..Expenses ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ 66 .. Keeping track of expenses ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ 68 .. Keeping track of postage ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ 68 .. Purchasing ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ 69 .. Your Budget ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ 69 .. Editing Without a Budget ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ 69 ..Publishing Expenses ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ 71 ..Mailing tips ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ 71 .. Sealingúscadsúofúenvelopes ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ 71 .. Lickingúscadsúofústamps ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ 71 .. Mailingúaúsingleúsheetúwithoutúanúenvelope ÿÿÿÿÿÿ 72 .. Multiple-sheetúselfúmailers ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ 73 .. Kinds of folding ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ 73 .. Mailing labels ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ 74 .. Maintainingúaúmailingúlist ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ 74 .. Unsticking stamps and unsealing envelopes ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ xx ..Miscellaneous hints ..Sharing the work ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ 76 L---P----1----+----2----+----3----+@10-4----T-#V-5----R----r----r----7--T-+--r 87cL---+----1----+----2----+----3----+@10-4----+----5----+----6----+----7----+----8----+-C--9----+ ---L--P-----1----+----2----T----3----+@10-4-C c/c V---L--P-----1----+----2----T----3----+@10-4-C V-- ---L--P-----1----+----2----T----3----+@10-4-C c/r V---L--P-----1----+----2----T----3----+@10-4-R V-- ---L--P-----1----+----2----T----3----+@10-4-R r/c V---L--P-----1----+----2----T----3----+@10-4-C V-- ---L--P-----1----+----2----T----3----+@10-4-R r/r V---L--P-----1----+----2----T----3----+@10-4-R V-- 87rL---+----1----+----2----+----3----+@10-4----+----5----+----6----+----7----+----8----+-R--9----+ M--LQ-P-----1----+----2----T----3----+@10-4-R .N:39 ..N: was 72 when previous section was single-column @ 100% .M:1 ..dh:--------------- ..dm:1 ..pb ..xl:4 ..xr:18 ..X:12 ..XB:7 .L:99 ..L:66 .IF:Index5.man .KF:Content5.MAN ..$$Z:MI$$, $$Day$$, , $$D Mon Year$$ 87rL---+----1----+----2----+----3----+@10-4----+----5----+----6----+----7----+----8----+-R--9----+ .HL:How to Edit Your Club's Newsletter...page $$$ .HL:________________________________________________________________________________________________________  .HR:Editing Expenses...page $$$ .HR:________________________________________________________________________________________________________  87cL---+----1----+----2----+----3----+@10-4----+----5----+----6----+----7----+----8----+-C--9----+ ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿEditing Expenses ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ .K:Editing Expenses ---L--P-----1----+----2----T----3----+@10-4-R When I made up my 1989 budget to present it to the board meeting, I looked over my ledgers and predicted the following expenses: ---P--L-----1----+----2----T----3----+@10-4-S 4 printer ribbons @ 3/$21 ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ $32.00 2 bottles of rubber cement @ $1.95 ÿÿ 5.00 .i:paper 1 ream of 11 x 17 paper @ $11.92 ÿÿÿ 12.00 .K:-Keeping track of expenses 12 mos. copies, average $2/mo ÿÿÿÿÿÿ 24.00 1 sheet monotype @ $14.45 ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ 15.00 .i:stamps 4 sheets of stamps @ $12.50 ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ 50.00 1 bottle white paint ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ 2.00 1 nonreproducing-blue pen ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ 1.00 1 daisy wheel @ $25.00 ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ 30.00 up to 8 disks for the new computer I plan to buy ÿ ?.?? Total ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ $200.00  ---L--P-----1----+----2----T----3----+@10-4-R .i:stamps .K:-Keeping track of postage Note that I rounded everything up to allow clearance. I don't honestly expect to buy a bottle of white paint (the one I have is over a year old and still half full), but I'll need something I did not anticipate in this estimate. I take some 8« x 11 paper from my personal supply for the Bikeabout and some 11 x 17 paper from the Bikeabout's supply for personal use and figure everything averages out. I use a lot of computer paper for pulling proofs, but don't count it. Many items are wild guesses even when billed; I don't keep separate printer ribbons and daisy wheels for use on the Bikeabout. The letterhead and envelopes I use come from the general club supply and aren't counted as editing expenses. I get my packages of 11" x 17" paper from the printer, so they are counted against the publisher's budget. Other consumables not listed include Dover's Ready to Use Illustrations for Holidays and Special Occasions ($3.50/copy; I expect the two copies I have to last another year or two), and file folders. A lot of file folders are needed to keep the ads and other artwork organized. You may be able to borrow a drafting board and T-square, or you may have one you acquired for another purpose, but (if you did not inherit any from the previous editor) you will need to buy a pair of scissors with long blades, an artist's scalpel, a burnisher-stylus or a folding bone, drafting tape, a rubber-cement pick-up, a strap wrench for opening your white paint, #2 pencils, other writing implements, and an eraser. See "Pasting up" for a list of supplies. Carbonsets: when using a computer, it is often easier to punch "copies 2" on the print menu than to make a carbon, but the person getting the second original copy of a letter is apt to think you've made a mistake; if you use an impact printer it is better to send an actual carbon to the person getting the "carbon copy". If you have a non-impact printer, you lucky dog, you might see if "canary second sheets" are still available -- and whether anyone in your club remembers using second-quality paper for carbons; the practice is so far forgotten that shoals of people, a great many of whom ought to know better, say "second sheets" when they mean "continuation sheets" (the plain paper that matches your letterhead). When making a second original instead of a carbon copy, it is best to say in the body of the letter "I'm going to run off an extra copy for John." in addition  to putting "cc John Smith" at the bottom of the letter. 1990 Addendum: The Board allotted me $250. I spent $270.93. This included a new T-square, a portable filebox, $25 paid to a calligrapher for a new logo, and a modem to go with my new computer. I haven't charged any disks to the club yet. Keeping track of expenses  I use loose-leaf "six-column analysis paper," with a column for each of my principal categories of expense and one for miscellaneous. A page in your memo book on which you write names and prices will suffice. Add it up once a quarter and send a bill to the treasurer ("Dear Reed: I spent $55.23 in June, July, and August") unless you are also the publisher, in which case send your bill for expenses every month, and try to have large expenses (printing, for example) billed directly to the treasury. Keeping track of postage  Since I keep an assortment of stamps for personal use, I find that the best way to keep track of postage is to buy a sheet of first-class stamps (the kind I use most often) and write it down as an expense the day it was purchased. This causes some bills to show abnormally high or low postage expense, but beats counting stamps one at a time. I keep stamps in the glassine envelope they come in and put the envelope into my pad of ledger paper next to the sheet on which editing expenses are being recorded; this keeps them flat and makes it easy to remember where they are. Storing my "Bikeabout Editor" address stickers in the same envelope is convenient; I nearly always want one when I want the other, and it prevents confusion with any other glassine envelopes of stamps that may be lying around. If I need anything other than 25› stamps, I trade for stamps from my personal supply -- two 25's for a 45 and a 5, for example. Since ten 5's are a year's supply for me, the same five may be swapped back and forth several times before it is stuck to an envelope. (1990 note: I got to keeping too many accounts in that pad of ledger paper, so I put that sheet, my envelope of stamps, my sheets of address stickers, and my collection of receipts into a paper folder of the sort students use; I happened to have one from a school where I'd attended a bike rally, so it's easy to remember which folder is bike club stuff. An editor should have no trouble finding something suitable to paste onto a plain folder. Water-based glue will work on card if you paste the same weight of paper on each side _ it can't curl both ways at once _ and dry it under flat weights.) Snitching stamps: if you run low and borrow stamps from your personal supply for the club, take a round number, one you are sure will last until you get to the post office, and write it down as an expense. If you borrow from the club, again take a round number, but negative entries in your account book are a nuisance; instead, put an IOU into the stamp box and replace stamp for stamp when the post office is open. Never snitch a single stamp; that way lies confusion.  40 ---L--P-----1----+----2----T----3----+@10-4-R Be careful to put exactly the right postage on everything. Too much is wasteful and makes you look careless or ignorant; too little causes delayed delivery, and someone who has to make a special trip into town to pay 5› for your letter is apt to think you are disorganized, inconsiderate, and not very bright. When in doubt, take it to the post office, have it weighed, and write that stamp down separately. (Or transfer stamps from "club" to "personal" to save arithmetic.) Don't forget that the second ounce and all subsequent ounces are only .i:paper 20› each. (All numbers in this section are subject to revision. Try to get the post office to give you a price list; these are sometimes available when postage has just been increased.) If you know the weight of the paper you habitually use, you can count the number of stamps needed. The paper we use for the Bikeabout weighs three sheets (i.e, six leaves) to the ounce. Typical typing paper weighs five sheets to the ounce; though stationery papers weigh more, you can usually mail four sheets and a #10 envelope for one stamp. Whatever your paper weighs, you can usually be fairly accurate by counting a #10 envelope as one sheet and a 9 x 12 envelope as two -- but 9 x 12 envelopes are likely to be made of a heavier paper than the sheets you put into them. If you are pushing the edge of your postage .K:-Purchasing bracket, make sure that your printer understands that substituting a more expensive -- heavier -- paper for the same price is not acceptable. If none of the postal scales at your stationer or office-supply superola are suitable for home use, don't despair. The assortment of postal scales at a head shop will be much wider than the selection at stores that sell scales to people who intend to use them for the stated purpose. Purchasing  When you buy supplies to use later, put the receipt into the box with the supplies; don't file it or throw it out until you have put the supplies into use and know they are good. You should also put all packing material, envelopes, etc. back into the box, and not discard them until the box itself is thrown out. If you have to take an item back, the merchant will need to see the receipt and all packing materials so he can find out what went wrong. Your Budget  .K:-Your Budget Your first question when you accept the job should be "What is my budget?". Don't touch a single key until you get a definite number. During most of the years of experience advertised in the GEAR program book, I spent money ad lib, billed it, and never had the foggiest idea whether a given expenditure was penny-pinching or extravagant. I didn't know how irritating that was until the day after the above-mentioned board meeting, when the implications of having a budget began to sink in. A zero budget is still a budget; at least you know where you stand. Editing without a Budget  .K:-Editing Without a Budget At the Library's book sale, I saw an office-size manual typewriter in excellent condition tagged ten dollars. I've got a portable machine in the attic I'll give you for nothing if you promise to find it work. You can, of course, do a better job with less effort on a high-resolution typesetter running off a mainframe computer and a kilomeg of publishing software, but it isn't impossible to produce a perfectly legible newsletter on a manual typewriter. The secret is to buy a brand-new ribbon and reserve it for reproduction copies and nothing else; remove the reproduction-copy ribbon from the typewriter and put the old one back whenever the machine isn't in use, to make sure you don't forget. When your other ribbon starts to look gray, buy a new reproduction-copy ribbon and demote the old one. In this way you can always have a fresh new ribbon without spending a fortune on ribbons. You may recall that in the old days a secretary regarded changing her typewriter ribbon as a major hassle, but changing a reel-type ribbon is not complicated. Ribbon changing was a hassle because reeled ribbons lasted much longer than cassette ribbons; it might be weeks or even months since a secretary had last changed her ribbon: she didn't remember how. Once you've switched ribbons four or five times in a single day, you'll come to think it's as easy as swapping daisy wheels; the last reeled ribbon that I changed didn't give me half as much trouble as my first cassette. After the first dozen or so changes I didn't even get ink on my fingers. To take care of the interim, fold a number of paper towels neatly and stack them in an air-tight container. A clean mayonnaise jar will do, but pick something pretty if you have it. Pour rubbing alcohol on the top towel until it is good and wet but hasn't begun to drip on the others, then close the jar. In an hour or so all the towels will be slightly damp; after changing a ribbon, wipe your fingers with one of the towels and you will be ready to go back to work. A few drops of cologne won't hurt anything if it suits your fancy. (Lemon extract is a popular scent.) Any form of alcohol will do, if it doesn't contain anything that would make your fingers sticky, and if it is strong enough to keep the towels from stinking and mildewing. If your newsletter is mimeo, there is this to console you while you are pounding your typewriter: many computer printers couldn't cut a decent stencil to save their power cords. Following passage written before changing computers:  Because of the limitations of my word processor, I can't have lines that are long enough in the same document with columns that are long enough. Nor will it put more than one column on a page, but it will reel the paper back in and print the next page on the same paper, n columns over. So I keep my headings in a separate document, which also allows me to use the automatic page numberer _ primitive machines get confused when one physical page occupies two or more logical pages. When it is time to hardcopy page six, I tell the computer I want to print my heading document from page six to page six on continuous-form paper one line long. It obligingly types my heading and stops in the exact spot to begin typing the columns. Then I tell it to print my newsletter document from page sixty* to the end on cut-sheet paper 99 lines long. (It's actually 102 lines long, but my software only allows two-digit numbers. It doesn't matter, because my columns are only 79 lines long _ and if the machine doesn't crank the paper all the way out, that keeps it from falling behind the printer where it's hard to retrieve. I think I'll change the default on the print menu to 90- line paper.) Now the computer types the first column, reels the paper back in (this is why I need 102-line paper --------------- *physical page six is on logical pages sixty and sixty- one, for reasons peculiar to the word processor.  41 for 79+3 lines of type), types the second column, and asks me if I want to print the next page. I hit "N" and pick up a page that, if I have typed all the headlines and titles, is ready to print. You can do the same thing with a manual typewriter and rubber cement: Type the heading and each column on a separate sheet of paper, then cement them to a large sheet. Compared to hand- typing an oversized page, the paste-up is nothing at all. This method has the pleasant side-effect that you can't goof up more than half a page at a time. It also allows you to prepare 11" x 17" pages on a typewriter with a 9" platen. If you want a heading to span the full width of the page, type half of it, roll down an inch or so, and type the other half. Be sure the break comes at a spot that is easy to splice. If you are using rubber cement to overcome the deficiencies of a repeating typewriter, you may be able to make it print the heading and the first column in one pass, leaving you only one column to paste in, but with a manual typewriter, error control is the major concern. You may want to type a column in more than one piece, to make errors easier to repair. Plan columns with convenient streaks of white space where you can splice them invisibly.  42 87cL---+----1----+----2----+----3----+@10-4----+----5----+----6----+----7----+----8----+-C--9----+ .HL:How to Edit Your Club's Newsletter...page $$$ .HL:________________________________________________________________________________________________________  .HR:Publishing Expenses...page $$$ .HR:________________________________________________________________________________________________________  ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿPublishing Expenses ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ .i:publishing .i:expenses .K:Publishing Expenses ---L--P-----1----+----2----T----3----+@10-4-R Just as deciding what to put in the newsletter is what we mean by "editing," distributing the newsletter is what we mean by "publishing." Any activity that gets your 'zine into people's hands or your ideas into people's heads is publishing. I count as publishing expenses the costs of creating and distributing physical copies of the 'zine. This usually means printing, postage, and advertising. Club newsletters are seldom advertised in themselves, but are thought of as advertising for the club. If the 'zine is sold, or if you are also the club's publicity committee, you have to think about advertising. If you keep your eyes open you will see many ways to get free publicity, and free publicity usually works better than paid ads. If you pay for an advertisement, you should keep track of how many responses the ad draws so that you will know whether the money was well spent. Note how many of the magazine ads you read say "write to department xxx," where "xxx" is the initials of the magazine in which the ad appears. If you run off extra flyers or application blanks to hand out at a special event, use paper of a different color or texture from that which you usually use, or change something in the text or the decora- tions of the part you hope to get back. If you have a pre-printed supply, a rubber stamp, a mark in a particular place, or a clipped corner can tell you how successful you were. Modes of advertising are specific to your purpose: flyers handed out at cons may be effective for SF and media fanzines, but bicycle rallies aren't likely to gather together people who are interested in joining a local club _ particularly since local cyclists aren't likely to know about the rally if they don't already read your 'zine. On the other hand, a rally is a splendid place to find people who might attend your  rally. You must begin your advertising campaign with a clear idea of who it is you are trying to attract. Whenever there is a gathering, ask whether your group can get a table or booth free; sometimes you can persuade the operators of a show that you will help attract customers to the paying booths. Sometimes show-designers have as much need of "fillers" as editors do; if you fit the theme of a show (you'll be amazed at how many different themes you fit when you put your mind to fitting), and if you're flexible, you might get lucky. Someone should be in charge of keeping a list of people willing to man such booths at short notice; banners, posters, and the like should be kept ready to hand. A cheap way to make thingums tacked to a display board more durable and more professional- looking is to cover them with heat-shrink plastic such as that sold for making temporary storm windows. The same trick can prevent disarray when documents are displayed on a table. Portable posters: Use two pieces of posterboard the same size. Make an up-and-down crease in one board, and glue one half of the folded board to the back of the other board. When you want to carry the poster or hang it on a wall, you can fold the free half flat to make a double-thick poster. When you want to stand it on a table, you can fold it out to make an easel. Another style: Hinge two posters together by gluing cloth to the backs, then cover the cloth with two more sheets of poster board. It will stand up like a book, and the faces are automatically protected when you fold it for transport. Read "press releases" in "What should you put in?" Don't be embarrassed to interview yourself and write the article you'd like see in print. You can think like an editor and ask how much you can get away with during the second or third draft. Mail a photocopy of the release to everyone who might conceivably print it. If you type with a computer, or don't mind re-typing, it won't hurt to tailor a release to each particular publication or class of publications. It helps to read the publication and imitate what they have already printed. Tips on saving printing expense are scattered all through this book, so that leaves distributing expenses. Most newsletters are mailed: if you could hand them out at meetings, you wouldn't need a newsletter. But it is no longer illegal to distribute newsletters by other means, and you should consider your situation. An apartment-house newsletter is usually slipped under the tenant's doors. A computer club might have an all-electronic newsletter. A thick and heavy 'zine might do well to consider a parcel service. A racing team sponsored by a shop might leave the newsletter at the shop and mail only those copies that aren't collected within a week of publication. The Friends of the Library probably need only one copy of the newsletter for each bulletin board in the library _ or perhaps they can endow a bulletin board of their own. Perhaps your employer will tape off a section of the office bulletin board for the bowling- league news. A bulletin-board 'zine should have type of a bifocal-friendly size. It must be readily recognizable as the same 'zine, and it must also be noticeable that it's a different issue from the one that was there before. You might choose a striking layout and change the color of the paper each month, or buy a ream of paper in the club color and make dramatic changes in layout. Holiday decorations can help people to notice that the 'zine has changed. Since there's only one copy, a bulletin-board 'zine can use photographic prints, hand-colored cartoons, original art, and the like. The nameplate can be permanently posted _ keep the original in a safe place so a fresh copy can be run off when the old one fades. If you have the entire bulletin board, the nameplate can be a part of the frame, or on a sign placed above it. If you mail two hundred or more copies, you should look into a bulk mailing permit; you not only get a discount for doing some of the sorting, you are allowed up to .2067 lb. (3.3067 oz.) instead of only one ounce. The annual fee lasts only to the end of the current year, so a bulk mailing permit might not be worth buying in December. It is also not worth buying if you mail only once a year (unless that is one humongous mailing!), but your printer may be able to bulk-mail for you. Is there another local club many of your members belong to that has a bulk- mailing permit? Perhaps you can arrange to share printing and mailing expenses; perhaps they will, for a fee, devote a certain amount of space in certain editions to your news, and merge your mailing list into theirs for those issues. Perhaps all you really need is to buy an ad once in a while _ you might get a break on the ad rate for making all of your members join their club, or for contracting for the space in advance. (In which case, missing deadline means that your newsletter comes out blank ...) A "non-profit" mailing permit promises even greater savings. Don't set your heart on getting one, and keep your lawyer handy.  43 87cL---+----1----+----2----+----3----+@10-4----+----5----+----6----+----7----+----8----+-C--9----+ .HL:How to Edit Your Club's Newsletter...page $$$ .HL:________________________________________________________________________________________________________  .HR:Mailing Tips ...page $$$ .HR:________________________________________________________________________________________________________  ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿMailing Tips ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ .i:mailing .K:Mailing tips ---L--P-----1----+----2----T----3----+@10-4-R Sealingúscadsúofúenvelopes  .K:-Sealingúscadsúofúenvelopes Open the flaps of five or so envelopes and stack them up a little offset, so that the glue of every flap shows and each envelope serves as a mask for the envelope below it. Stroke a not-too-wet sponge down the steps. Close the top envelope, press the seal with a burnisher or folding bone, lay the next envelope on top of it to keep it from popping open before the glue can set, repeat. Start with two envelopes and work your way up until you know how many you can seal before the glue dries. Don't forget to stuff them first. Stationery stores sell sponge-topped bottles which are especially made for sealing envelopes. Large envelopes are easier to seal with a sponge slightly larger than the envelope flap; press each flap on the sponge, then close and rub down. A sponge a little larger than half the flap will do in a pinch: press each flap twice, then close. The water tends to settle to the bottom of the sponge, so try turning it over before you add more water; because the sponge is too big for a saucer, you will be particularly eager to keep it from sitting in a puddle. .i:stamps Lickingúscadsúofústamps  .K:-Lickingúscadsúofústamps Put a clean sponge into a saucer and pour water on it until it puddles. Let it soak in, then pour out the excess water, squeezing the sponge slightly to make sure it is well-drained. (If you are continually wetting a stamp or two, buy a sponge in a fitted saucer at a large stationery store.) With dry hands, accordion-fold a roll of stamps, creasing the folds firmly. Hold the block of stamps in the palm of your favorite hand, allowing the end to feed out between your index finger and thumb. Press the glue side of the end stamp against the sponge, then press it into position on the envelope (or postcard, newsletter, or whatever). Hold it down with the thumb of the other hand and tear away the rest of the block of stamps. Roll your thumb as you remove it, to press down the edges. Repeat. With practice, you can glue-stamp envelopes as fast as you could rubber-stamp them. The smaller the stamps are, the better this trick works. I can handle a moderately-oversize stamp if I hold it down with two or three fingers instead of my thumb, then roll the heel of the other hand over it as the fingers withdraw. If the glue is of poor quality, dragoon a second person to rub the stamps down with a burnisher before the glue hardens. If you need postcard stamps or some other stamp that doesn't come in rolls, no sweat. That awkward no-handle stamp comes every tenth envelope instead of every hundredth, but you can crease the perforations in sets of ten. Accordion-fold a sheet of stamps into a stick, with the printed side out. (You can fold it glue-side out first, then reverse all the folds by way of further weakening the perforations. Caution: some stamp paper is brittle and will snap if re-creased.) Break blocks of stamps off the stick _ perforations in stacks are easier to break than perforations in single sheets, which is why you rip the holes off your fanfold paper before you burst it instead of the other way around. Handle the block as you handled the block made by pleating a roll of stamps. Be sure you make the creases run up and down with the stamps so that the strips you break off will be made of stamps running side by side. If you goof, rotate the stack of envelopes 90ø. Sometimes a wide margin can be made to serve as a handle for the last stamp in a block. If not, keep a knife handy; you may lose your grip on that last stamp and need a little help getting it off the sponge. Stamping is easier to do after sealing than before. No sponge handy? Fold a paper towel into a small square. I have sealed and stamped as many as 60 envelopes with one paper towel, though not quite as conveniently as with a fine-grained sponge. Once I participated in the sealing of 920 #10 envelopes with the aid of waffle-weave dishrags and small bowls of water. Dip only the corner of the folded rag. I found it expedient to dampen two envelopes at a time, close one, put the other on it, and rub down both flaps with one stroke. A cyclist's water bottle (available at bicycle shops) will dispense a few drops of water onto your sponge when it gets a bit dry. It's also a convenient way to keep a drink handy without much danger of spilling it on your work. Mailingúaúsingleúsheetúwithoutúanúenvelope (a "self  mailer")  .K:-Mailingúaúsingleúsheetúwithoutúanúenvelope Choose a better grade of paper than you usually use for single-sided copy; it is going to be roughly handled. Do not omit the return address; no matter how carefully you maintain your mailing list, a few copies of every issue will come back. On short runs, I find using a return-address sticker easier than trying to print the return address so that it comes out in the right place when the 'zine is folded. Stickers are cheaper if the return address is the only text on the back. Stickers can be had for as little as a cent and a half each, and you've got a good buy if you pay $.06/page for printing on a short run. On the other hand, if you know that you are going to want fifty copies twenty times, you can have a thousand sheets printed for three or four cents each and copy your 'zine on the back. I would have the address printed in the upper left-hand corner, and not try to position it next to a fold. This way you save calculation, don't commit yourself to a specific folding pattern, and can write letters on it if you need to. If an issue won't fit on one page, you can use the pre-printed sheet as a wrapper. With a little experience, folding in thirds is not as difficult as it first appears. When you achieve a fold that suits you, open the second fold and notice how the free edge of the first fold lies in relation to some landmark on the printed side of the paper. There is nearly always some distinctive mark in exactly the right place, and after you've gotten out an issue or two you'll be surprised to find that you've folded almost as consistently as a machine. This is a great comfort if you want to secure the stack with rubber bands. If you fold today and mail tomorrow, stack the 'zines neatly and put a book or other flat weight on top. You will find them better-behaved in the morning. If the paper is folded in thirds by machine, it needs only to be stamped, addressed, and mailed. Machine-made folds tend to snap shut and don't need to be sealed. Handmade folds must be stuck shut. The commonest and cheapest way to do this is to put a single staple in the edge, which works for thick newsletters, but makes it difficult to open a single sheet without tearing it. The best way is to fold it so that the free edge comes about half an inch short of reaching the first fold, then put a sticker in the middle of the free edge. Removable signal dots are best, since they can be peeled off without damaging the 'zine and the round shape makes it easy to stick them down neatly: every position is right way up. Cellophane tape is popular for this purpose, but disfigures the 'zine. It also leads to temptation: if you reel off one inch, why not two? If two, why not four _ and the next thing you know, your readers have to take their 'zines to a safecracker to get them open. You may have a collection of free stickers; if the 'zine is about an interest that gets you on mailing lists, you may even have a collection of appropriate free stickers. If you are your own publisher and signal dots aren't in your budget, open all your junk mail.  44 Address labels cut into fourths work; this is one way to use up short ends of tractor-feed label strips. Or, why not turn the zine over, and stick the free edge down with the address label? One flyer that was mailed this way appeared to have had the return address and bulk-mail stamp added with rubber stamps after folding. Since you need at least two hundred copies to use bulk mail, that must have been quite a job _ though not nearly as bad as doing the same job with stickers. (if you don't notice that the stamp is missing until a thousand copies have been printed, the post office will accept bulk-mail notices that are typed on address labels and stuck on like stamps.) Multiple-sheetúselfúmailers  .K:-Multiple-sheetúselfúmailers Thin 'zines should be folded in thirds, thick 'zines in half. Now and again I see a medium 'zine folded lengthwise, but this fold should be used only when the format of the 'zine cries aloud for it. Only the outermost sheet needs to be stiff. Most paper that's thick enough to print on both sides will do. Some clubs use a blank sheet as a wrapper. One, repeat one staple anywhere in the 'zine will secure all sheets. (The traditional spot for it is the center of the free edge.) If you seal the mailer with signal dots, you must also put one dot over each end to keep the inside sheets from falling out. Since multiple sheets have more tendency to come undone than single sheets, it may be better to fold the free edge to meet the first fold and put the dot over the edge. (This also makes it easy to open the 'zine by cutting the dot with a knife.) You may need a larger dot than you would use for single sheets. Clear tape's excessive grip makes it a pain on single-sheet mailers, but becomes an advantage on multiple-sheet mailers -- especially those with throw-away outer sheets. Do not seal up a newsletter as if you were trying to prevent the recipient from reading it! I once got a self-mailer that had staples nearly touching all around; I'm fairly expert at removing staples (a pointed clam knife works better than fancy gadgets) but that newsletter wasn't worth the effort I put into gaining access to it. .K:-Maintaining a mailing list Kinds of folding  .K:-Kinds of folding After you tell a printer you want paper folded in thirds, he'll ask whether you want a C fold or a Z fold. In a C fold, both creases run the same way and a partly-unfolded sheet looks something like the letter "C". This is the fold to choose for a self-mailer, because only the blank side is exposed to the stresses of mailing. In a Z fold, one crease is up and the other one is down, so that a partly-unfolded sheet zigzags like the letter "Z". The Z fold is the choice for a thick stack to be inserted into an envelope; it is flatter than a C-fold and the sheets nest: they can be stacked in a different order and still be folded along the original creases. You will find that copy folded with the writing on the outside is much easier to type from than copy that snaps closed in your copy holder. Don't bother trying to teach your contributors to fold manuscripts this way unless they aspire to be professional writers; folding the writing inside to "protect" it is an ineradicable vestige of the days when all letters were sent without envelopes. Just re-crease all mss. and concentrate on trying to wipe out "erasable bond", which tends (among its other deficiencies) to lose some of its characters when one is pressing its folds backwards. Mailing labels  .K:-Mailing labels Self-sticking labels on pinfeed carrier are the only way to type labels in bulk (assuming, of course, that you have a tractor feed to pull them through the printer), but pinfeed labels are a nuisance when you want only one label or just a few _ even if none of them flake off and get stuck under the platen. For retail numbers of labels, nothing beats Oxford's Rolª- Labels. They were, alas, created for manual typewriters and few know how handy they are for use with computers, and those who do know use maybe one box every three years, so it's getting harder and harder to find a stationery store that stocks them. The labels are nothing but a strip of gummed paper 3ú3/8 inches wide, with perforations for tearing every 1 1/3 inches, and folding-scores halfway between the perforations. Since they are eight full lines long (most address labels are only six lines, with half the sixth line missing to allow clearance between labels), you don't have to be fanatically careful when you put them in the printer; because there is no backing, you don't have to worry about them coming loose. They were intended to address large envelopes and to revise file-folder tabs; I find that they handle all labeling needs around the house as long as I don't want to stick them to metal or glass. Since the box is small enough to keep right on the printer, I'll sometimes type one of these labels to save the trouble of getting up to fetch a replacement for a mis-typed envelope, or type several to address envelopes that could have been hand-fed one at a time. (Rolª- Labels appear to have become extinct, but old-fashioned gummed-paper tape might still lurk on the back shelves.) Gummed labels are unsanitary if more than one person is to handle them. To print labels for forwarding to the publisher, I keep a box of 4" x 1«" removable labels. It's overkill, but I don't have to worry about hitting the label, and I don't have to try to squeeze a long address into five lines. Because they come in sheets of four, they have some of the advantages of labels that come in strips. I'd like them better if they were an eighth of an inch narrower; they just barely fit into a #10 envelope. If mailing lists are typed on the premises, you should have an ample supply of odd sheets of pinfeed labels to use for contributor's copies and the like. If your printer is excessively automatic, and if buying a T-switch and a second-hand daisy wheel printer seems a bit extreme, you can type your labels on a sheet of plain paper, cut them apart with scissors, and tape them down. There are wide rolls of cellophane tape made just for covering labels, but the common kind can be put on in slightly-overlapping rows to cover the entire label. It usually takes only three rows, so covering the label is easier than taping around the edges. Maintainingúaúmailingúlist  For a big mailing list, you need a database. The best way to get one of those is to slough the job off onto the treasurer on the grounds that he is the only one who knows which members have paid their dues. Or you could have a "circulation manager" or whatever flattering title you can think up. If the club's big enough to have a cumbersome mailing list, there's no excuse for making one person do all the work. For fifty or so names, a word processor will do fine, and save you the trouble of learning how to use a database. Put each name on a separate page and tell the printer-driver that your pages are six lines long (or whatever suits your labels). Keep the names in alphabetical order; not only does that facilitate finding a given name, it alerts you that you have just entered a new subscription for someone who was renewing. (If for some reason you must keep a long list in a word processor, keep the names in zip-code order to make the 'zines easier to sort for for bulk mail. A good database will print in either order.)  45 On each page, type the name, address, and expiration date (or volume and issue numbers of last issue paid for) for one subscriber. If the word processor has a comment function, other information can be stored in the same file (examples: date of latest communication from this member, a list of the articles he has written, a word you can search for when you need someone like him). Don't "comment" the expiration date! It's important that the subscriber know when his subscription is up. When printing labels for issue 32/4, you might go so far as to run a search for "32/4" and replace it with ">>>>>> THIS IS YOUR LAST ISSUE <<<<<<". And maybe also replace "32/5" with "*** EXPIRES 32/5 RENEW NOW ***". To maximize renewals, you (or the circulation manager) should also send a postcard at renewal time, then send those who don't respond a second card asking them to rejoin or resubscribe. Make sure that all the information the subscriber needs is right on the card; if he has to hunt around for an old newsletter to find out where to send his renewal, he may forget the whole thing. Best is to say "send this card and a check for $32.52, payable to Mid- Manhassat High Riders, to Treasurer, Mid-Manhassat High Riders, Box 205, Manhassat, New Jersey 12205." _ and make sure the postcard contains all you need to know to correct your records. If the subscriber doesn't respond to the second card, chances are that he isn't going to respond at all, so a third card is seldom worth the effort. So you're getting the newsletter out on an old Underwood you picked up for $5 at a garage sale? You can get much the same effect as the above method with the aid of a copy shop that duplicates your labels for a bit more than half a dollar per 33 names. The copy shop will provide you with a master sheet that is divided into 33 rectangles by non- reproducing blue lines. Type the addresses and expiration dates onto this master. Start out in alphabetical order even though it isn't going to end up that way; useful vestiges of order will persist for a long time. Use the ribbon that you save for preparing reproduction copies. Center each address inside the lines as best you can; the farther the writing is from the dividing lines, the easier it is for the copier to avoid printing over the seams. When it's time to publish, take the master sheet to the copy shop and have it copied onto a sheet of 33 labels. When someone drops out, stick a blank label (or a new member) over his address. It is best to use removable labels for this, to avoid a pileup of labels that could shorten the life of your master sheet. When someone renews, stick correction tape over his old expiration date and write the new expiration date on it. Correction tape also comes in removable varieties. The same technique can be used for making small numbers of other sorts of custom labels: your return address, the club logo, or whatever. Make six or nine oversized copies (see "scaling") of the desired label and arrange two or three rows of three on a sheet of legal-size paper. Do not make more than three rows, even if it seems a logical way to save work in the preparation of the final master copy. Your scaling calculations are always a teensy bit off; if there are no more than three in a row in any direction, when you center the middle copy, the two outside copies will be centered as near as makes no difference. If you have four or more in a row, the errors add up. Have six or four reduced copies of this intermediate master made, that is, enough to make twelve rows. That wastes one, there being eleven rows on the final master, but eleven is a prime number and you are lucky to come out that close. It's a good idea to make an extra copy or two with the intention of wasting it, just in case you spoil one. It's a long trip back to the copy shop, and they charge a set-up fee for reducing. Now paste the reduced copies onto a master sheet (or a facsimile thereof; you may want to use heavier paper) and have the desired number of copies printed on labels. If you want to use the master sheet again, have two copies (one for use and one for backup) made on plain paper. The rubber cement in the original master will stain and let go in a year or so. Copier labels come in uncut 8«x11 sheets, so you can make your labels any size and shape you want and cut them apart with scissors or a brand-new knife blade. Uncut sheets may also be useful if the dividing lines on a label master make you nervous. Home-cut labels are harder to get off the backing than separate labels on uncut backing. Your scalpel can help you here; use the older one that you use for picking up paste ups, or a deliberately dulled blade. (A couple of passes through corrugated cardboard should round the edge enough.) Take the backing off the label, instead of taking the label off the backing as you would with pre-cut labels. If you are running a small operation all by yourself, make the subscribers maintain the mailing list. Have each subscriber send you a #10 S.A.S.E. for each issue he wants to receive, with the number or name of the issue in the lower left-hand corner of the envelope front and countdown numbers on the envelope flaps. Ten envelopes, for example, would be numbered 9 through 0; when the subscriber gets the envelope numbered "0," he knows that it is time to send you more envelopes. File the envelopes in an envelope box. Use strips of cardboard to separate S.A.S.E.s for one issue from those for the next issue. When an issue is ready, print enough copies for the envelopes in that section of the box, stuff them, and drop them in the mailbox. Be aware that this method leaves you vulnerable to rises in postage. Don't accept envelopes for more than a year in advance, unless you've mastered "licking scads of stamps," above. Unsticking stamps and unsealing envelopes  .K:-Unsticking stamps and unsealing envelopes I think that fictional spies are always steaming open envelopes because writers don't want to corrupt their readers by describing a nefarious method that works. If you hold an envelope flap or a stamp over a teakettle spout, the paper gets wet long before the glue gets soft, and it is painfully obvious that the envelope has been opened. Another trick sometimes recommended is ironing the envelope open; once again, the paper looks thoroughly ironed before the glue softens, and might even turn brown. Worse, patches of glue sometimes dry out instead of melting. If you realize that you left out the check just as you press the flap down, and if you have a thin blade with a blunt edge within reach, you might be able to work the blade under the flap and pop the envelope open. The method is worth a cautious try even if the glue has hardened; if you were careless enough to put the wrong letter in the envelope, you may also have forgotten to rub the flap down. If this method fails, forget subtlety, cut a thin sliver off the return-address end with scissors, repair the omission, add a postscript to the letter so that your correspondent won't think someone has been tampering with his mail, and close the end with transparent tape. The tape is the reason for cutting at the return-address end; the post office will not accept a stamp that has tape on it. If you are trying to impress someone, start over with a fresh envelope. Starting over leaves you with the problem of getting that expensive stamp off the spoiled envelope. If you need to use the same stamp on the fresh envelope, tear the corner of the envelope off, put the stamp flat on a smooth, flat surface, and tear the envelope off in strips. This is similar to the method suggested for salvaging used art in the chapter on pasting up, except that you make no effort to get the paper fuzz off the back of the stamp. Peel off all bits of envelope that stick out beyond the edge of the stamp, then cover the fuzz with fish glue, mucilage, or whatever stickum is handy (I don't  recommend rubber cement) and stick it onto the new envelope. If you aren't in any hurry, drop the envelope corner into a saucer of water. After a while the stamp will float off the paper. When you notice that it has done so, plaster it onto some glassy-smooth surface and pat it with a towel. Plaster it ink-side down, in case some trace of glue remains on the other side. When it is dry, it will fall off the mirror or whatever (so don't use the one over the sink), and be as good as new except for lacking glue. Soaking will also salvage stamps that you left folded together in humid weather. If you need to salvage both stamp and envelope, first check to see if by good luck you stuck it on carelessly. If you can work it loose all around the edges, you can peel from each edge in turn and confine the fuzzed paper to a spot where it will be hidden by the new stamp. Proceed gently. If that doesn't work, pick up a drop of water on your fingertip, touch the finger to the stamp, and carefully spread the water to the exact edge of the stamp. You may prefer a water-color brush to your finger. Check every five minutes to see whether the stamp has come loose, and to make sure the surface of the stamp is still wet. A stamp-shaped cockle will be left on the envelope. You can cover this flaw if you are wise enough to keep a few of those enormous commemorative stamps on hand for such emergencies. Want to recycle an incoming envelope into an outgoing envelope? Just tear the canceled stamp off in strips, ignoring anything stuck too tight to remove, and cover the fuzz with a larger stamp. If you send out a lot of S.A.S.E.s, think ahead by using the smallest-available stamps on your S.A.S.E.s, and keep oversized stamps for sending them out again. Use a smaller sticker for your own address than you use for regular addressing. If the old label is firmly stuck, you need not remove it, but for an undetectable job, work a knife under the edges and tear them off; you needn't get the entire label if the edges are feathered and nothing is loose. If you use reuseable mailers, use removable labels. Want to use an aggressively non-removable label on a re-usable mailer? Put a blank removable label down first -- or let your correspondent cover it with a removable label that you can peel off to expose the original label when you send the mailer back. Some mailers become permanently attached to removable labels; some might reject them prematurely. If you suspect a problem, use a permanent label known to be compatible with your removable labels the first time the mailer travels. The permanent label should be larger than the removable label; if the removable label hangs over, it may get stuck or start peeling. Buying envelopes  .K:-Buying envelopes Catalog envelopes are cheaper than clasp envelopes, easier to seal, and less likely to get into mischief in the mail. Clasp envelopes are a useful compromise when you need some catalog envelopes and some button envelopes and don't want to stock two kinds. Large envelopes that open on the side are called "booklet envelopes". They don't cost any more than end-opening envelopes, if you shop carefully, and are sometimes more suitable. When in doubt, choose end-opening. You can buy envelopes of any size with your return address already printed on them, and it doesn't cost much to have your logo included; usually, there's no extra charge for a logo on the second order. A bulk mail stamp doesn't cost any extra (unless you have to buy artwork) if you are having your address printed. If you intend to use the same envelopes for first-class mail, you can hide the bulk-mail stamp under a commemorative stamp. (Don't forget to cover any bar codes that you find on an envelope that you are not using for its original purpose.) Before buying printed envelopes, ask the post office whether they intend to change your address. Stationer's stores are a dying breed; if you can't find one conveniently near to you, or if the nearest store is a superola where a selection of paper means one each of copier, computer, and toilet, get on a mailing list. Anyone who is already on a list can turn you in. Some mail-order office-supply companies deliver free if the order is more than a rather small amount. If you do have a proper stationer, buy as many of your supplies there as you can, so that the clerks will get to know you. You will still need catalogs for the really weird stuff. Envelopes in boxes are so much cheaper than envelopes in small packets that it pays to buy a whole box even if it takes a couple of years to use it up. Don't buy more than two year's supply, lest the flaps seal spontaneously. (The difference over the packet rate may make the risk of wasting a few envelopes inconsequential _ and you will be surprised at how many letters you have to write.) Paper is unreasonably expensive in any quantity less than five hundred sheets. Except for newsprint, paper should keep indefinitely.  46 87cL---+----1----+----2----+----3----+@10-4----+----5----+----6----+----7----+----8----+-C--9----+ .HL:How to Edit Your Club's Newsletter...page $$$ .HL:________________________________________________________________________________________________________  .HR:Miscellaneous Hints ...page $$$ .HR:________________________________________________________________________________________________________  ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿMiscellaneous Hintsÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ .K:Miscellaneous Hints ---L--P-----1----+----2----T----3----+@10-4-R If there's any chance that you will want the information on an envelope, staple the envelope to its letter. If you make a habit of slitting the envelope on three sides first, it will be flatter to handle, and you won't run the risk of overlooking a teeny enclosure. When you discard an envelope, hold it up to the light first. The inside address on a letter was invented to make sure that the carbon copy contained complete information. Even if you don't keep carbons, using an inside address is a good habit. Not every place where several people share an address is in the habit of stapling envelopes to incoming mail; the letter itself should contain complete information. If the first thing you type is the recipient's address, you won't spend two hours composing a detailed answer to someone who didn't bother to give you his address. If you use a word processor to maintain your address book (note: an address book is not a mailing list), the addresses don't need to be in any particular order. You can use "search" to find the first name of your correspondent, which will, in some programs, leave you in the right position to mark the address for moving. Take the page break after the address along with it. Put the address at the top of the file and tell the program to print the first page of the file onto an envelope. I suggest reshuffling partly because most print programs make less fuss about printing the first page than about printing one out of the middle (at the very least, it's going to ask you which page), and partly because it pushes seldom-used addresses to the bottom of the file. The habit also helps me to remember whether I mailed a letter or forgot to hardcopy it -- if John's address is on page 55, I haven't written him lately. You can treat some groups of addresses as families (Mr. & Mrs., the route list of a robin) and move them as a block, but different categories (the cycling club, the literary club, friends and relatives) should be kept in separate files. Your friend is also a contributor to your 'zine? Put him in both files. Duplicating text is easy nowadays. A mailing list in a word processor can double as an address book, if you can print a page out of the middle. And if the word processor in question isn't a kitchen-sink program that takes five minutes to sort its options before it starts sending to the printer. If you are using an elaborate program to create the newsletter, you may want to run a second word processor for addressing envelopes, writing letters, and other jobs where speed is more important than being able to choose from hundreds of styles of type. A CPU hog should be sophisticated enough to read any text-only file, so you can also use the simpler processor to generate copy. Writing in one format and editing in another makes you more likely to spot errors and rough spots. If you have tacked a mailing list maintained by someone else to the end of your electronic address book, don't bother to maintain your copy, just tack corrections and additions to the beginning of the file, so that a search will encounter the correction before the original. Keep the mailing list separate -- below a marker or, if you are using PC-Write or another program that recognizes series, in a subsequent file. This makes it easy to remove last year's file and replace it with the current copy. A paper address book should be loose leaf, and you should put only one address on a page. This allows you to type addresses, if you prefer. More important, it allows you to remove obsolete addresses and insert new ones without messing up your filing scheme. For small-scale record keeping, a loose-leaf notebook works better than a card file, and takes up less space even if you use pages bigger than the cards you would have used. Those who use them say that a Rolodex combines the advantages of a card file with those of a loose- leaf notebook. Its awkward shape also makes it likely to stay on your desk instead of wandering off and getting lost. The post office outlawed the use of file cards as post cards (thereby messing up many a filing system), but it's still legal to use a letter-size sheet of cover stock cut into four equal pieces. You can buy pinfeed postcards for your daisy wheel or pin printer. They are like pinfeed paper, but smaller and stiffer. For the volunteer fire company, we often print fifty copies of a notice on postcards, then turn the strip over and print the mailing list. For "dues due" notices, you can buy pinfeed postcards with a message already printed on them -- with a pin printer, it's easy to address one, a few, or a few dozen. You can get a top-of-the-line pin printer for less money than a cheap, flimsy laser printer, and pin printers are more versatile, more durable, and more reliable. When you use downloadable fonts, a good 24-pin printer can make reproduction-quality text and line art -- and may have better resolution than a cheap laser. You need to keep three ribbons for your 24-pin printer: an old one for drafts, a ribbon that has lost its first freshness for lettters and manuscripts, and a brand-new ribbon for reproduction copies. I keep on my desk an old lip-salve box half full of "glycerin and rosewater", a old-timey lotion found in drug stores. (Ask the pharmacist.) When I dip one fingertip and rub it on the other nine, it makes excellent finger-tack, and it also soothes minor irritations caused by dry air and contact with paper. Since the manufacturer thinks you are going to bathe in it, one bottle will last the rest of your life. Jellied glycerin (sold in stationery stores under various sticky names) is less versatile, but it's impossible to spill it; if there are children about, or if you share your office, it's a better choice. Cruise stationer's shops, art-supply stores, and the like now and again. It can be educational. By the time you figure out what you are doing, the job is finished. One of the nice things about newsletters is that there is always a next issue. I straightened up, rubbed my back, surveyed the four neat boxes on the sheet to which I intended to paste four quarter-page ads for the fireman's- convention program book, and paused to grumble that none of the borders one can buy ready-made on layout paper were quite right _ and then I realized that I could have made just one of these grids last week. I could have taken that one page to the nearest copy shop and had twenty copies made. It would have cost less than the rule tape I threw away after false starts. Moral: notice whenever some job has to be done several times, and ask yourself whether a good copy machine can help you with it. If the cover letter for your press release is on letterhead that has a clean design in black ink on plain white paper, the other editor might use your logo over your announcement. Sixty- or seventy-pound offset paper makes excellent letterhead. Sixty-pound paper looks like ordinary typing paper and doesn't call attention to itself in any way, but when you pick it up, it's twenty percent heavier and thicker than you expect it to be; the statement it makes is wonderfully subtle. Best of all, printers use it by the truckload, so it's cheap. Don't forget to order matching plain paper when you order the letterhead; paper bought later seldom matches perfectly. Order plenty; if you get stuck with some when the letterhead runs out, it's plain white paper and you can use it up. If the colored ink you are thinking of using for your letterhead doesn't thrill you, plain black will look better. The less you put into your design, the more it will look as though a professional had designed it. If you put your club's post-office box in 8-point type at the bottom of the letterhead, correspondents will be less likely to send answers to the post office box instead of to the member who wrote to them, and it will be easier for an officer who has unusual difficulties in that line to white out the address and make his own letterhead on a copier. Writing your own address at the top of the letter, immediately below the printed heading and above the date, is likely to bring it to your correspondent's attention. When should dues be due? There are two choices: have each member's membership run out at the end of the time he's paid for, or have everybody's membership run out at once: New Year's Day, the last day of the racing season, or whatever. The simultaneous method is almost necessary for clubs that offer some privilege gained by showing one's membership card: it has to be obvious at a glance whether this is this year's card or last year's. If the club is small and not likely to expand much, it is easier for the treasurer to collect all the dues at the January meeting than to fiddle with two or three renewals every month. If dues cost more than a token, the simultaneous method may make it hard to recruit in months other than January. Some clubs begin to charge half-dues in July, or begin to issue next year's card in October. Clubs with really heavy dues pro-rate them, that is, multiply one-twelfth of the annual rate by the number of remaining months. In large clubs, the treasurer would rather issue a few dozen renewal notices a month than be swamped with them in January, and it is much more comfortable to have a little money coming in all the time than to get it all at once. Since recruiting tends to be seasonal, renewals will tend to be seasonal. It is a good plan to adopt policies that move renewal dates in random directions. If you offer a reward, for example, offer a one-month extension of membership. If you raise the dues and somebody doesn't get the message, don't knock yourself out collecting the extra; mark him down for however much membership he has paid for. Offer two- and three-year memberships; even if you can't offer a discount, many people are as eager to avoid the trouble of being dunned as you are to avoid the trouble of dunning. With the current rate of inflation, you dare not offer more than three years in advance. When incoming art or copy is thoughtfully marked with its measurements, when you receive a standard- size ad, when a bit of clip art is the same width as one you've used before, when a cartoon neatly fits a standard sheet of paper -- measure it at once. If you don't, you are in for surprises at paste-up time. When you come home from taking the newsletter to the post office or taking the reproduction copy to the printshop, when you send the final proof back to the typesetter -- whatever marks the last act of your share in getting out the newsletter, you experience a glorious feeling of having done everything that is expected of you. You also enjoy the delightful glow of knowing that the next deadline is a whole month, or a whole quarter away. When you have these two sensations at the same time, you are cruising for a bruising. In "The Elements of Editing," Plotnik refers to the likely result of these sensations as "embarking on a pencil- sharpening project." The members of R.A.SF.C. call it "cat vacuuming". (Except for the Bristish members, who call it "Hoovering the cat".) You're entitled to veg out for a few hours after meeting deadline, but you should start work on the next issue before you finish work on this one, maybe before you finish the issue before that. No matter how good it feels to finish one job, there's a bunch more in the pipeline. It ain't over until your friends leave the cemetery. Calibrate Scales  Art Sadler, W6SFW  For you QSLers [postcard writers], recent scientific studies have definitely concluded that two quarters plus one penny weigh a half ounce. Further research has revealed that four quarters plus two pennies will weigh one ounce. This is close enough for Government work, as the above studies were verified by my local Post Office on their electronic scales. Taken from the February, 1995 World Radio, which took it from SARO News Hand-Sewn Booklets:  Big, fat books about sewing books by hand assure you that in addition to the plethora of information they offer, you need to be shown how by a master _  but learning to hand-sew a booklet is easier than learning to operate a saddle stitcher. You can do a perfect job on the very first try. Hand sewing is too tedious to use for production, but it will often help you to retrieve mistakes and deal with small emergencies. It may be easier to hand-sew one or two booklets than to gain access to a suitable stapler. If a booklet is so precious that you want to unstaple it and have it photocopied, hand sewing will allow you to restitch it through the original holes. First, jog the booklet and fold it, just as it will look when finished _ but if you plan to trim it, do that after sewing. Next, open the booklet and use a ruler and a coarse needle or a fine awl to mark an even number of pricks in the crease of the innermost sheet. You can get away with unequal spacing of the pricks if they are symmetrically disposed about the center of the foldline. You should not prick close to the cut edges, especially if you intend to trim the booklet. Stitch size is a judgment call: long stitches can catch on things; short stitches weaken the paper by creating a tear-along-the-dotted-line effect. I feel that one- inch stitches are about right, with a little more than an inch of clearance from the edges. Chris Drum's "Four Stories," a 4¬" x 7" booklet, is sewn through three holes spaced 1 7/8" apart, which clear the cut edges by 1 3/8." (In production sewing, avoiding an excessive number of stitches is more important than centering the knot.) Use a fine awl, or a quilter's thimble and a needle slightly coarser than the one that will be used for sewing, to poke a hole through the spine of the book at each prick. A needle vise is better than a thimble, but not easy to find at the hardware store. Some sewing awls will accept a coarse sewing-machine needle. Sometimes it is easier to pierce the hole with a fine needle, and then enlarge it with a coarser needle. Cut a thread twice the length of the line of holes, plus a reasonable allowance for "taking up," tying the knot, threading the needle, and errors in judgment. Coarse linen thread is traditional; I find fine crochet cotton satisfactory. Nylon thread is too strong, and will cut the paper. The thread on "Four Stories" appears to be #40 sewing cotton. If you want to be fussy, send for a catalog of bobbin-lace supplies; the loosely-twisted linen thread made to be plaited into lace will flatten against paper instead of cutting it. Put half the booklet flat on the drawing board, and lift the other half to expose the center fold. Put the needle through one of the holes on either side of the center, from the inside to the outside. Leave a tail just long enough for convenient knot- tying. Put the needle from outside to inside through the next hole toward the nearer edge. Pull the thread snug, but don't tear the paper. When you reach the end, lace back again, passing the needle through each hole a second time. The second pass might pierce the thread left on the first pass and prevent it from shifting, so make sure the first stitches are snug before you start back. The stitches on this trip will fill up the gaps left on the first trip. Upon returning to the center, put the needle from outside to inside through the other of the two middle holes, and work out and back again on the other side. This leaves one missing stitch at the middle of the inside, with a thread dangling on either side of it. Create the missing stitch by tying the ends of the thread together in a square knot. Center the knot as best you can, and make sure it's a square knot. In thread this fine a granny knot will probably hold, but a granny knot puts the tails at right angles to the threads, and you want them to be parallel. Cut the tails to not less than a quarter inch and not more than half an inch, and fray the ends with the point of your needle to create a bow-tie effect. In full-scale bookbinding, the fraying is done to prevent the ends from leaving grooves in the paper when the book is nipped; in pamphlet sewing, the fraying is ornamental and the ends may be left plain _ indeed, should be left plain if the number of holes is odd. Computer Hints  If you find a mistake in your hardcopy and decide to tolerate it, correct the file anyhow. Surprisingly often, there will be some other reason you can't use that copy, so make the file correct in case you have to reprint. Besides, symbolic corrections have symbolic value. When you are learning a new system, divide your file so that the self-scrambling feature can't scramble the entire newsletter. For example, make a separate file for each of the reproduction ratios you plan to use. No matter how easy the manual says it is to mix formats, it's not going to work the first time you try it. Not unless you have everything else working first. If the program recognizes file series, it is convenient to put each page of a newsletter into a separate file. If you haven't found the "change page number" command yet, you can insert blank pages to make the page numbers right. It may or may not be necessary to fill the empty pages with empty paragraphs. If there is no "print from page n to page n" feature, you can print a section by telling the program that you are feeding manually, and cancel after the desired pages have been printed. Some systems disable the tractor when on "manual feed," but what most mean by it is that they send one page to the printer, then wait for you to press a button before sending the next one. If the printer has a large-enough buffer, you can keep pushing the "print next page" button until the computer says it has finished printing the last of the pages you want. Or punch until you've filled up the buffer, and come back when you hear the printer stop. If the printer has no buffer, well, this is a good time to pick up, straighten, and dust. Or proofread the copy as it appears. Something really nice to have is the ability to start printing one page at a time, then switch to continuous printing when you are sure everything is right. PC-Write by Quicksoft is the only program I know of that lets you switch from pausing after each page to printing continuously, but I haven't (thank goodness) experienced very many word processors. Some large stationery suppliers sell continuous- form blank inserts for name badges. 3«" x 2¬" inserts are a good size for membership cards. Large clubs use them to automate the filling in of names; small clubs use them to save buying a twenty-year supply of printed cards. A package of 500 inserts costs less than ten dollars. For elegant membership cards, have them printed by a business-card printer. Business cards can be cheaper (not to mention easier to find) than special "membership" cards, and you have more say over how they will look. Expect to fill in the names with a pen: cards small enough to put into a wallet are very difficult to feed into typewriters and printers. Even machines made just to print cards print them in pairs which are cut apart after printing. (For a very small flyer, look into having a double-size card folded instead of cut in two.) Don't be afraid to learn by ignoring warning messages -- if you've got fresh back ups. Most programs can do things the manual says are impossible, and any program can do anything you want it to do -- if it's worth your time to make it do it. Make a fresh back up right after doing something you don't want to do over. Save or make a fresh back up immediately before doing something that you might want to undo. Always save or make a fresh back up immediately before doing anything for the first time. Sometimes the most primitive methods are the least trouble. Don't use a backhoe to pick up matchsticks. I got a new word processor with a marvelous gadget called "templates" to help you create new documents. Dutifully, I studied how to create a template and attach it to my newsletter. A few issues later, I was frantically searching for a way to un-attach the template so that I could go back to my old habit of editing last month's issue to create next month's issue. If I didn't laboriously copy every teeny refinement I made to the template, the template would do its duty and set me back to square one every month -- and somehow the first date I put on the template kept re-reappearing. On two occasions, it survived into the printed 'zine. Moral: sometimes procrastination is a good idea. (Post script: I got rid of the "template" by dumping the whole program.) If your word processor doesn't have templates, keep a blank document in each of the formats you regularly use, calling them "letter," "report," etc. Then when you want to write a letter, instead of creating a new document, copy "letter" to a new name. You can type a complementary close and signature in the blank letter and type the letter above it. If your word processor lets you redefine keys, it's easier to redefine ctl-s to "Sincerely, John Smith, Newsletter Editor." I keep all the letters I write for the club in one file. I put a page break above the date on the previous letter and type the new one between the letterhead and the page break. This keeps my disk from getting cluttered with dozens of small files, and automatically files my "carbons" by date. Here is another reason to always include an inside address: if I want to know whether I've written to other people at the same office or in that family, I can search for the company name or the house number. You can start a new file annually, or delete the bottom pages whenever the file gets bulky. MS Publisher's templates differ from the "edit last month" method in three ways: You can leaf through them, so that you not only don't have to remember where you put a template, you don't have to remember that it exists. They were designed by professionals. They remind you to change the name. When a file goes so haywire that you have to delete it and start over, you may be able to save a text-only file and then import the text into your new file. The method you use when you want only part of a file is probably the one least likely to drag along defective mechanisms. It may help to edit out garbage with another program before re-importing it; sometimes the original file can be de-garbaged and de-nonASCIIed with a simpler program. As always, copy before fooling around, but use DOS or your file manager instead of your processor's back up utility. If you can't delete a defective file, move everything else out of that directory and then prune the directory. Automatic machinery is wonderful, if what you happen to want done is what it happens to do. First figure out what you want done, then buy or adapt software to do it. Never start a labor-saving device before you learn how to stop it. Learn to copy disks before you do anything else on a computer. Lucky enough to have your own scanner, but the pictures it makes are lousy? Blowing up the art before scanning it is worth a try. If your system scales bitmapped images by changing the size of the pixels, shrinking an oversize image will create the illusion of higher resolution. If you need a particular resolution to fit your printer, read the chapter on scaling so that you can make an image that will be the right size when the resolution is right. If your printer is your limit on resolution, make oversize hardcopies and have them shrunk. 75% is a convenient reproduction ratio, because letter-size pages fit neatly on ledger paper, and three-fourths and four-thirds are easy to calculate. 75% of one pica (one-sixth inch) is an eighth of an inch, so you can measure a hole with your pica scale, measure the photo that goes in it with your eighth-inch scale, and know at once whether they match. I like fourteen- point type for this ratio; it comes out ten-and-a-half points, which most people find easy to read. It is easy to get out a newsletter with a simple word processor, and you can do all sorts of professional-looking things with a publisher, but if you need to get out a newsletter with a fancy word processor -- budget lots and lots of time for fighting the program, and budget lots and lots of money for seeing your shrink after every issue. Whenever you are quite certain that you won't want to undo anything that you have recently done, save. What you see isn't always what you get -- read your hardcopy. The more sophisticated your program, the more likely it is that what's sent to your printer won't match what you see on the screen. Multipart paper: A copier is a scanner hooked up to a printer, and a fax is just a copier that sends through a modem instead of to its own printer. By the time this sees print, a printer that isn't also a scanner, fax, modem, and copier will be as quaint as a typewriter with only one style of type -- but some of you will have quaint equipment. A box of four- part paper is a lot easier to keep around the house than a separate copy machine. I used to break carbon copies into individual pages and then collate them the way I'd collate copies made on a copier, but I find it easier to keep the pages together. After I break off the line-hole strips, I break copies off the stack, unfold them, and lay them out on the sofa, if they are three or four pages, or on the floor if they are longer. This makes it easier to count how many copies I have made, and makes it easier to separate the top copies that are reserved for the older members of the family. Bursting a copy is much easier than gathering one, especially since the leaves of multipart paper tend to stick together. 47 87cL---+----1----+----2----+----3----+@10-4----+----5----+----6----+----7----+----8----+-C--9----+ .HL:How to Edit Your Club's Newsletter...page $$$ .HL:________________________________________________________________________________________________________  .HR:Sharing the Work ...page $$$ .HR:________________________________________________________________________________________________________  ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ Sharing the work ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ .K:Sharing the work ---L--P-----1----+----2----T----3----+@10-4-R Guiding thought: work can be shared; responsibility must be delegated. Since editing is mostly making things fit together, it is difficult to share the work unless you also share your office; all the co-editors I know about are married couples. I have persuaded the MHW to buy me a modem, with an eye to sharing or delegating the chore of punching-in. Now that I have a standard computer, a few contributions have arrived on disk, and I hope that other authors will be able to submit material I don't have to retype. Though the work of editing cannot be shared, the newsletter can be divided. Bikeabout, for example, has a Ride Calendar Editor who takes responsibility for pages five and six every month during the touring season; I retain the responsibility for seeing to it that the pages arrive at the printer together. The disadvantage of sharing work this way is that it costs space; you can't use any of your co-editor's leftover space, and if either editor runs over by a few lines, he requires an entire extra page. Some newsletters may be able to divide the work anyway; anything that is supposed to fill an integral number of pages may be delegated without a space penalty. When there are several editors, there will have to be a chief editor who adjusts his contribution to make the total number of pages right; the other editors must work to a fixed number of pages, or tell the chief editor early on how many pages they will need. It will often happen that other members of the club will prepare items that are ready to print. If possible, try to get them to submit such items at the same deadline as items that you have to type. Nearly everything takes more or less space than predicted, and a surprising number of otherwise well-educated people think that you can photograph pencil marks and erasable bond. If the item is to occupy a whole page (or if you can insist that it be made exactly to the predicted measurements), you can work around it until it arrives _ but if your printing method requires a fixed reproduction ratio, allow time to take oversized pages to the copy shop. Hardly any non-editors have a firm grasp on the word "margin". Chores which aren't strictly editing are easy to .i:mailing spin off. In our club, the treasurer maintains the mailing list and prints address labels; a "Circulation manager" could do the same. The ad manager sells and keeps track of the ads, sees that complimentary copies are delivered to the shops that advertise, etc. I prepare reproduction copies. The publisher handles everything else. If you collate by hand, throw a monthly party in some room that contains long tables; let the club buy soda and chips. It is better to have a list of people who are individually invited to each party than to make it open for all; it makes the number of workers more predictable, and lets you time the party to suit a production schedule which, with volunteer labor at every stage, is never as predictable as we would like. There are times and places in which you can recruit an adequate number of collators just by leaving your door open. I haven't seen one of those since I got out of school. To collate a thick stack of sheets: arrange the stacks of pages in order around the edge of a big round table, or the two sides of a long table, or what have you. Skew each stack a little so that the edge of each sheet hangs out a fraction of a millimeter more than the sheet below; this makes it possible to pick up sheets one at a time without using glycerin. (An open box of finger-tack on the table is a thoughtful gesture anyhow.) Let the volunteers march around the table, each gathering one copy in one circuit. It's easiest to start with the back cover and put each sheet on top of the stack in your hand. When a volunteer has a complete copy, he carries it to another table out of the line of traffic and jogs it, then takes it to the stapler and holds it while a seated volunteer staples it. Or he may deposit it at the beginning of a production line, at right angles to the previous gathering if the production line isn't keeping ahead of the collators, and return to the round table. To collate a thin booklet-form newsletter: two production lines, one on each side of a long table, feed into one label-attacher who is flanked by people who put rubber bands around zip-code bundles and pack the bundles into mailbags. Each line begins with a volunteer who has the printed sheets before him in separate stacks. I used to get complaints, whenever the Bikeabout exceeded twelve pages, that the fourth stack of paper made for an awkward reach. Nowadays we rarely have fewer than sixteen pages, and frequently run twenty; the "elves" must have worked something out. On the starboard side of the table (the label- attacher's right), the first person takes one sheet from each pile and hands the bundle to the person on his left, who jogs and folds it and hands it to the left again. The next person puts a staple in the free edge and throws the finished letter in front of the addresser, who should be the publisher or someone who knows what is going on. When the addresser has used all the labels in a zip-code group, he puts the appropriate sticker on the top newsletter and shoves the stack of addressed newsletters in front of one or the other of the banders, who have a surprisingly difficult time dealing in bundles as fast as previous workers have dealt one newsletter at a time. Details of the production line will vary with format and number of elves. If the booklet is folded twice, for example, a second folder will be required. The easiest way to collate a newsletter: give your printer a large sum of money and a mailing list. Seriously, folks, if you can't afford a bulk mailing permit, ask your printer whether he has one. You might save enough on postage to cover the collating.