A Keppler Editorial

bonsaial1

There are not many things in life that get me miffed. I am a pretty easy going guy. I think alot of that comes from the fact that I call a spade a spade and I do not mince words very often. Sometimes I may burn bridges, but if the bridge needed burning, so be it.

I find myself at just that sort of place in my life. I had the opportunity to look at a famous American bonsai magazine today. Issue 105. Not exactly a first issue since it only comes out every two months. The copy is fat and feels as though it has a lot of pages. I was very surprised to find that additional pages were added this month for some extra savings on more books that are old , outdated and hardly sell. In fact some of the books are offered at a price that the bonsai shop owner could buy cheaper as "joe shopper" than the owner of the magazine wholesales them to the shop owner for? Talk about cutting the throats of your advertisers.

Then on to the articles. Another gem on mushrooms by guess who? I thought this was a bonsai magazine, at least that is what I always bought it for.

Then the coup de gras! Another four page spread of shohin trees by our friend across the ocean. These trees and accompaneing text have been prostituted all over the internet. Any one willing to give it some bandwidth has published these photoes and text on the internet. There is a book ( I was eagerly awaiting something new on shohin) on shohin by this author due in 2007, yet I am convinced that this material will be once again be regurgitated a fifth time for us to savor next year. WHY? Anyone worth his bonsai salt has read this material on any one of five bonsai internet sites, now a magazine and soon a book. Come on, I know there is more out there.

Don't magazine publishers try to find propritary material to publish in their rags. This is the 21st century, the age of computers and the internet. Why are we acting content with reading this stuff. I think it's time that we make our bonsai voices heard and start getting some bonsai in the bonsai magazine. These things are not going to fix themselves if we sit back like sheep and entertain medocrity.

Hint, the first guy that starts offering a decent cash incentive for inspiring bonsai articles is going to own the bonsai magazine world for the future. If a magazine were to offer even $200.00 for a decent article, there would be more than an editor could look at in a publishing cycle. Articles would be coming from every corner of our nation.Trust me it would not last long and would die the slow death as my favorite magazine WABI has done. But at least it would be good for a while.

Thanks for reading my rant, Al

I just may make this a monthly addition.

__________________
It's about time that the proper respect be given to the fine art of balloon animals...

Advertisement

Walter_Pall

Jealous Al?? Why don't you write something worthwhile instead of ranting away?

__________________
best regards
Walter Pall
http://walter-pall.de
I don't design bonsai, I design trees.
Tradition is not the custody of ashes but the propagation of fire.
NEW: The endless bonsai diary
http://walter-pall-bonsai.blogspot.com/

farrlinzee

It appears to me that Al did just write something worthwhile.

Cheers
Lindsay

Alasdair

Yes this is a bonsai forum. Yes we come here to talk about bonsai. Yes we will all click on any posted topic by Al K because it is always going to be a good read, even if there is pretty much nothing to do with bonsai.

Al

"What? A picture of a tree in a pot, on a bonsai website? Whatever next??"

__________________
I can feel another "I wish that was my tree" moment coming on...
Currently studying BSc Plant Biology at the Universty of Wales, Aberystwyth

RonMartin(deceased)

Not often we agree Al. Looks like this is one of those rare times though.

rockm

I was kind of disappointed in the current issue too. It's half ads (which really isn't a bad thing if you take the longer view--since ads pay bills and are the most tangible source of income for a publication)

However, if you don't like some of the content, write your own article and submit it.

As for asking for $200 for your writing-- good luck with that . Like it or not, the pool of money available for publishers to pay writers is shrinking--it was never very big to begin with--trust me--I'm a professional writer .

All forms of publishing are having to trim costs and "improve efficiencies" everywhere. The economics of printing a magazine aren't easy--particularly a glossy one with four color printing and expensive paper-- I'd hate to see the printing bill for that thing... That's not some lame excuse dreamed up to provide a pat explanation for its limitations. It's a reality for every print publication out there.

The publishing industry,--from newspapers, to books, to magazines--is in a really bad stretch nowadays. All are losing out to online content or trying to adapt to a world where people can go 1,000 different places to get information.

If you stand around grumbling that you're not getting paid for an article, you're wasting your time and your potential readers' time. "He who shall not be named" is working for free, working the publisher and getting published. You are not. You want to block another article of his in the magazine, write your own and submit it.

I know Wayne at BT would love to get fresh copy...

nsmar4211

I have to agree with ya al....
As a beginner, I would love to see more how to articles... or even articles about the history of a tree! I know, I know, how to's have been done over and over again..........but I haven't been reading the magazine for 10 years and no way to buy 10 years worth of back issues LOL. The ads for bonsai books are like the ads for furniture in our local newspaper... necessary fluff. Want me to write an article? Sure......but I don't have enough experience under my belt to not get flamed with giant torch for opinions .
And it does get tiring seeing the same exact stuff over and over.... but we do have to remember that not all bonsai mag readers are on the internet like us , so to them, its new ..

Susan and crew

Jon Chown

Dear Social Sledgehammer,



I read your rant with interest, especially the part where you said that you thought that you were a pretty easy going guy who liked to call a spade a spade, and the part about how you didn’t like to mince words and occasionally burnt bridges kind of reminded me of me.



My immediate thoughts were, here is a guy a lot like me, what has he got to say? So I read it and re-read it, and I’m still trying to comprehend exactly what it is you are trying to say - I mean apart from the fact that you still have SOTL from Will Heath are you really trying to tell us that by association Bonsai Today and Morten Albek are guilty of some foul deed?



Let me attempt to share some facts about the publication industry. (Probably a waste of time). Due to the low run of specialist publications like Bonsai, there is next to no mark up from Publisher to Retailer (The best that I could do, without buying hundreds of copies, was 15percent). And Al, just so that you know, some of us actually like buying Bonsai books to include in our library even if they are often somewhat repetitive.



Your comment as to this being the 21st century and the age of computers and the Internet and why some of us are content with books probably has a lot to do with the fact that on the Internet it takes 7 pages of comments from 25 members to discuss the fore and against of sifting soil and still not coming to any agreement or consensus..



As to Editors paying $200 or even $2000 per article, I sincerely doubt that there would be any increase in the numbers of people coming from the corners of your nation to contribute that don’t already because those who care already do and those who would only do so for money are probably not worth reading.



Hmmm! How many bridges is that?

Jon

RonMartin(deceased)

That is the major reason that I have nothing to do with BT. I don't mind writting for free but refuse to be lumped in with that un-named person.
That might be a bit mean spirited of me but it is how I feel. Can't , or don't want to change that