What feedback I have received so far on the trade paperback format for M-Brane #12/Ergosphere has all been positive. So I think that I will go with that kind of design for both the PDF and print versions of future issues. I'm giving up something as far as the "magaziney" look of the thing, but I think it's probably easier to read it on screens with just a single column of text. You can view the PDF in scroll mode and just roll through it without having to move around on the page too much.
Another change is that there may be fewer stories per issue. So far I have run as few as eight and as many as thirteen in a single issue. I think I may keep it down to about six, and probably not ever more than eight. When I started this zine, I wanted to publish a very high volume of stories so that there could be a lot of room for a lot of styles and lot of voices. I still want that variety, but I've come to think it's just too much content considering that an issue comes every month. So I will try to achieve the goal with less. Also, I want to increase the payments to writers. I am not ready to do this yet, and haven't figured out the details, but it's much more likely that I can up the rate if I am not buying quite so many stories. The goal that I set last year of vastly increasing the zine's paid readership and ad income and becoming a real pro zine during the first half of 2010 is, honestly, not going to happen. This second year will be one of smaller steps, but I still think the general direction is right.
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