Help me place my new DS article!

[yendor]

Hey, everyone! I'm new here, but certainly not new to DS fandom! My two-part article, entitled "Return to Collinwood--Collecting Dark Shadows," ran in Autograph Collector magazine two years back.  At present, I have another HUGE DS article, which contains info about the WB fiasco, full-length interviews with Marie Wallace and David Selby, plus the major article itself. FilmFax has had the magazine since the beginning of September, and an e-mail to them recently floored me! It seems they'll only print the article if and when MPI advertises their next DS dvd release in their magazine. So, I contacted MPI, who told me they HAVE NO PLANS TO ADVERTISE THE DVD SETS ANYWHERE!

Now, have any of you heard of such an insane thing? They're not gonna advertise the dvds? Sounds very strange to me! Well, if that's the case, FilmFax won't publish the article--and it most certainly deserves publication!

Any advice you guys could give would be most appreciated.  And I plan to stick around here for a while, too!

Thanks - Rod Labbe 

[Midnite]

Nice to see you posting again, Rod.

I emailed the info on this account to both of the listed addys.  If you don't receive it, please email at me at midnite@dsboards.com.  Thanks! 

[yendor]

Hi, Midnite! Thanks for the welcome back! Not sure why I left the board in the first place--it was around October of 2002. Hmmm, very strange!  I went through the archive of my messages and was surprised to read that I'd actually mentioned DON'T OPEN THAT COFFIN earlier, which is the article I posted about today. Wow, time certainly flies!  In the interim, I attended my very first DS convention (2003) and got to meet Marie Wallace again, after a 34 years break! My photo is on her site, along with my sister's. Check it out!

This thing with FilmFax really took me aback because I fully expected that the article would see print there. But with MPI not advertising in their mag, they're merely sitting on it.  I have an opportunity to have it printed in two issues (summer and fall) of SCARY MONSTERS MAGAZINE, which isn't exactly "slick," but it does get national distribution.  If I do decide to send it to them, I won't receive one cent in compensation...but that's ok. I definitely want the article to see the light of day!

I'll keep everybody posted and promise to linger about here much more frequently than before! For a while, Posted on the Barnabas Undead message board, when I was researching the sidebars on the WB DS. Since then, I've had no DS fix...and I need my fix!!!

Rod

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I contacted MPI, who told me they HAVE NO PLANS TO ADVERTISE THE DVD SETS ANYWHERE!

That's very interesting. If they were actually telling you the truth, it must be a fairly new development because this ad recently appeared in the January issue of Premiere:

[Gothick]

Well, that is all certainly very strange, Rod.

I guess the magazines have different stock responses to writers.  When I approached Scarlet street a couple of months ago about running one of my Grayson Hall articles, the editor wrote back to me that they "do not run material of this type."  Since they've printed articles about actors much more obscure than GH in their pages, I figured that you have to have an "in" with staff before they'll even bother to look at what you've written.

I hope your article can see print--it sounds great.

Best wishes,

Steve

[yendor]

Here's the e-mail I received from MPI on the 17th, with my question attached. As you can see, the representative clearly stated they have no plans to advertise DS dvds...so how the heck did the Premiere ad come about? This is all very confusing!

Rod

-----Original Message-----
From: Rod Labbe [mailto:rod1152@gwi.net]
Sent: Monday, January 17, 2005 7:53 PM
To: Chris Hester
Subject: Re: New Dark Shadows DVD Release Notifications
Importance: High

    Chris, would you have any information as to where MPI will be
advertising the next batch of Dark Shadows DVDs and the Return from
Collinwood cd?  It would definitely help me place my Dark Shadows article.

Thanks - Rod Labbe

Answer:

Rod:

None that I know of at this time.

Chris

[David]

Rod: glad to see you here!

I'm now writing for Scary Monsters, on top of Filmfax & Videoscope.
I think your DS piece could have a home at Scary Monsters, which is a wonderfully fun
retro-mag.
Dennis, the editor-publisher, is a terrific, stand up guy.
Email him at:
Scaremail@aol.com
feel free to drop my name.

And to everyone else:
we are lucky to have Rod with us.
I know him from the now deleted forum
BarnabasUndead.com and two other boards.
We've also traded private emails.
He's witty, with a very dry sense of humor.
He knows the horror genre like the back of his hand and LOVES DS!

Welcome, Rod!

David N

[yendor]

Thanks for the nice welcome, David! Your posts are always so interesting--I actually try to track them down on all the sundry boards we populate!

As for Scary Monsters, I did e-mail Dennis, and he's very much interested.  I'll drop you an e-mail to tell you what transpired.

This looks like a fun board. Think I'll stay a while!

Rod

[Philippe Cordier]

FilmFax has had the magazine since the beginning of September, and an e-mail to them recently floored me! It seems they'll only print the article if and when MPI advertises their next DS dvd release in their magazine. So, I contacted MPI, who told me they HAVE NO PLANS TO ADVERTISE THE DVD SETS ANYWHERE!

Now, have any of you heard of such an insane thing? They're not gonna advertise the dvds? Sounds very strange to me! Well, if that's the case, FilmFax won't publish the article--and it most certainly deserves publication!

I worked in editorial/publishing for about seven years, and it was always my understanding at the publications where I worked that the ethics of the profession are very clear:  editorial content should have no connection whatever with advertising.  It is stunning to learn that a major publication such as FilmFax would not follow basic journalistic standards, let alone announce the fact.

[MsCriseyde]

editorial content should have no connection whatever with advertising.

Sadly, though, it does, and one of the more obvious examples involves magazines geared toward women. Steinem wrote an article about it in 1990 for Ms., though, in this case, it was the advertisers who were demanding "complementary copy" rather than the other way round. It's available online here. This article is widely anthologized in freshman composition texts with a pop culture emphasis.

[victoriawinters]

It's my experience that sometimes advertising does have loads to do with editorial content.  I worked somewhere where editorial was not to mention certain things unless someone ponied up some advertising dollars.

And think about it, when editorial is exposing the fat content of a McDonald's burger and saying you can keel over dead from them, well McDonald's isn't going to advertise.  Then, the newspaper or magazine isn't going to make enough money and there you go.  I think advertising has loads of say in what we hear on the news and read in magazines. 

[yendor]

Don't get me wrong, guys, I do love FilmFax--and they're really the only quality magazine out there that features stuff on DS and other less-showy fantasy efforts. That's why I was so surprised that they wouldn't print the article...but all is not lost.  I'm negotiating right now to submit the piece gratis, so that might have an effect on its fate there. I'll keep you all posted.

Rod 

[Misa]

Hi Rod,

Glad to see you here. I hope that your article gets published soon, it is always nice to see anything Dark Shadows in print.

I still haven't ordered your book from you, I still intend to but have been short on cash. I used to be over at Barnabasundead too. I used the name Tori there.

Once again, it is very nice to have you here.

Misa

[yendor]

Hi, Tori, uh, I mean, Misa! Thanks for the welcome back. The Barnabas Undead forum was fun, huh?  How many people from there are over here?

Rod

[PennyDreadful]

Hi Yendor,

 I was over at BarnabasUndead too.  I posted as PunkRockGirl there!    I'm glad some of the members from there are coming here (I noticed Barnabas'Bride is here too), and am thrilled that these DS Forums have re-opened registration.  I'd been wanting to join this board for awhile now.  It's a great place.

 ~PennyDreadful~