... I am not going to hold you to this new policy of a sign-up fee.  And the reality is, there will be some value in it... any sign-up fee I do will get the Syndicate member copies of the magazine that they could sell and break even on.

 

I've had this for a while, but I am going to begin populating this and using it:

 

 

ALSO one last thing, I do have Pinup Syndicate logos that have been customized for some of you, if any others want one let me know... 

 

And let's revisit the ID cards.  Who among you would like to see this come to pass?

 

Would identify you as a contributing photographer (NOT an employee), parties could check the website confirm this and quite possibly allow you more easy access to locations and events.

 

Recently too, Rob Neill of Flat Black ordered a Retro Lovely Dickies Workshirt:

 

 

And I have to mention Rob just ordered it, he did not email me in advance asking about some kind of "deal" on this... and frankly they are expensive, so Rob, you da man.

 

 

So the patch is this:

Now in the store I list customization is not available.  The one I got I had my name stiched in there....  So since Rob was cool and didn't beat me up... I offered to have it customized too.  And we chatted and I said if I could ger "Contributing Photographer" included I would.... BUT there isn't enough space, they only do one line....

 

SO.... what I did was.... uploaded a new graphic to be digitized into a patch  (this costs me $75 by the way):

Have not seen their sample mockup yet to approve, but given the job they did on the  first one I think it will be fine.. I actually ordered one for myself as the existing one, I wear nearly religiously... and even though the logo says NOTHING about what Retro Lovely is..... I still get asked about it, this has resulted in my selling copies to some people on the spot AND has had me find some people actually get into "Oh well my husband has this classic car that I'm sure he'd love to see featured in some photos, what would that cost?"

 

Seriously I might investigate those massive back spanning patches......

 

All this to say, if any of you would be interested similarly.... let me know.  And it leads me to another thought....  Some sort of promotional item like this of models we have in the issues.  Like should we consider t-shirts or something to promo to models along with comps of the magazine?  And here I have to say, shirts cost WAY more than the mag itself.  This might not happen until the project is completely self sustaining  (it owes me a bunch of money and that isn't counting my time)?

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

I am also getting pretty beat up with stuff like this  (recent email)

 

 

my reply: