It's been four weeks since I happened upon the Enid Blyton Society's website, and I am still exploring the Cave and the forums, which has turned out to be a very enjoyable pastime indeed. That Cave is amazingly meticulous! From the forum posts I've read, it sounds like Tony has poured large quantities of blood, sweat, and tears into making the Cave as awesome as it is. So today, when I saw his post (above), it felt wrong to me that his good work for the Society should suffer a financial loss. I have therefore just subscribed to the Journal.Tony Summerfield wrote:For those that are interested Journal 50 was posted out today. If you are reading this but are not a subscriber, we still need another 32 UK subscriptions on this issue to break even, as at present it has gone out at a loss.
That got me thinking about why I didn't subscribe when I first found out about the Journal a few weeks ago. As Tony has said that any feedback is better than none, I figured I'd post my thoughts.
The answer is that I simply couldn't tell what the Journal actually was and thus whether I would like it. What sort of articles are published? What is the quality of the writing? Will the article topics interest me? Are they only going to appeal to Blyton scholars, or will I (just someone who loved reading EB books when I was a child, and still do now) understand and enjoy them too?
I looked at the Journal Catalogue to find out, but the contents headers don't give enough information for me to tell whether I would be interested in reading them. For example, this was my honest reaction, when I first looked at Journal 49's contents: What a Dilemma! by Terry Gustafson - dilemma about what? If it's about a book/character that I know, this could be interesting. Robert Tyndall - who is he, and what kind of article will this be - a biography? A tribute? Examples of his best work? [I know now from the forums that he's the Noddy illustrator, but when I first looked at the Journal Catalogue, I didn't know that.] Warm-Hearted Children by Enid Blyton - is this an excerpt from an unpublished EB manuscript? That'd be cool. Or is someone simply commenting on the warm-hearted children in EB books?
It was because I couldn't tell whether the Journal would appeal to me that I didn't subscribe.
Suggestion #1: Have a sub-title for each entry of the Journal contents, e.g.
Robert Tyndall
A tribute to the illustrator of the famous Noddy books
At that point, I thought well, I'll purchase the latest issue of the Journal and see if I like it. If I do, I'll subscribe. So I went to the Online Shop to buy issue 49...to find that only members are allowed to purchase back issues of the Journal - so I couldn't.
Suggestion #2: Why not allow non-members to buy individual issues of the Journal?
Another thing...my bookcases at home are stuffed enough as it is...and all the non-EB books I buy now are ebooks, so that they will neither take up more shelf space nor deteriorate over time. Also, postage costs are abominable these days, and it must cost a fortune to post copies of the Journal all over the world. So:
Suggestion #3: I think I read on one of the threads that Tony sends a PDF of the Journal to the printers. Maybe readers can now be given the option to purchase an electronic version of the Journal. After payment is processed, send them a download link, or email the e-Journal to them as a PDF. Naturally, the price of the e-Journal would be lower than the price of the printed Journal. This might encourage Journal sales. I know the e-Journal idea has already been suggested, and people said they like it in hard copy only because that increases its rarity value...but surely it's better for the Society to offer the electronic option, than to lose money on producing the Journal in the first place.
By the way - Tony, if you're reading this, I'm happy for you to email me the three Journals that my subscription has bought, rather than post hard copies to me. You can keep the hard copies for sale in the Online Shop, if you like - all proceeds to the Society!
Finally...
Suggestion #4: Have a DONATE button on the website for people like me who enjoy the site and want to contribute towards its upkeep, no matter whether we subscribe to the Journal.
I'm sure you guys have other suggestions...