The MagCloud team is really excited about 2011 and has lots of great features we are considering. We believe this should be the year of choice…more ways to publish and sell, and more ways to discover and enjoy great content.
Some of the things we are considering at MagCloud Central are:
–Expanded digital distribution, offering publishers more ways to sell and distribute their magazines, and readers more ways to buy and read them.
–An easier and smarter publishing process; including faster and more forgiving PDF uploading, auto-fixing to catch and help resolve the most common PDF upload problems, as well as a simpler overall publishing process. All of this to give publishers more time to spend creating, and less time fiddling with PDFs and uploading to the site.
–Additional print formats to offer publishers new ways to have their content stand out.
–Reader ratings and reviews, and making it easier to share magazine favorites and recommendations with the rest of the MagCloud community.
–Enhancements to the MagCloud platform to make it easier for third party developers to build their own websites and applications on top of MagCloud, and that can link directly to MagCloud’s publishing and distribution capabilities. So no need to recreate all the heavy lifting we’ve already spent the last 2 years building.
These are just a few of the things we have in mind (some of them already work in progress!), but would love to hear which features top your 2011 MagCloud wish list. Please let us know.
Publisher's Corner 
Lower prices for magazines with a bigger page count would be a huge help. Right now about 48 pages is all that is cost effective, then the magazines become too expensive for people to purchase.
Also need a way to monetize iPad and ereader distribution. Now the only option through magcloud is to give your content away for free on an ereader. NOT GONNA DO THAT. We need a way to sell our content on ereaders, not give our content away! You need to think about how to help your publishers to make money. The more we make, the more you will see successful publishers (not just vanity publishing) and the more money you will make.
#1 Wish – that we can charge something for iPad distribution
Electronic publishing is number 1 for me what you have for ipad for pc, mac and other tablets would be wonderful – got to wait for kindle to catch up though. would like to be able to sell for a very nominal price.
Second – not on the list – but have some way I can have a coupon which would allow a reseller to make a profit if they used the site for fulfillment. It seems like it would be a fairly easy fix. Say my mark up is now 2.95 it would allow them to buy for a price determined by me say 1.oo
could also use as a promotional tool myself…
third. As a photographer I love large format but in terms of product some of my work might be better as 1/2 letter .
Thanks for your good work and service.
Todd
The Expanded Distribution is what my contributors are looking for first on your list. That would be wonderful. Thank you – Didi Menendez
I want to print on oversized newsprint!! That’s the only thing holding me back. 8×10 is such an expected format.
Oh, and not giving away magazines for free on iPads is key. MagCloud, you need to figure out a way to not give customers a way to not pay you (and us).
While we’re talking about new sizes: I’d love to be able to do paperback sized, perfect bound, with a stiffer cover. Something based on a trimmed letter sheet like the current one is based on a trimmed tabloid sheet would work — 5×7 or so?
I would love to see expanded distribution
#1) iPad content to be made available for free OR for a fee as set by the publisher – the iPad app is pretty good as a potential distribution opportunity – so I’d leave it up to the content provider whether or not the content is provided for free or for a fee…. – Also, in the preview mode – it might be nice to be able to allow a publisher to determine how much “teaser” pages are made available for “free view” with the rest only available with a download – think iTunes sampler for model….
#2) other format sizes / paper (such as a newprint option) is a great idea – there of course is a long history of the independent “fan zine” that could find this service useful
more discount printing for publishers!
Digital distribution and other formats would be awesome. If other formats will be already possible during Q1 – I might consider putting one of my upcoming projects on hold to see what’s possible.
But I also love to see better conditions for ordering and sending internationally (lower prices, faster shipment,…). Needless to say: group orders available for other countries too. Conquer the rest of Europe to begin with :-)
iPad content – free or with subscription would be very nice too of course.
Upload from Flickr option: choice of template (more than 1 photo per page, use of captions…) would be awesome!
Different sizes and easier upload sounds wonderful. Expanded distribution as well.
But the biggest thing that would help is better pricing. An average magazine is about 70-100 pages and 4-6 dollars on the newstand. Its really hard to get people to buy a $14+ magazine. And very hatd to justify marking it up so the publisher can make money too.
Like everyone else, would love to charge for downloadable mag #1 – it sounds like something that you are working on so it will be exciting to see!
more discount printing for publishers! Lower prices for magazines with a bigger page count would be a huge help. Right now about 48 pages is all that is cost effective, then the magazines become too expensive for people to purchase.
Larger format would be great as an option, also lower the printing cost as everyone has said 48 pages is the only cost effective publishing platform would be nice if the price of printing was lower, also if we could have a choice of papers for our magazines. The iPad download will probably be something that will change not in the near future but as Apple loosens up the restrictions it will probably change. Wider distribution would be great as well. Also being able to embed the code of our magazines right from Magcloud into our websites would be awesome. Streamline the upload process would be great also. Also update the templates, i.e., CS5, saddled stapled vs perfect binding. Overall keep up the good work MC the platform has come a long way since the early days.
Would love to monetize iPad version. Lower prices, too!
I’m new to MagCloud. I think your service is wonderful, easy to use and the quality is excellent. Thanks for providing this service. I have some thoughts to share with you: (1) Offering an optional note card that we could personalize and have shipped with our magazine would be great to welcome new customers. (2) A way that we can offer to our customers a discount campagne on one or more of our issues to help promote our work. Have a great day!
I have been with Magcloud since the beginning (June 2008). I have seen it change and evolve to this amazing product and service. I would like to see a way to go in and change a single page without having to upload the “whole” PDF. Thank you to the Magcloud Team and keep up the great work!
This Workplace guy :)
Yes, I totally agree. To have one copy of pdf and switch out certain pictures to personalized the magazine is a HUGE, HUGE DEAL. Personalized magazines are the rage.
I would like to start a mystery magazine similar to the Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen style of approx. 115 pages. Those sell for $5.00 per magazine. I would like to see prices.
I left out a word. I meant to write, I would like to see lower prices.
Make the browsing section more buyer friendly. The interface doesn’t really make me want to buy anything. Have guess reviewers etc and better recommendations. I go to this site wanting to buy a magazine but it’s so hard to navigate to find something that I like.
I don’t know where the people above got their figures, but I’ve calculated that 28 or 32 pages are the only cost-effective option and that is including the 20% (or 25 whatever it is) discount for buying bulk copies. Even with that, I can’t really do a markup because I will price myself out of the market because shipping needs to be added too. So the prices need to come down unless you don’t care about anyone making a profit but Magcloud.
As it stands I plan on having orders placed on my site and then I will place an order on Magcloud. A bulk upload feature for addresses would be nice. For the less business-minded publisher it would be nice if your checkout page could be customized to their site or customized some how so the focus is buying their publication and not Magcloud.
But most of all- lower prices.
I love this site to death, but I do agree on one thing, “Lower prices for publishers” Everything else is perfect!!!
A subscription option would be great. Of course, lower prices would be nice, and a way to embed the ordering process in our own Web site.
Mag cloud is an awesome site to start and develop your magazine business. However the downside bring the prices, inability to markup your magazine for fear of pricing yourself out of the market, having to give away content for free are all challenges we all face. I look forward to resolutions to this problems.
Charge for iPad downloads would be great! Can’t give away product
How about an app and way to download Magcloud magazines to the Android phone platform?
And, of course, the ability to charge a markup for downloaded emagazines.
I’d love to see different sizes. Of course, lower prices would be nice. :)
I have two issues with printers. I can make a book in microsoft word and print it out nicely on my photo printer from a Docx format. Professional printers generally can’t. I don’t get it. That and typically photo books are in horizontal orientation. If I want a magazine style book it should be vertically oriented. My home printing cost on photo paper is 20-30 cents a page. I would think any bulk printing option should be about 10 cents or less. If you can solve these issues, I would love to hear about it.
This is a great service and I appreciate all you do.
****A subscription option above all will improve all our sales. I’ve been with Mag Cloud sense the start and we’ve been told sense than it’s in the works. Any news on this would be great.
Lower prices and a way to charge for publishing on iPad.
Digital format would be great also sense we now use a different service for that. Maybe talk to the folks at Treesaver — http://treesaver.net/ making that digital plate form available thru Mag Cloud..
I agree with many of the comments above. I would like the the issue preview-able on the ipad (like Amazon has with “look inside” but then you need to pay for the whole issue.
I would also like to see the option to make the cover of the magazine glossy.
Other then that I am really happy with Magcloud and would like to thank you guys for doing a great job and offering a wonderful service.
Is there anyway you guys can come up with a plan where we can order like 100 copies of the magazine at a much discounted price? Our magazine is taking off but printing 100 copies is $2000 for my magazine.
Also, can the iPad version preserve interactive links (URL’s) please? And when can we start charging for iPad versions?
Thx
Gautam
+1 on subscription option with ability to set different (lover) markup. I am planning to start an international photography magazine and this will save me a headache of running subscription myself :)
Definetely a subscription service!!!
Would love to to see a subscription service, and some lower prices for printing. I get tons of folks saying they dig XXC Magazine, but are jut not going to pay over $10 for a mag. I will say I love having the digital downloads available now. My mag is mostly an eMag and this option really helps make distribution easier. The MagCloud % is more than I had to give up from PayPal, but the convenience is worth it to me.
Jason Mahokey
xxcmag.com
Thanks for all of those putting out input. I found it to be a bit confusing with the pricing right off the bat. I just don’t see how this is publisher friendly and after reading many of your posts I see that there is a clear need for further evolution with this online zine. I love the idea of being able to publish per piece but there must be a solution that fairs strong for both parties.
Waiting in the wings – good luck!
I love magcloud but a high-gloss cover (instead of semi-gloss) would be stupendous!!!
Cheaper printing for publishers, and no discounts for special magazines, as that makes it very unfair to all other publishers. As i cannot sell my next issue for over 15$ with only 76 pages when other magazines have 106 pages and is about the same cost as mine.
Also, a better response time from the “admins” on here, as i have been waiting for over a week for a response from someone.
I think a distribution partnership for MagCloud would help…..
You know what I would love to see? An embed-able PDF viewer that you can put on your website & allows purchases directly from the viewer.
I really agree with you. An embed-able PDF viewer would boost our sales.
I’d like to do a newsletter and would like to see a three hole option for my readers/customers in the 8.5×11 size. My content is about Macs in business and will be “timeless” and not change much, would be nice if I could offer a three ring binder to have my 20-25 page monthly newsletter in for future reference. This could be especially important if it’s is a series of training.
LANDSCAPE – you could steal a lot of business from Blurb.