A little over a year ago, gaming magazines and even a national gaming newspaper were being produced by home publishers. Yet, today only a few publications remain and most are strictly local efforts. Here in Houston, ARGHazine and ARGHazette have felt the shifting climate and the larger, slower zine nearly suffered extinction when its sleeker descendent arrived on the scene.

Luckily, members of ARGHI rallied, produced the fall issue of ARGHazine and gave commitments to produce future issues. Still, no one knows how long these individuals can fight the rising tide of problems facing home publishing. Those of us who write and folks who read ARGHazine should give thanks to the many hands who do the work required to home publish. By their efforts, you are able to read about this trend.

So what's the problem? If you want the major answer in brass tacks, it's money. It costs money to own and service a copier, to buy paper, to pay for stamps, to get laser masters, to go to the copy store when our own copier is acting cranky. For years, ARGHazine has been breathing on life support with money pumped in by individuals who enjoy seeing the magazine produced. It ought to be supported by memberships and advertising but those methods of funding have always been too little, too late.

Don't get the idea we don't appreciate our advertisers. We do. And we applaud those members who hit the pavement, phones and e-mail to try to generate advenising dollars. But, nice as those checks are, they don't cover the costs and they are not regular enough to budget future issues.

Our biggest concern and the main reason we took a hard look at the thought of discontinuing ARGHazine in favor of ARGHazette is membership. Producing a full size magazine is a lot of work at a high dollar cost. With fewer than fifty paying members, why bother? Just phone them up and give them the news. Or, produce a more timely "newsletter" instead of a magazine.

Actually, nearly as many magazines are "traded out" for other publications as we send to members. All the trade outs are "free" (no dollars in return). On occasion, an out-of-towner writes for a subscription just to read ARGHazine but again, it's not money that can be expected to flow in regularly. So why do we trade out? To stay in touch with the gaming community and watch the trends affecting other clubs. It was from reading other zines that I realized most clubs were having problems just like ours.

Discussions with gamers who edit other home published magazines helped us understand our problems and we stopped blaming the wrong folks for long waits between issues. Home publishing is "easy" with modern technology but it is still a tremendous amount of work. (Read: time and effort.) Do you have time to burn? I don't. Members who want a real paper magazine have to be willing to share the load with those who have been producing ARGHazine for years. Volunteer to do any of the following tasks. Stand in line at the post office. Buy stamps (with your own money!) Do what it takes to solicit a check from an advertiser. Stand in line for a copy machine. Buy paper. Call and volunteer to fold and staple. Print labels.

That's assuming of course that other people have written their articles, prepared their product reviews, compiled lists of game winners, composed editorials and finished the layout. Searching for cover art, the interior art needed to illustrate stories, adding a piece of original fiction, prose or poetry, all require effon by a multitude of individuals. Some times we're lucky and a lot of stuff is submitted but like many zines, we depend on the membership for stories and articles. All too often, the well is dry.

Yet when things work out the level of satisfaction seems to make the efforts worthwhile. Jeff Schmidt editor of Chainmail, the pride of Dragonslayers Unlimited, put it this way. "This is true, even though I complain at times how much of my limited free time it takes to get Chainmail out; I still feel good about it once it's all finished. Now if I could ever get on the other side of the curve and have things ready ahead of timel (grin).

So we have a lot of problems. A few people think we can weather the storm and continue to produce a major publication of the quality of ARGHazine. Good. But, here comes an easier communication tool. Internet home pages! A magazine that costs only time to produce and nothing to mail. Will that be the final evolutionary stage that will lay to rest the paper dinosaurs. Jeff had this opinion, "I feel that it will be a long time before electronic publishing takes the place of paper. There are many folks, me included, that prefer the feel of a book or magazine in our hands compared to reading a screen. Electronic "web pages" and such are not transportable; you can't put the current issue in your back pocket to bring along somewhere."

In my answer, I responded that since e-mail entered my life I've nearly stopped sending paper mail to everyone but my mother. And I used to be a prolific letter writer. E-mail is just too easy and we tend to put aside the more difficult "paper" versions. Whoever has stamps, anyway?

Jeff answered, "Umm, well, I, err, I have a stack of letters, some as old as three months or more) that I need to reply to. It's just so much easier to do email and it comes to my attention that much quicker to do it this way. I'm trying to get things taken care of better on the "snail mail" front, but between Chainmail and things it's hard to find the time. I remember when I wrote something like 200+ letters a month. You're right, now I'm lucky to do four or five in the average month.

About this time, I received some information from our friends in Central Oklahoma about their new web page. "The PGCO WEB is up and running once again." See it at the following address: http://users.aol.com/JerandKar/PGCO/index.html" When I saw it, I speculated on its impact on paper magazines. I believed such a thing would revolutionize gamer communications.

Here's Jeff's reply. "But I still hold that a web page will not be able to kill off paper publications just yet. For the main reason they're not very transportable. I can bring sample copies of Chainmail around with me anywhere yet I would just have to tell them to hit a web page next time they're on their machine. Now I have entertained the prospect of making a electronic copy of Chainmail. A web page would work great. (grin)"

As you can tell, I've discussed other issues of small press publishing with Jeff. Discussing briefly our "hardware woes", I mentioned our copier. Jeff had other news. "The printer problem is close to being resolved. Seeing that my laser printer will probably be tied up at a repair depot for several weeks if not months, I went out and bought another one. So now begins the fun of editing everything for the new printer (since they all handle print jobs differently it's not as simple as just printing it unfortunately). I'm hoping to get it to the printers sometime this week and mailed out by next weekend with any luck."

I doubt people in ARGH or Dragonslayer's Unlimited realize the amount of money individuals spend on hardware to produce a "club" newsletter/zine. No one can be naive enough to think the money for new printers comes from memberships.

To illustrate the need for capital, read the ad I found on AOL for The Gamer's Connection, a high quality gamers' newspaper. " Greetingsl As you may know, TGC #25 was delayed by several weeks, for a variety of reasons, including a shortfall of revenue. Therefore, I've slashed our regular ad rates and am making these very special, limited-time ad rates available to you. These rates are a HUGE savings over our regular rates!"

Evidently, the capital was not raised. It wasn't long before the news was on the net that "TGC PUBLICATION SUSPENDED. Due to declining advertising support and subscription sales, Gold Rush Games is suspending publication of its flagship product and industry news publication, The Gamer's Connection. The Gamer's Connection is not dead, however. Gold Rush Games is in negotiations with another company to take over publication of TGC under the direction of a new editor."

I for one, hope they get a new editor and continue publication. I enjoy seeing the grassroots efforts of gamers across the country stepping up and publishing their own ideas. It does take time and effort. It takes many hands and each depends on others but we love it, don't we?

I have not discussed the continuing problems of copyrights and censorship but such things affect our corner of publishing too. Free speech is a fine idea but you speak loudest when you have the cash. Ask presidential candidates... At no time will home publishers rival the big game companies and their "house organs" but in a few independent places in our nation, a few folks have not sold out or given up but instead, continue their efforts to supply fellow gamers with unbias game reviews, original art and fiction and opinion that is not necessarily "by the book."

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