OK, so Retro Lovely No.3 has been uploaded, tweaked, approved and likely within a few hours begin to be printed.  The cover was up since last week and in all reality is likely already off the presses waiting for the rest of it.

This one was a beast.

124 pages. That adds to the process, it's nearly 50% more in page count than issue No.1.

When I was working on No.1 that East Coast blizzard in February afforded me a near solid week to work on it.  There haven't been any blizzards since then so I'm sure you can imagine how this has impacted my time.... Less of it, more pages and back then... there wasn't any other issues to mail out each day.

This has me thinking on how best to manage getting these things together better, smoother, more predictably on the timelines.  I have a notion that if things hold up what I think might help (and in the same breath seem ironic that it would help) would be to actually work towards bumping up the frequency schedule to bi-monthly. Now instantly you are thinking..."if quarterly is this labor intensive how can bi-monthly be better?"

Here's the notion:

Hold page count to 100 pages.

Review material and work it up as it comes in vs. as a collection with a specific "timeline", in this way we'd be more assembling issues of completed pages vs. cramming them all into a period of a month.

 

Begin to think in terms of submitting work, working it up and likely hitching it to whatever next issue was coming together.  I think a continuous stream of production/staging would be more smooth than this push-pull roller coaster that is the current scheme.

Going bi-monthly also has a few other pluses...

psychologically I think it will send a message to our customers/audience that this is not only holding its own, but on the rise.  I think it would help further along a growth pattern. 

 

This also increases the opportunities for work to get showcased in a given year, provides each of you more potential to stay in front of your patrons. On the same lines more opportunities to get your clients in print = more value to you in their minds.

With all this I am thinking of setting out to go bi-monthly  (not officially, not publicly yet) with issue #4 Being available and shipping early in February, then April, June, August, October, December...  Frankly I need a bit of a breather, especially as I am now back at it for Taboo, and there needs to be some hustle there if  that is also to be available for October. 

 

Still space available for Taboo Submissions and YES I need to get back to some of you, I have about 100 emails that need to be answered.

Value.  I've heard from a few of you that the recent Cover contest has created a noticeable spike in models contacting you to book shoots.  This is exactly what it is all about.  Never lose sight of the fact that my real reason for starting Retro Lovely was for it to provide you the contributors that extra weapon in your arsenal to attract more/better business. There has been no shortage of new photographers knocking on the door and in my talks with several some of those first learned of Retro Lovely via a model who contacted them to see if they were contributors or not.  Quite a few in areas of the country where we do not have any syndicate members.  There is value in that, your association with the title.

Along these lines I am going to initiate a subset within the Pinup Syndicate.  There are a few among you who have done a lot of work in return that has had me offer standing space in each issue. My thought is to list some subset as being... I don't know yet... like 5 Star Syndicate Members or something with some bylines of "With work showcased in each and every issue of Retro Lovely".  This to send a clear message to your potential clients that you are VERY dialed in.  I will at some point outline what it takes to attain this sort of status, and it will be the sort of thing that for new people something that is subject to change, even now there are some listed on the Syndicate who have all but vanished from the landscape and will be retired for inactivity.

Here too feel free to suggest things to me you think might be worth pursuing, promotional ideas that might provide the project as a whole, and subsequently all who contribute to it, more benefits.
 
Cheers
 
michael@retrolovely.com