Hello, everyone, and welcome to yet another issue of the Pouch!
I'm afraid our selection this time is a little smaller than last time. It is, after all, a Retreat issue. Still, there are plenty of articles, and their quality hasn't suffered. I'm sure you'll find them interesting and well worth the read!
I hope nonetheless, that there will be more in the Winter 2007 Adjustment issue. However, that depends on what I get: I can only publish the articles you send me! So as always, I encourage everyone to send the Pouch articles, Letters to the Editor, and announcements of upcoming events. For this year's Winter issue, there will be an extra week to get your submissions in: since I'll be away for Christmas, I won't be able to put the issue up until I get back in January. So I'm moving the submissions deadline to December 8th, with the issue itself to go up by January 7th. Please take advantage of the extra time to send something in!
One of the reasons why this issue is shorter than others for this year is that I haven't written anything beyond the standard editor's columns. That's because I've been working on the Main Index, which needed to be updated to include articles from the past five years' worth of issues.
Unfortunately, this has proven to be a bit more involved than I'd hoped. Some issues from 2002 and before are only partially indexed, so it will take some time to figure out which articles are missing and to put them in. Once everything has been included, there's still the question of format: it seems to me that some of the categories could be rearranged, but I have yet to determine the best way to do that.
Still, the work is underway. I hope to have the main index in good shape soon — maybe in time for the New Year (I hope!).
Over the past six months or so, both the Diplomatic Pouch and Diplomacy World have seen a real resurgence. Both have resumed publishing on a regular schedule, with issues full of good, solid material. Douglas Kent (the editor of DW) and I hope very much that this will encourage you, our readers, to submit more and more articles of your own. We may format and organize our zines, but we can't supply all the content: for that, we rely on you! And I'm happy to say that we've each been receiving plenty of submissions to date. That's great, and we hope it will continue!
Douglas and I see DW and DP as complementary, rather than competing, publications. We share much the same audience, and we both try to promote and build a sense of community within the ranks of worldwide Diplomacy players. DP and DW announce each other's most recent issues, and Douglas and I have each written exclusive articles for the other's Zine. So no matter which of the two you write for, your article will still reach both sets of readers.
The same overlap applies for our writers. Many hobby members choose to alternate submissions between the two publications, or to focus on one over the other. In fact, there have been a few occasions where an author submitted the same article to both of us simultaneously — and that's a point that needs clarification. So Douglas and I are both printing this statement in our respective current issues (DP F2007R and DW #99).
There are times when submitting the same article to both DW and DP is entirely appropriate. Both of us are glad to help advertise upcoming events, for example.
However, as part of our cross-promotion we want to make sure that our readers are getting fresh new material when they read either publication; and too much duplication detracts from that goal. So we would prefer that you not submit the same article to both of us at the same time; or if you do, at least let us know so we can decide between ourselves which zine will actually publish it. That will let us keep both zines unique and interesting, while still ensuring that your work is appreciated by as many readers as possible!
If you have any further questions about this policy, just ask!
You can reach me at editor@diplom.org,
and/or Douglas at diplomacyworld@yahoo.com.
That's all the news for now, so...
Enjoy the Pouch!
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Charles Roburn The Editor (editor@diplom.org) |
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