rec.autos.simulators

Apparently, we have someone to get this magazine thing started.  If
you want ANYTHING to do this, please e-mail me or Dan Prescott

SIM sites (IWCC, IVGA, Eric Busch, Michael Carver, Papyrus, Pit Road,
New Premiere, ANYTHING to do with racing sims.  We do NOT want to
include Destruction Derby 1 or 2, MTM, or NFS or anything that's not
REAL racing.  We need set-up tips, pictures of "non-real" race cars,
utility info, ANYTHING, really.
  We would also like info on major racing leagues forming (on- and
off-line).  This includes leagues for NRO, ICR, and GP 2 leagues.  Any
off-line leagues - include an address to contact the series
administrator, and the area of the country or world where you race.
Also, please include past points results or such.  
  ALL (Eric Busch, Michael Carver, Jim Sokoloff, etc.) - please send
background info (where you're from and where you live) on how you got
started in racing sims; what type of system you use, what sims you run,
what type of utility programs (Paint Shop Pro, N2HQ, etc.) you may use
or recommend...and how to use them.
  We plan on contacting several manufacturers about advertising and
such.  

  I hope this works out!!!

  Thanks for your time, and please, bear with us on this!

                                             Jimmy McKinley

While a hard-cover mag devoted to "sim racing" would be cool, I would
like to add my $.02, and hopefully save you some groundwork.  Keep in
mind that I'm not out to burst your bubble on this one, but to give
some insight on a subject I've already researched thoroughly.

You've mentioned some of the more prominent figures in our lil' hobby,
and it's good to see that you've recognized their efforts and are
asking for them to contribute.  :)  However, excluding such titles as
N4S, Destruction Derby, MTM, Sega's Daytona-USA, or any other "non-
racing sim" would lead to an early demise of your project.  These are
the games that will actually keep your new mag afloat, as they are
the heavy-hitters when it comes to advertising, and whether you like
to hear this or not, an Arcade game will out-sell a sim 10 to 1.  :(

Also, attempting to list all the URL's of various sites is bound to be
a major headache, since so many of these sites come and go as the wind
blows.  This is also what is termed "grunt-work", as anyone you employ
to do the checking, and re-checking, and re-checking of these sites
will no doubt turn stark-raving-mad after only a few short weeks.  It's
one thing to try to stay in step with the links of your own site, now
imagine getting a list together (for an issue that probably won't be
ready for 3-months), and then hope that the links are still intact.

Be prepared to have a working-knowledge of US copyright laws, as well
as an thorough understanding of the "Fair Use Act".  This will help
protect not only your investment (and those who invest in you), but
also may prevent frivolous lawsuits brought upon by what you print.
It's not as easy as plastering a disclaimer on the inside cover, or
even on the bottom of a web-site.  Almost anybody and everybody with
a site places the the words: "We are not affiliated with X-Company...
THISCAR is a registered trademark of THISCAR.COM, etc."  While these
are all fine and good, 99% of the people placing these disclaimers
don't have a clue as to what they've actually written, and may feel
that they are "protected" in some way by the Great Sim God or
something.

If your interested, take a peek at the copyright notice for Sim Racing
News (http://members.aol.com/simracing/copri.htm).  This was something
that took a great deal of time to research and make sure it was
"right".  I also know what I can "print" and what I can't.  That part's
easy, but you'll also need to think about protecting your investment
from those that may infringe on your rights...and yes, I've seen some
that have crossed into the grey-area concerning SRN.  That's when
you'll have to think about paying a lawyer...Heaven help us!!  ;)

And don't forget to ACTUALLY APPLY FOR A COPYRIGHT.  Simply placing
a copyright notice on a site or mag isn't a sure-fire safety net.  The
application's cheap ($25, I think), don't overlook this small detail.

FWIW, the following is a letter sent to me last June by Steve Smith,
former Editor of Car & Driver magazine:
=======================================================================
Hi Marc,

If you're talking about a traditional "class-mass" magazine (glossy
paper, run-of-book-4-color, letterpress-printed, saddle-stitched,
nationally-distributed, advertising-supported, ABC-audited, monthly),
my advice is forget it.  I've spent a third of a century in the
special-interest magazine field (Car and Driver, Road & Track,
AutoWeek, Motor Trend, PC Computing, blah-blah) and the niche you guys
occupy is too narrow.  Of course, the same could be said of PC gaming
magazines five years ago, and now there are a dozen.  The trick is
timing.  It's entirely possible that five years hence your idea would
be feasible, but being there too early is_much_worse than being there
too late.  Let the other pioneers take arrows in the back.  Four out
of five mags fail in their first year, usually from being underfinanced
(many would be successful if they had the wherewithall to continue--the
payback is anywhere from two years out to never).  Of the remainder,
three out of four fail in their second year.

The key is advertising.  There aren't enough advertisers to pay the
freight.  Most wait until you're successful.  Few will talk to you
until your circulation reaches critical mass, which for a "vertical"
mag like SRN would be about 50,000.  Aside from startup costs, circ
costs about a dollar per subscriber per issue.  Thus, 50K would cost
you $600,000 a year over and above editorial, printing and
distribution.

Like DOS, there are work-arounds.  If you can get printing for free,
you can get pretty far down the road.  This usually means finding a
printing shop where the owner will take a 51% share (or more) of your
business in exchange for printing the mag.  I believe this is the case
for both RACER and that nicely printed vintage-car mag.  You still have
to pay editorial, marketing, postage, etc.  You can sometimes also get
a distributor to handle you for "free" (in exchange for equity or
debt), but your chances for decent newsstand distrib are slim to none.
This means you have to do it direct by "renting" mailing lists from
people like Spec Holo or Papy who have customer lists of sim buyers.
Here, a dollar a name isn't uncommon, plus you have to spend another
buck or two to get them to subscribe, billing costs, etc.

My advice: 1. Consider a snail-mail newsletter, like Brock Yates' old
Cannonball ExPress.  Here you can break even on 5,000 subs.  (OTOH,
Yates closed it down because, after 5 years, it_still_wasn't worth the
effort...even though it was much loved.)  2. Consider a fax-back
newsletter.  Your printing costs are reduced to zero, and your
distribution costs are cut to a fraction (U.S. postage is cash-on-the-
barrell, and 5,000 first-class stamps a month is almost twenty thousand
bucks a year...and you need first-class if you expect your rag to have
any news-value...important in the kan-ban world of sims).

Finally, why fall back on 17th century technology at all?  Why not try
to get advertisers to support your Web page?  It's not anybody's
favorite business model, but a few pages are getting it to work.
Micro payments are a nice idea, but I don't see anybody making_that_
work.  A cross between the two: an e-mail service.  Instead of waiting
for someone to visit you, you aggressively lobby them for a sub, and
when they agree to a 90-day free trial, you e-mail a HTML docu to them.
After 90 days, they pay, say, 50 cents an issue or you cut them off.

This is a huge subject.  If you want to discuss it in depth, call me
(XXX-XXX-XXXX) when the rates are low.  If you want the names of some
magazine people in L.A. to talk to about this, I'll see if I can't
think of somebody at Petersen or Hachette, but most of them won't have
a clue.

Steve
=======================================================================

I've already posted in the SRN news section your name and e-mail for
anyone interested to contact you (hope this helps).  I think that I may
also start my own "sim-mag" someday, but my day isn't here yet, but if
there's anything I can do to help, please let me know, as I'm sure I
would be one of your very first subscribers!!  Good luck!!  :)

Best Regards,

Marc

Marc J. Nelson
Sim Racing News - USA