News about MagCloud
HP MagCloud customers may experience some delays in receiving their shipments because of the severe weather resulting from Hurricane Irene.
USPS and FedEX are experiencing service delays due to widespread power outages, local road conditions and some office closures.
Please check their websites to see if your area may be impacted:
If you have any questions regarding your order please contact us.
Many publishers have asked for more product sizes. Well we are happy to announce a new product type called Digest. At 5.5” x 8.5” it’s approximately half the size of our current Standard product, and is available in both perfect bound and saddle stitch versions.
And with a smaller size comes a smaller price point. While there are lots of things that go into creating a high-quality finished publication, another benefit of Digest is that it allows us to reduce our overall production costs, specifically those related to paper and ink. Those savings help bring our per page cost down to $.16 per page vs. $.20 per page for our larger format. Smaller publications also mean lighter packages, which can reduce shipping rates.
The Digest product offers an overall more compact and affordable publishing solution.
Publishing for Digest is similar to how you publish today you just need to modify your PDF settings for a smaller trim size (5.25 x 8.25).
For step-by-step instructions on how to create your PDF, check out our Getting Started page.
Let us know how you plan to use the new Digest product in the comments section below.
It just got easier to publish on MagCloud. We’ve revamped the publishing process for all MagCloud products making it easier to upload, update and manage your publications. With the new Publish Process you can name your publication, select your product type and begin uploading it to MagCloud all in one simple step.
As part of this new publish process, we’ve also introduced the MagCloud Smart PDF Uploader, so if your page size is slightly off, the new uploader will automatically resize pages, check and warn for low resolution images, and add blank pages if the publication doesn’t have the exact page count needed for the chosen binding option.
We’ve also addressed some of our publishers’ most common requests. We have removed the back page tagline to give you even more design freedom. The lower right-hand 1.4″ by 0.625″ of the back cover will be covered by a white label with an order number in print versions of the publication. In the near future will further reduce the amount of space reserved for MagCloud use to a very small .5” by .5” square space in the lower right corner of a publication’s back page.
In addition, we have removed the ‘Issue Number’ nomenclature. We realize not all our publishers are creating traditional magazines and you have told us that requiring issue numbers can be confusing. Now publishers have full control over naming their publication. And if you still want an issue number, no problem, just include it as part of your publication title.
For all of you out there publishing single publications, or special editions, we no longer require that you publish as part of a ‘Magazine’ group. Instead, you can now publish a standalone publication, or group your publications as collections.
Today’s release also includes enhanced search functionality making it easy for readers to find their favorite publishers and publications.
And last, but certainly not least, we are excited to announce a new addition to our MagCloud mobile family, MagCloud Newsstand for WebOS. That’s right, we’ll be bringing MagCloud to WebOS tablets this fall. With the MagCloud Newsstand for WebOS, readers will be able to browse, preview, purchase, download and read all of your MagCloud published content on their WebOS TouchPad devices.
Let us know what you think of the new Publish Process and today’s announcements in the comments section below.
As you have probably noticed our blog also received a few updates today.
Our new design and layout is intended to make MagCloud news, tips and features easier to find and enjoy.
All posts are accessible via categories — Design Resources, Events, News, Publisher Spotlight, Tips and Tricks, and Trends. Or you can search on a word or phrase to find related articles.
The blog has also become more social making it easier to share posts with friends and colleagues across your social network, as well as keep in touch with MagCloud.
Let us know what you think of our new blog design and if you have any suggestions in the comments section below.
We’ve always seen ourselves as an integral part for any small business’ marketing efforts, but it’s humbling and exciting to be recognized by others. Recently, we were nominated as one of the 2011 Small Business Influencers. This prestigious recognition honors companies, organizations and people who have made a significant impact on the small business industry. Paired with our recent Webby nomination, it has definitely been an exciting year thus far to see our name mentioned along with so many other notable industry organizations and professionals.
We’re in the next phase of the Small Business Influencer Awards and would love your help to reach the Top 100 by August 9th. If you feel that we’ve helped make a meaningful and lasting impact on small businesses, simply place a vote! Yes, you can even place a vote every day. :)
For more information on the 2011 Small Business Influencer, be sure to follow the folks behind this initiative – Anita Campbell (@smallbiztrends) and Ramon Ray (@ramonray). Please leave a comment below if you voted so we can thank you!
Memorial Day is a welcome beacon that summer is around the corner. As you finalize your plans for summer, MagCloud wants to provide you with a way to capture all of those special memories and experiences – whether it’s a staycation near home, a road trip to the national park or a getaway to an exotic locale.
How are you chronicling this precious time? Some of us may remember those family gatherings in front of the carousel slide projector or the bulky albums our parents put together after every trip. Now with MagCloud, you can create a personal memento in magazine format to easily share your memories with family and friends in print and digitally.
Here are a few tips and tools to assist you through the process:
Have you ever used MagCloud to create a magazine of memories? It’s even a great way to commemorate a school year, a birth, a wedding and more. With MagCloud’s digital publishing and print-on-demand capabilities, it’s never been easier or more budget-friendly to capture the special moments in life.
We’ve expanded our Help section adding more detailed instructions and FAQs to make publishing on MagCloud a little easier.
Our new How to Publish page offers diagrams and PDF specs to guide you through each stage of the MagCloud Publish process. In our new PDF Guides section you can select step-by step instructions for a variety of design and publishing applications such as Adobe InDesign, Microsoft Publisher and Apple Pages to help you create and export a MagCloud-ready PDF. You can also download a PDF of those instructions directly from the PDF Guides page, or order a print copy as a way to see MagCloud’s print and digital quality and have the information at hand while you create your PDF.
If you run into any questions, search for answers on the new Ask MagCloud page. We’ve expanded our frequently asked questions and made them searchable to help you find the answers you need as quickly as possible. If the answer you’re looking for can’t be found on the site, you can use our new Contact Us page to send the MagCloud support team all the necessary information up front so they can get you back on the path to publishing even faster.
We are also making it easier to keep up-to-date with new features and promotions via our About section. This is where you can find out about the latest website enhancements, printing options, calculate what it will cost to print and ship your order, or find out more about MagCloud’s digital distribution options.
We hope these new resources will make publishing through MagCloud even easier.
Let us know what you think!
We’re taking time this week to reflect on mothers and all that they do for us. At MagCloud, we work with moms every day. They are some of the most committed and hard-working people on the planet.
We celebrate their diverse interests and all they teach us from style, to crafts, even encouraging our green thumbs. One thing is common between all moms…they are smart, powerful women who put the role of motherhood ahead of anything else and whom we hope will get a much-deserved vacation this year.
Don’t forget, Mother’s Day is this Sunday and we have you covered in the gifting department. With these ideas, you’re guaranteed to make this year extra special.
-Using your Flickr photostream, create a photo magazine that takes her breath away.
-Choose from MagCloud’s exclusive library and show her that you selected something specific to her taste (and receive 25% off production costs of all full-priced magazines between now and May 8).
-For those of you who want to make a big splash, why not pick out a magazine that features one of her favorite destinations…then slip a pair of plane tickets between the pages.
What else are you planning for your mom this Sunday? Tell us in the comments below!
We also want to take the time to thank our own Moms all of whom have inspired us and in doing so hopefully makes MagCloud even better.
We’ve been doing a lot of celebrating here at MagCloud! To start, the Webby Awards declared MagCloud as a nominee for this year’s Web Services & Applications category. To say this is an honor would be a total understatement. Just look at the past winners and where they are now:
LinkedIn (2007 winner) – With more than 10 million members in 2007, LinkedIn has grown tenfold over the past 4 years with members in over 200 countries and territories. MagCloud couldn’t ignore the popularity of LinkedIn and the value professionals extract from the network each and every day. Recently, we launched our Publisher’s Corner group on LinkedIn to tap into the resources offered by this professional social network.
Google (2004 winner) – In 2004, Google celebrated their milestone of 6 billion items in their search index. Now? Hmm…there isn’t much more to say about this site which is already a household name and used widely as a verb in everyday sentences. We foresee MagCloud in the same sense one day…“I’m going to MagCloud my portfolio for this amazing new job opportunity” or “I MagClouded my 5th magazine issue to readers on umpteenth mobile devices” or “Sweet – I just MagClouded it and my magazine came in the mail a few days later.”
eBay (2003 winner) – Eight years after it was founded, eBay was listed at #8 on Fortune’s list of Fastest Growing Companies in 2003. Almost celebrating its sweet 16, eBay now trades more than $2,000 worth of goods per second. Imagine if MagCloud published 2,000 publications per second. It could happen!
That’s not all! It’s a double whammy for us this year because MagCloud was also inducted as an Official Honoree for the Magazine category in the 15th Annual Webby Awards, signifying the outstanding caliber of work by our team and all of our publishers. We’re thrilled to join the ranks of the who’s who in the magazine community including The Bold Italic, The Economist, ELLE, GQ, Inc., JPG, Men’s Health, The New Yorker, PC World and T: The New York Times Style Magazine.
Here is where we need your help with our Webby Award nomination. You get to choose who takes home The Webby People’s Voice Award and wouldn’t it be great if it were MagCloud? :)
Voting has already started and it ends on April 28. So please…pretty please…vote for us. Okay, how about “pretty please with a cherry on top”? And, if you feel so inclined, how about posting a tweet or Facebook update to get others to vote as well?
We look forward to improving our services and growing our MagCloud family. It’s nearly three years since we launched and we’re thankful of the support and encouragement that we’ve received from our community of publishers, marketers, photographers, designers, event planners and myriads of other professionals. It is through your continued feedback, creativity and excitement for all things publishing that makes our service what it is.
Thank You!
As you may have noticed, we’re hard at work to make sure we’re meeting our community where you already live: Facebook and Twitter. But many of you are also working professionals with a presence on the world’s most popular business networking site, LinkedIn. So today, we’re excited to announce our latest online presence, Publisher’s Corner on LinkedIn. This LinkedIn Group was created to act as an additional resource for the MagCloud community. On the Discussions tab, you can share everything from your thoughts on the latest trends in digital- and print-publishing, to the design tips you find indispensable, to your distribution strategy. The Promotions tab can be used to share information about webinars, trainings and other promotions the community might find beneficial. There is even a place to list job openings and discuss opportunities you’ve heard about but want insight from other publishers and group members before pursuing.
We invite you to participate in any ongoing discussions or start one of your own. Connect with other members of the community and trade industry news. LinkedIn is an ideal venue for meeting others in your professional field, and we hope Publisher’s Corner will generate stimulating discussions to the benefit each of you. On that note, you will gain the most from this Group if other influencers throughout our industry join the conversation. Feel free to share the Group with your LinkedIn network and help us build a solid community of digital- and print-publishing professionals.
We hope you’ll visit soon and often. The MagCloud team looks forward to engaging in some great conversations with you. See you there!
Publisher's Corner 
