Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Summer Issue 2013: Eventful

Issue #10 will start mailing out tomorrow! I hope you all enjoy!
If you no longer have a subscription with us, there are a couple ways to continue to get the LetterPost:
1. Purchase the current issue at the esty site. The link is at the left side of this page under "To Purchase the LetterPost". Issues will cost $3.50, shipping included for US customers.
2. Submit a photo or article to the NEXT issue and you'll get your issue for FREE. (This will be super easy for our upcoming Autumn Issue as we are running a contest! Your entry will get you in the contest and a Free Issue!)
3. Don't want to pay on-line? Just drop us a note through our e-mail, theletterpost@gmail.com , requesting the next issue. We'll send you an address where you can send us your check and once we have it, we'll send you out the issue. Easy peasy.

Thanks so much for your support during our conversion time!
Wyvern

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Searching for the Summer (Edition)

Once again, it's time to put out another LetterPost edition. Our Summer Edition is centered around Letterboxing Events and Gatherings! Our theme is Eventful and we'd love to see your former Event Stamps featured in our issue. Have you made an LTC specific to an event? Pass along a photo to share! Share your stories of your first event, or some of the great mysteries that you discovered at a Letterboxing event. Let's talk about the many themes for events. We're looking for a few articles and lots of stamp image photos! Traveling Event Stamp? Snap a photo and send it along!

Submit all photos (jpg files preferred) or articles to our e-mail:  theletterpost@gmail.com
Please be sure to include your trailname and mailing address in the e-mail so we can be sure you receive your FREE ISSUE for helping us out!

Pay Per Issue
For those of you who are currently subscribed to the LetterPost, this information will affect you when your subscription runs out. I always put a warning label on the outside mailing envelope of the LAST ISSUE you will receive.

As announced last issue, we are switching our output after the end of this year. So we only have three more issues to go on a steady schedule with themes. Next year, we will be putting out the LetterPost whenever we can and submissions will be announced through this blog and the customary Letterboxing forums.

If your subscription has run-out, the only way for you to purchase the LetterPost will be issue by issue through my Etsy site.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/ChocolateDragonPaper

Just go to this site, find the listing for the LetterPost and it's most recent edition (Summer 2013). Place it in your shopping cart and you will be directed through the payment process. I haven't listed it yet as the issue will not be available until June. When I have it done, the listing will appear and ordering may commence.

IF you do not like to purchase things on-line and would prefer to pay by check, please contact us at our above e-mail for a mailing address. We will mail out your issue when we receive your check.

Cost
jackbear and I have never done this for any sort of profit so we only need to cover the costs of printing and mailing. The price for each issue of the LetterPost will be $3.50 per issue. We still offer A FREE ISSUE to anyone who contributes a stamp image or article or story to the issue! We charge you nothing if you share with us your artwork and creativity. So if you think about it, if you contribute to every issue, you will never have to pay us for it. You will receive each edition free.

Our Purpose
Our purpose remains. We are a Zine that is dedicated to the creativity of Letterboxing and we focus on Non-traditional forms. We believe that a letterbox is not just a container, nor a stamp, nor a logbook. It's not any one thing but all those things; each as important as the other. We feel that quality boxes can still be found and can still be made. It doesn't matter how they are shared, so long as they are. We focus on the little bits and pieces but we try not to lose track of the whole picture.

As the LetterPost transforms over the next 7 months, please share your little corner of the boxing world with us. Thank you once again for your continued support.

Wyvern

Friday, March 22, 2013

ANNOUNCEMENT

This post is about the new Subscription format. PLEASE READ!

We've decided to start offering the LetterPost on an Issue by Issue basis next year. We are no longer taking subscriptions. Next year, the LetterPost will not have a regular production schedule. Issues will be put together when we have the time, input, and gumption to do so. We are hoping to continue 4 issues per year but we no longer want to make that guarantee. So NEXT YEAR, starting with Issue #13, all issues will be available to purchase through an Etsy site.

Calls for submissions will still go out through the usual channels (FB groups, AQ, this blog)and we will still offer the Free Issue for a submission. This means that if you contribute to the Issue, there will be no need to order it through Etsy as we'll just send you your Free copy. This also means it's important to include your name, mailing address, and trailname with any submissions.

If you don't like ordering on-line, we will still accept checks via mail for payment as well. This will also be on an issue-by-issue basis. We will post the links on all of this when we get everything set up.

SO WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR THIS YEAR?
This year will be the transition year. We wanted to be sure that people's subscriptions would be up or close to being up before we set up the new purchasing system. Watch your envelope on the LetterPost and if you receive a message that "This is your Last Issue", it means you'll need to convert to the new Issue-By-Issue method of obtaining the LetterPost.

WHAT IF MY SUBSCRIPTION HAS ALREADY RUN OUT? (ie. Issue 9 was my last issue)
We will have the next issue of the LetterPost (Issue #10: Eventful) available for purchase on an Etsy site. So if your subscription is due to be renewed, you will be converting to the Issue-By-Issue system.

HOW MUCH WILL THIS COST?
We will be charging $4.00 for each issue of the LetterPost which will include the shipping. This cost doesn't make us any money; it covers our expenses for copying, postage, envelopes, and fees for on-line purchasing.

WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?
It's become too much stress and anxiety to have a deadline and subscriptions. Life circumstances have changed for both jackbear and myself (Wyvern) and we can't make the firm commitment to get the LetterPost out on a regular schedule anymore. We do LOVE to make the issues and we want to focus on what gets us excited about it. If we focus on that, hopefully, the issues will get better, we'll find more time to do this, and everyone will benefit. We apologize if this becomes an inconvenience to our readers but we felt this was the best way to continue. We can't, in good conscience, take money for products that we might not make.

Links and other information about purchasing individual issues will be forthcoming.
Thanks for your understanding and patience!
Wyvern

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Renewals

The last issue of the LetterPost for THIS year has gone into the mail and I hear that they are arriving safely at their destinations. If you got a little blue Post-It note on your Zine or a note on the back of the envelope, you might have received your last issue EVER! So don't forget to Renew your subscription, if you'd like. Once again, you can pay with a credit card through PayPal or you can mail us a check. I am requesting for jackbear's sanity that if you are renewing for another 4 issues, if you could enter the word "Renewal" in the box that asks, "If you've ordered back issues, which ones would you like?" Rather than set up a whole new document, we'll just use that box. (I figure if you're renewing then you aren't getting any back issues...)

A subscription consists of 4 consecutive issues. So whenever you get your renewal note (I do try to send a reminder for anyone who's on their last issue), you can renew and continue to receive the Zine without interruption. If you've submitted material to us, though, you may have extra issues attached to your subscription. If you ever have any questions regarding how many issues you have left, you can e-mail us and we'll be happy to let you know your subscription status.

I will be updating the Submissions page and the Covers page here at the blog, hopefully, before the end of the year. All themes and deadlines will be listed on the Submissions page and all available back issues will be pictured on the Covers page. If you see the SOLD OUT below any cover photos, then that means I am no longer printing that issue. Sorry, you missed it! At some point, I may reprint some interesting stuff from those issues into a "BEST OF" issue but I'm no where near having enough material for that. But it's an idea for the future.

Thanks for your support and patience this past year.
Happy Holidays to everyone and we'll see you next year!
Wyvern

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Deadline Moved Back

Keep those submissions coming for the upcoming issue: "A Good Book". Anything dealing with books, authors, characters, book cover art...all that snuggly good, hot cocoa kind of stuff.

I am already putting the deadline for this issue back to Dec 1. I just know my life is gonna be crazy in the upcoming weeks but after the Thanksgiving Holiday, it's sure to quiet down enough for me to devote some quality time to this issue.

So the NEW DEADLINE for the next issue is DEC 1.
Send me photos as well of that logbook you're so proud of! Logbooks are books, too! Share them! Also looking for Trailname Defined, which I haven't included in an issue in a while. Just write up the little story of how you came by your trailname and discovered letterboxing! It's just your little introduction to fellow letterboxers. And include a photo of your signature stamp; it's that easy.

I'll also be including the themes for next year's issues. Jackbear and I had a great brainstorming session about next year's themes. Unfortunately, we brainstormed over lunch on our trip over to Maine for the Steampunk Halloween Event, so I forgot exactly what we talked about over that lunch! I remember two of them pretty well but have totally blanked on the rest. (I really need to put a notepad and pen in my purse!) So if you've got a cool theme idea that lends itself to great stamp images and article ideas, pass it along.

For all the great submissions I've gotten so far, Thanks! I can always use a few more!
Wyvern

BTW: I had no submissions/guesses on the Autumn Mystery so I'll be revealing that answer as well in the issue (if there is room) or on this blog (if there isn't room in the issue).

Saturday, October 13, 2012

The Inbox

I was delighted to see some submissions in our inbox for the next issue: A Good Book! Please send in more! Books are popular themes in letterboxing and I'd love to have a variety of genres represented. Stamps of book covers or characters or just an interpretation of the title. Send a submission and get a FREE copy of the Zine! (If you have a current subscription, we add an extra issue to your subscription run.) For submission details, see our link on the left. Want to subscribe? Info on left as well...we take Paypal but if you want to send a check, just mark that box and jackbear will get in contact with you to provide an address.

One thing I didn't see in our Inbox was any guesses to the Autumn Whodunit in our most current issue. Deadlines for guesses are November 1. If you get down to the wire and don't know how to figure it out, take a guess! All the suspects are listed and you've got a 1 in 9 chance to get it right, right? BUT if you are struggling with it, here's a hint or two:
1. Some clues are in code. (I think they are pretty straightforward simple type codes. Just remember I'm lazy and don't like to think too hard.)
2. Clues may not be the suspects name but rather a description of their job or claim to fame.
3. There are 8 clues hidden in the issue and the one suspect not mentioned is the Murderer. That's the name you need to provide to us here at the LetterPost.
4. There are no clues hidden on the covers.

I may drop another hint or two as the deadline rolls around. Be sure to e-mail us your guess. theletterpost@gmail.com Don't respond by commenting here.
Remember, I'm giving away a prize for the first one with a correct guess and a prize drawing for the rest of the correct guesses.

While I'm at the Inbox, feel free to suggest some themes for next year, if you have any. We love to hear your thoughts.
Thanks, Wyvern

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Issue #7 Mystery

I'm so relieved to finally have this issue completed! I don't know how the time got away from me and this Mystery just screwed up my brain cells. But it looks pretty fine, if I do say so myself. So I hope the delay will be worth it!

There is a mystery to solve within the pages so be sure to stay sharp. Those who e-mail us a correct Suspect by the deadline will be entered into a prize drawing. I'll draw two names and each will get a FREE Subscription to the LetterPost! That means the winners will be all set for another 4 issues! (tacked onto what you may already have) I'm also looking into sending the winners a little something, like carving material, gauges, pre-cut LTCs, bubble mailers, ink pads, etc. So be sure to get working on the mystery and send us your guess! Only one guess per letterboxer so make it count!

The issue is completed and will go to be copied Tuesday. They should all be in the mail by the end of the week, Sept. 21.

Thanks for your patience! Be sure to send us something for the next issue. Issue #8 is A Good Book.
Wyvern