1 which photo editing software will be suitable and faster to use?

I would like to gain feedback for research purposes.
web.mac.com/darrellmccrimon/genuinemenblog

To answer some of the above questions really fast in the comments here, the printing isn’t going to be special or new or great – it’s the standard 80lb glossy saddle stitched. In the press release that was sent out about this service, the publisher will have the option to mark-up the book in order to make a profit off of what it will cost to make them, ship them, etc. As for being a great place for a one-off that you had an idea for, I can’t tell yet if this is that sort of thing. With it being in Beta, they’re being choosy about who they pick to print. Will it stay this way, where you’ll have to propose in the future? Something I read made it sound like they only wanted books that they knew would have a moderate purchase rate which defeats the idea of single-issue publishing to me. And I hope I’m not coming off as completely negative to the idea, I’m just looking at it from both theirs and ours (publishers) perspectives and I’m not seeing the “opportunity” yet.

One of the things I’ve read about this is how they say everyone can become a magazine publisher with no costs! Well how do you purchase rights for stories and photography without any costs? I’m a believer in the one-man show but essentially, I think this is about the equivalent of our ancestors, the zines. How its different from those others services of Blurb and so on? You can sell it for a profit (something I think Blurb really should be doing at this point anyway and something they can easily add on to their already developed service and site).

Like I said, interesting concept, but once you get into the realm of actually purchasing rights for stories and photography, you’re in the realm of thinking about generating real profit to cover your costs and to possibly even pay yourself a little.

thank you so much for pointing this out. so amazing.

MagCloud seems like a good way to test your magazine idea. I’ve found that starting a magazine is alot like starting a restaurant: too many people fall in love with the idea of owning a restaurant because they love the idea of treating their friends to dinner even more. They don’t have a hole in their soul that can only be filled by making people happy with a great restaurant experience – they just want the glamorous benefits of cracking open bottles of wine and sitting at the chef’s table with their friends. That’s why the same banks that won’t make restaurant loans won’t make magazine loans, either.

If you think you’ve got a great magazine idea that fulfills a need in your chosen category, do this MagCloud thing and figure out how to market it in ways that draws people to the MagCloud site. If you succeed, you may want to seriously consider a career move.

If nothing else, maybe MagCloud will allow me the perfect retort to “Hey, y’know I had this GREAT idea for a magazine…”

sounds like Magnum’s FASHION MAGAZINE.

Mike

Stephen Gan created Visionaire, and then V, with a brilliant, reverent, attitude about advertising and advertisers, and how the relationship and tension between art and commerce has historically been responsible for the most compelling content.

If these independent ventures are hatched within a vacuum, can they ever amount to something more than vanity endeavors?

My guess is that shooters and creative directors with strong commercial track records and tight relationships with corporate clients could make an interesting go at a new paradigm of commercial one-offs sponsored by adventurous “partners” (meaning forward-thinking advertisers).

But then isn’t that just the beginning of the same thing all over again? Even in this terrible climate for print, as the audience steadily migrates toward the web, great photography still — as it always has — makes it to the surface.

Does it really need to be so easy for anyone who wants to to create his own magazine?

How is this different than Blurb or LuLu? Is it a unique printing/binding process?

@Michael: I asked for a beta invite so I can investigate for the blog. I’ll see what the cost looks like and printing quality.