The rain has ceased. The plants are all refreshed. I see the sun shining through the nettles and give thanks. 18 SOF Magazine 9, Spring 1992 FROM DESK TO DOORMAT Clive Richards Since no-one has yet formally signalled any interest in taking over from me as Editor after the next issue, I thought it might be worth spelling out in this edition just what's involved in creating SOFMAG every quarter. I know that quite a few readers have no clear idea, or have perhaps never thought about, how this publication comes about and the role that modern information technology plays in its production. This technology enables me to produce a set of original pages just as you see them now so 'editing' in this case is not simply receiving and selecting the articles but also means doing the actual typesetting and layout using Desk Top Publishing (DTP) software.
The raw material is, of course, the letters and articles submitted by Network members. However, SOFMAG would have run out of steam long ago if we had relied solely on unsolicited material. An important part, therefore, of the editor's job is in spotting potential contributors and encouraging them to write. (Don't worry, I should hope to still have some ideas on this front to hand on to my successor !) In the process of this, people have quite often made available material which, although not originally composed with SOF in mind, we have been able to adapt to a length and content appropriate for SOFMAG. Not everything received is suitable, of course, and the editor must sometimes regretfully return things which do not do justice to their author or are unlikely to interest the readers through lack of relevance or intelligibility.
Material, once selected, is then typed into the memory of a personal computer (I use an Amstrad 2086) using word processing software - in my case WordPerfect 5.0. It is at this stage that, going rather slowly since I can't touch type, I read items most closely and do any sub-editing required. This is mostly stuff like checking references and spelling, underlining and inserting bold type and italics. Contributors' punctuation can be rather idiosyncratic but I do intervene where I think there are ambiguities. On the grammar front, I am happy to trade off the preservation of an individual's particular voice against imposing a more correct, uniform style. Once something is typed in, I run it through WordPerfect's own automatic spellcheck. This also counts the number of words which is very useful for estimating page length in the magazine itself.
Now to creating the actual magazine pages. I use GST's Timeworks Publisher 2 but there are several DTP packages on the market that do a similar job.
The Network will pay for DTP software for my successor. Having set up a page with two columns, or whatever - the choice is yours, articles can be retrieved from the memory and poured into the columns appearing as you see them now. The text can then be manipulated in various ways - the title can be blown up, paragraphs indented, subheads inserted etc. The people who make Timeworks claim that you can be up and running in an afternoon and that is broadly true although in the end there is no substitute for practice in becoming familiar with the software in order to create a decent looking product.
Completed pages can be printed off for proof-reading, preferably by someone other than the editor ! Finally, you are ready to print off the 20 or whatever pages to take to an outside printer. Clean, black and white A4 originals are required which can be paired together as A3 sheets which are then photographed to produce the plates from which magazine will be reproduced by offset lithography. There's nothing particularly mysterious about finding a print/copy shop - there seems to be one in every shopping centre these days. It's a good idea to take a sample of a previous magazine along to show the kind of paper and finish required. The printer will collate, fold and staple the magazine for you. The photographic process involved demands high quality print on the original pages which until the advent of Bubble Jet printers could only be achieved with a Laser Printer. (I use a Hewlett Packard LaserJet IIP.) While the magazine is away being printed, you can get on with the mind-numbing task of sticking stamps and address labels on the requisite number of envelopes. Address labels are supplied by the Network Secretary. Not having access to a car during the daytime, my least favourite part of the process is physically lugging the magazines back from the printshop even though it's only 400 yards away ; another couple of hours stuffing envelopes then more donkey-work to get to the nearest Post Office ! And so to your doormat ....
Obviously any potential editor is looking for some indication as to the amount of time involved in producing SOFMAG. Apart from actually setting the pages which takes me two full days, I don't work in concentrated bouts that can easily be totted-up. One issue certainly involves me, as a one-man band, in at least 40-50 hours work but it's difficult to quantify exactly the time spent in mulling over ideas and doing correspondence. (I have, for instance, written over 120 letters in the last two years.) Suffice to say that it is a job not to be entered into lightly and I think it would be unfair to expect an open-ended commitment from any new editor. Like any other Network officer the editor ought to feel able to relinquish the position after 12 months. I hope that someone will take on the challenge of keeping SOFMAG going and producing issue #11 in October. I'm sure there is plenty of scope left for the magazine - the 1990 Survey threw up nearly 60 suggested areas for articles and we've only touched on about a third of those so far.
In the meantime, I must now turn my attention to the next edition, deadline July 3rd, and appeal (as ever I) for some articles and letters. Remember that this is the pre-Conference edition - so if you've got some great idea that'll get everybody talking, now's the time to get writing !
CLIVE RICHARDS works at home in Bristol where he edits SOFMAG and hosts the South West 'local' SOF group.