Well I am back in the office after an interesting trip to Japan in Dec. Look
for coverage of the trip and the Nismo Festival in upcoming issues.
Lots of people have been concerned (justifiably so) about the lack of an issue
recently, and the fact that they haven't received their Z car calendars. I
wanted to take a second to explain what has happened so folks don't freak out
or feel like I am ignoring them. Here is a copy of a post on the subject that
I sent to the IZCC list, that addresses the issue without going into lots of
details. All I would add to this is that the delay in the calendar caused the
delay in the issue. The two are directly related, because the work in question
on the issue couldn't be started until that work on the calendar was
completed. The calendar was supposed to have been printed in early October and
instead wasn't ready for print until December and the issue, which should have
been printed in late October wasn't ready for print until the end of the year.
Also we had the bad luck to have the delays run us into the holiday season
when folks were out of town, and that caused some of the delays on the issue.
While this wasn't something I had any control over, I do want folks to know
that I am very concerned about this. My intention was and is to get this
publication on track as far as regularity goes and this setback
notwithstanding, I am working on making that happen. On a positive note, I
think folks will be very pleased with the changes in issue #14. Issue #14 is
due to begin mailing on the Friday Jan 15th, though they may not get them all
sent out before the 17th or 18th, and the post office can take anywhere up to
2 weeks to actually deliver them. As for the Z calendars, they are being
mailed right now. Some have gone out and some are about to. Since these are
going out first class (rather than bulk as the issues do) they should arrive
within a few days of mailing. For those of you who selected a Classic Datsun
calendar, most of those were drop shipped to you by Mike on Dec 3rd. If you
were expecting a Classic Datsun calendar and have not yet gottne one, please
send me a post so I can look into it.
> No one else has received one either, Phill. Due to some technical difficulties
> beyond my control, production on the issue was delayed yet again. It is at the
> printers right now and should be mailing out in about 10 days to 2 weeks. In
> essence we skipped another issue. This issue that is about to come out is #14
> and is being called the "Winter 99" issue. The issue after that, #15, will be
> the March/April 99 issue. I am no happier about this than any of our readers
> or advertisers, and had there been anything I could have done about it I would
> have, believe me! As you can see by the numbering we have not skipped any
> issue numbers, and since all subscriptions are handled on an issue number
> basis (i.e. you pay for six issues stating with issue #10 then your
> subscription will expire with issue #15 no matter how long it takes to get
> those 6 issues out to you), the fact that we have skipped an issue does not
> mean that you have missed one. It just means your subscription will take
> longer than a year to run out. I know this isn't the best situation, but at
> least this way no one is losing out on any issues, and it is the best I can do
> right now. I am looking at adding our first employee in the next few months,
> an office manager, to help speed things up as far as new subs and orders go.
> But that would not have helped on this delay as it was due to people and
> circumstances outside of Seacoast Publishing and therefore beyond my control.
> I hope this clears things up a bit as far as the next issue is concerned. Also
> while I have everyone's attention, the Z Car Calendar, which was supposed to
> have been shipping in mid October, has also been delayed (actually its delay
> was in part what delayed the next issue as the calendar had to be done before
> the next issue). However it is now being mailed out. I received the shipment
> of calendars on Dec 31 (talk about getting it at the last minute), and have
> begun to ship out everyone's copies. And no they are no where near sold out,
> so you can still order them :-)
>
> Anyway I hope everyone will bear in mind when dealing with ZCCD that this is a
> small company, trying to do its best for everyone and not some big publishing
> conglomerate like Pertersen's. Our funds are limited as are the number of man
> hours we can work, and we are also pretty low on the food chain when it comes
> to our suppliers and companies we sublet work to. However we have taken steps
> to improve our status in the food chain (going to 64 pages instead of 48, as
> we have been up to now, for example, gets us a better position in the chain)
> and ensure that this sort of delay is less likely to occur. I hope that by
> year's end we will be in a position where this sort of thing will not happen
> ever again. But for now I ask everyone to remember that we are trying our best
> and our main concern is to get a top quality product out to our readers, with
> the kind of info they want to see, and to get it to them as promptly as we
> possibly can.
>
> Busch, Phil wrote:
> >
> > Hello All,
> >
> > What is the most recent issue of Z Car and Classic Datsun
> > that you have received? I remember Marc Sayer saying something
> > that a new issue should be out before Christmas. I have not
> > received one. Anyone else?
--
Marc Sayer
Editor/Publisher
Z Car & Classic Datsun Magazine
http://zcarmag.com
Voice 541-726-6001
Fax 541-746-0863/726-6001
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