Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
Part 7 in the publishing series. 7. Be a Pimp and Diversify. For small mags, I think you gotta do this. At any given time, there are thousands of magazines running in the US. This includes industry only magazines. For example, there might be titles like: Sugar Beet magazine (not the one about whacking the stalk), Bowhunter (a mag about shooting down animals with a bow – this one is real and it’s subscription only, so you never see it), and stuff like AAA’s Sunset magazine which you get free as a member. With so many magazines out there, and let’s say “you” being a small entity, how can you survive? The answer is, not everyone can. As many magazines that come up, that many have to close down. If you’re a newsstand magazine, then there’s only so much space you can occupy on a person’s newsstand shelf for the month, and a step after that, there’s only so much space on one’s bookshelf or coffee table at home. Someone’s gonna fall. Hustle and Flow, the movie actually serves as a decent example. Terence Howard was a pimp with a car and only one ho. They’d sit in the car until a “john” rolled up looking for the menu of, $20 in the frontseat, $40 in the backseat. But even Terence knew that he needed to diversify. How did he do it? I’m sure he would have loved being like SF’s real super pimp, Fillmore Slim with a stable of 10 ladies. But instead, he got into the rap game. So now he has his ho, who doubled as a agent/manager, found some friends, and cut some songs onto a CD with no money! He also went to prison which ups his street value, while his song gets played on the radio. So now, he’s a pimp (revenue stream #1), and has a song on the radio which sells his single. (NEW revenue stream #2). It’s an example of diversity. Giant Robot started making t-shirts in 1995 or 1996. We’d do iron-ons. Then we sold stuff like stiletto knives from Mexico, books, and toys. We did mail order, then it became webstore, then real store, then stores. (This is a long story that I’ll get to this another time) If you know GR, then you know that there’s a lot going on. I wouldn’t dare say we’re like a pimp, but I think the idea is to be diverse. It’s the same reason why you’re supposed to invest across the board and not just in one company. It’s why there’s a Dow Jones Industrials list, so one can see that there’s a benchmark average of growth (or not), and it’s a list of many companies across the board. It’s also why retail stores sell more than one item. You most likely won’t get enough money to make it in publishing. So step two has to be, hedge your bets elsewhere to make yourselves “wider.” This is all easier said than...
Continue reading
Part 6! 6. Hold it! Have balance. After reading my last two entries which would surely drive most people crazy, now I suggest to do something completely opposite. Be into what you do, but don’t forget what’s outside. A lot of publishing and DIY-anything is about sacrifice. People don’t tell you that part, but it’s true. You’re going to miss parties, shows, and your favorite TV show, and that’s part of the territory, but learning how to balance work and the non work is one of the toughest things to learn. Admittedly, I haven’t quite figured it all out yet. This is me picking off some snacks at Saelee Oh’s opening in NYC. Not an exciting photo, but look at the Red Vines font! You know that feeling, when you go out of town for a week, and you come back and it feels like you missed out on a lot of stuff? Maybe it happens less with internet and cell phones, but that weird feeling can happen when you’re trapped inside working on your project. Although the hard work is usually fun, it’s a good idea to pull your noggin out of your work, use the flim flams and join in on other things in the world. Another issue with being an editor is that even though the hard work you put in is valuable, not being part of the world will eventually make you useless to your own publication. Ideally, a long term editor or publisher or store owner should improve with time and not end up being a fossil. In GR world, we’re sort of fortunate, since the publication has always been based on whatever we’re into. That means, we don’t need to be up on the latest Asian American “rock star” who’s the invisible bassist of a top 40 band, the cute actress who’s in a film for a blink of a moment, or identity finding comedy / theater group. I think we can do the hermit issue if we wanted, and I’d put my money down that it would turn out interesting.
Continue reading
Part 5 of this publishing series… 5. Multitasking Economizer. If you’re publishing, you have to be able to do this and be this (#5). I often hear, “I don’t know how you do all this.” I have no idea either, since I’m just doing it. This is my dad cleaning a pool. He’s pretty good at economizing since he worked in construction. That’s a big deal in that line of work. I’ve played some tennis when I was a little kid all the way through high school. I’ve played poorly, but somedays I played greatly. There was a day when I beat two players, both who went on to play NCAA division one tennis. They were really great. I was in the “zone”. Sometimes, doing GR stuff is sort of like that. There’s so much to do, and so little time, that if you’re not on top of things, the day can crumble quickly. Each block of a few minutes count, and from when I get up at let’s say 8am all the way though 6 or maybe 8 pm, I’m completely booked solid and doing things. I *don’t even take a meal in that time, and I don’t even notice! Luckily, it’s not like this everyday. But I still forget to eat.* I keep adding more stuff to do. Maybe it’s about multi-tasking. Maybe it’s having great help. Maybe it’s just about getting better at doing what I’m doing and economizing my time. This is something you can’t just pick up and start doing. You’re either wired for it, or you’re not. And if you’re not, then publishing will be that much harder. On the other hand, there’s days that just don’t amount to anything. Those are the worst. What’s the point of even working on those days? That’s just part of the job, and I couldn’t do it any other way. Here’s an example, if I watch a TV show, I’ve got a laptop on my lap and what might I be doing? Designing a t-shirt for GR, ordering products for the stores in the three cities, working on art show related anything, writing an article (notice how far down this is?), and so on. Maybe it’s because TV isn’t that great, but this is why I have a 12″ Powerbook (I’ve also had two 12″ ibooks) and not a 15 or 17″ one. How would I take it anywhere to do other things besides what people think I’m doing? The only problem is the show gets sacrificed a little, since I’m missing the tiny details and so on, but that’s less important, and I don’t sacrifice the work on my laptop. Only recently have I started using the Address book and ical on a mac. With these, I’m able to mainting my appointments better, and have people’s info literally at my finger tips. This helps a lot. *Side story: I once had an intern who was about 12 or 13. It was a special day for him,...
Continue reading
This is part four of the publishing GR series. 4. Tenacity. One of the problems in the history of Asian American publications, and many smaller publications like ours is the frequency. Many mags came out and looked great and even lasted for a few years, throwing lavish parties, promoting themselves like they were important, but then they folded. When they folded, where did the subscription money go? The many who gave up their bucks for a years worth of mags got ripped off. This is Sun Min Kim and David Horvath. Together they do Uglydolls. Want to know about tenacity, read their interview in the upcoming GR42. I kid you not, they’re a great example. (is this a passive aggressive move of tenacity?) Back in the day, I remember people telling us, “should I really subscribe? Are you going to stay in business?” Comments like this are the worst, since it means people are used to getting ripped off and are hesitant to support a smaller project, like ours. In the world of Asian American related magazines, it’s been a story of people getting fucked out of their subscriptions. So why should anyone support us? The easy way is to talk game. Be full of shit, and boast and lie about how well you’re doing. Who cares, since in the end, it’s only your reputation at stake. But when you go into hiatus, then what? Are you going to feel like an asshole? Are you going to happy counting your money? All this is bad. In the end, I’d like to think we earned our subscribers. We haven’t spent a lot of time trying to talk people into subscribing, and we don’t have subscription fundraisers although we should. Our best ally is tenacity. We put that subscription card in the mag, and that’s all we really do. The key is repetition. Although a lot support us, there’s a lot who don’t, but while they’re hating, we’re making another issue. At this point, I hope people believe in us a little. We’ve been publishing for 12 years, and we’re only getting better.
Continue reading
Publishing GR. Some insights. 3. Leeway. Give yourself some because, you’ll be late anyway. This photo is a preview to GR42. I took this shot of Martin tagging candy while we were near the end of deadline. Wendy peers with a smile in the background. Making a publication, especially when you’re on your own deadline takes discipline. There was a time when I think it took months of hands on work to make an issue, but not anymore. So much goes into publishing, and no matter what you do, and no matter how much you plan, when you say an issue is going to be done Jan 1, you’ll end up starting too late to make the deadline. If you say it’s Jan 7th, you’ll start one week later instead of just starting earlier. That said, in the 42 issues of GR, I think we’ve actually made the true deadline just a few times. A day late, maybe 5-10 times, a few days late, 20 times, a week late, maybe 5-10 times, two weeks late, it’s happened way back when. Is there a point to being exactly on time for us? A week late isn’t great now that we’re bi-monthly, but a few days is fine. Print shops want the work, and if you’re late, they’d be idiots to penalize you. If that happens, move to a new shop! When we’re running late, I put in a request for them to move faster. Shave a few days off please! If I don’t call that request in too often, they seem to actually do it. Would we sacrifice quality for being on time? No fucking way. My opinion, is if being a few days late will make a much better publication, then go ahead and be a few days late. Ultimately, you have to live with what you make, and I wouldn’t want a bad issue next to my name. I don’t have experience with a daily or a weekly publication. I assume those need to be exactly on time. I suppose if we were in a cookie cutter mode to do a publication like that, it would be no problem at all. I did say I would write one publishing tip a day. This is the third day and the third tip. Made the deadline again.
Continue reading