It’s been 24 hours since the launch of Seasonal Delights, and I’ve already reported on how amazing the response has been. We’ve also had a number of questions come up several times each, so I’m going to try to answer them here.

Q. What tools do you use?

All photographs were taken with a Canon Digital Rebel XTi (400D), mostly at our kitchen table. Most text was initially typed up in AppleWorks, but I hope to convince Kelli to finally abandon that software soon. The page layout was all done in Apple’s Pages ‘08, also mostly at our kitchen table. I used Apple’s Preview to shrink the 450MB PDF output down to 4.4MB.

Now the real geek stuff: The website is WordPress, with some minor code changes to the Profile, Registration, Login, and Dashboard screens, plus a couple of plugins. The images and PDF files are hosted with Amazon’s S3 web service, to avoid overloading our shared hosting account and getting the site shut down!

Q. What options do I have for printing?

Some of you have already reported printing out the entire issue in color at home. I’m amazed! We haven’t even tried that here, for fear it would drain our lowly inkjet cartridges dry. Instead, we printed it in black-and-white on a laser printer.

We deliberately designed the magazine with a page count evenly divisible by four, so it will print nicely on five double-sided sheets of 11×17″ paper. We called a few local print shops to see what they’d charge to do it in color, and the answers weren’t good. Fedex Kinko’s charges $1.78 per 11×17 color “image,” which works out to $17.80 plus tax for five double-sided sheets. OfficeMax quoted $17.80 as well. Staples had the low bid, at $10.69, and we almost rushed out on Sunday afternoon to try it out! By then, though, we’d found that Lulu.com has an option for printing “brochures,” which is their name for anything with 20 or fewer pages. They would print it on glossy paper, to give it that magazine feel, and would even fold and staple it (not included in the Staples quote, and we don’t own a saddle-stapler). All of this for slightly cheaper than Staples.

We’ve ordered one to try it out, and will post an update here when we receive it, to let you know how it comes out. Until then, please be careful; I hope none of you burn through $20 in ink cartridges printing out a copy!

If you do try the double-sided 11×17 option yourself, please take care with the order of the pages. The outer sheet, for example, will need to have the back cover and front cover (left to right) on one side, and the pages marked 1 and 18 (left to right) on the other. The next sheet will need to have 17 and 2 on one side and 3 and 16 on the other. The middle sheet needs 15 and 4 on one side and 14 and 5 on the other, while the fourth sheet needs 13 and 6 on the reverse from 12 and 7. The inner sheet should have 11 and 8 on one side with 9 and 10 making the center. Ordered as I’ve described here, you should be able to fold the stack in the middle to end up with an 8.5×11″ magazine. I did my first one of these 19 years ago, and I still have to think very carefully to avoid wasting paper!

Q. What about the future?

As many of you have already indicated, it is no surprise that we will be charging for subscriptions to Seasonal Delights. However, we’ve thought a lot about how to show our appreciation for people who have supported Kelli’s blog, There is no place like home. We originally planned to offer free subscriptions to everybody who signed up during the first week, but in response to your overwhelming support, we’ve now decided to extend that throughout the entire month of September!

All current subscribers, as well as everyone who signs up during the rest of September, will be receiving a free one-year subscription to Seasonal Delights! In addition to the Autumn 2007 issue you already have, you’ll all be receiving the Winter 2007, Spring 2008, and Summer 2008 issues for free, along with any “extras” we manage to come up with between now and next September.

Those are the three big questions for now. As always, we love to hear from you!

- Phillip