dmw71 wrote:Does/would & ever consider larger works? I've been itching (for a long time!) to create a mega-dungeon of my own, but that would obviously take more than 8 pages. But, one level of the dungeon by itself would probably fit into this 1-8 page limit. Would it be possible to release one level of the dungeon per issue? And does any included map(s) count towards this page limit
Thanks for the welcome!
The length of articles has been discussed repeatedly within the & team. I'm going to go into detail, if you feel your eyes glazing over, skip to the next post!
We currently have a hard page limit of 100 on our magazine. We have consistently published a 92 - 100 page magazine for a number of issues, and realize that every time we hit a new high, it becomes the expected benchmark. While we currently have sufficient material, labor is a big issue. (more on this in a bit) So we stick to 100 pages.
One of our original team members works in the publishing industry. He strongly cautioned us about publishing lengthy articles, and after researching (e.g., reading fanzines) I agree. Long articles lose people's attention, and with a 100 page limit, a 10 page article is already 10% of the magazine.
So ... as a general rule, we try to top articles at 8 pages, with 12 being a rare stretch. I *think* we've done 16 pages, but in hindsight it wasn't a good choice.
Labor? Every article is touched by at least 3 primary editors, plus we have 2 proofing editors who do detailed work. Total page count of the magazine is an issue, but the page count of the articles is more of a factor. The longer the article, the more consistency checking is required. Ask Hedgeknight about L5 ... we edited 300 pages of Len Lakofka's work. The consistency checking took 6+ months with 3 of us doing it.
That is NOT a criticism of Len -- the work was so massive that no one could keep everything consistent. But we beat it into shape!
As far as handling larger works -- as Ron said, it's a matter of manpower. The editorial team currently has at least 6 supplements in the pipeline, and we may have as many as 4 behind that. Andrew Hamilton & I have a campaign mini-setting that has been in limbo for 4 years 'cuz we don't have time to get back to it. And this doesn't include the Castle Triskelion ... I have 2 segments to layout as soon as I13 is out the door.
*IF* you have something that is like 99% of the way, we can *probably* publish it ... but like Ron said, we can't promise time frames!