A) Standard, Every-Month Section

If you're new to a yahoogroups mailing list, try checking out the GWRN area at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gwrn -- there, you can read past monthly updates.  In the "Files" area, I've uploaded all the advertising rate and deadline information.  I've also put all of the pertinent Renegade website links in the links area.  And I have placed a few upcoming dates of interest on the calendar.

As always, thanks again for reading our monthly mailing.  This monthly update ensures that, once a month, you'll always have the latest Geoff Wilbur's Renegade Newsletter information at your fingertips.  And if your e-mailbox is as full as mine, you'll be glad we only send the update once a month rather than more often.

B) New Section

Disc Submission Forms:  We’ve put a section on our website about how to get reviewed -- http://www.geoffwilbur.com/renegade/reviewinfo.html.  When we update the official GWRN website (http://membrane.com/renegade) this summer, we’ll place this info on that website, too, and point you there.  We’ve place a review submission form on the website (http://www.geoffwilbur.com/renegade/reviewform.html) that will allow us to get reviews into the right people’s hands more efficiently, so please complete this form when sending a disc for review.  Obviously, signed bands get reviewed on the website, and this mailing list tells you when that’s been updated, so if you’re subscribed to the list (mailto:gwrn-subsribe@yahoogroups.com), then you’ll know when to look for reviews, but for unsigned/indie acts, this form is particularly important and helpful.

Promotion Idea:  Would your fans be interested in reading Geoff Wilbur’s Renegade Newsletter?  We can put together a web page for you (that will look similar to http://www.geoffwilbur.com/renegade/suboffer_sample.html but with your band’s name on it, of course), and we’ll also send you a Word file with a one-page form you can print out.  (If you reduce the form we send you to 50% at Kinko’s, you’ll be able to fit 4 on a page.)  Then, you can direct your fans to the web page and hand out the forms at shows and other events.  (Most effectively, you can collect cash from your fans at the show and send the forms and a check to me through the mail – you know how people can be interested at the moment, but by the next morning, they won’t fill out the form and send the check.)  If you have been reviewed or interviewed in a previous issue and if we still have copies of that issue in our files here, we will offer that issue as your fans’ “bonus” rather than the bonus shown in the sample.  Otherwise, we’ll do something similar to the “mailing list” offer I referred you to as a sample.

What do you get in exchange?  Well… we’ll offer you 50% ad credit – meaning, for every $10 subscription, we’ll give you $5 toward advertising in GWRN.  You can find ad rates for the Industry Edition at http://www.geoffwilbur.com/ie_adrates.html and for the Country Music Industry Edition at http://www.geoffwilbur.com/cmie_adrates.html.  Please zip me an e-mail if you’re interested, and we’ll get you up and rolling.

GWRN Publishing Deadlines:  Some of you may have noticed an unusual amount of deadline difficulties in the past year.  Yes, it’s a bit uncharacteristic of us, but things changed about a year ago to bring the problem about.  And things will change again this September that should reverse our problems.  You see, I typically devote 5-10 hours each week to publishing GWRN.  Last summer, my day job moved, increasing my daily commute from about 5-10 minutes each day to about 2 hours (1 hour each way).  It’s not too difficult to see that my time to publish GWRN effectively disappeared.  I have been scraping together hours on the weekend to keep things together.  But when I move closer to work again this September (when my current lease expires), I’ll regain most of my commute time, and schedules should again be adhered to.  In the past, deadline delays have typically been caused by late-arriving articles and late-arriving ads, but this past year, they’ve been a result of my scheduling difficulties.

Which brings us to the current situation.  From the beginning of March through late June, we’ve have international visitors almost constantly.  (And during the couple of weeks’ break, the GWRN computer’s power supply decided to die, leaving it inaccessible.)  Anyway, we’ve been good hosts, entertaining our guests on the weekend.  So the Spring Country Music Industry Edition and May Industry Edition aren’t going to be published this year.  (And we’ll do a combined Spring/Summer online edition.)  Of course, subscriptions and multi-issue advertising agreements (both of them) will be extended by the appropriate number of issues.  And this might actually be a good time to subscribe (http://www.geoffwilbur.com/renegade/suboffer_mailinglist.html), since we’ll just run bonus, subscriber-only pages if we have more reviews than will fit into the normal-length editions.

At first, I felt bad about the delays.  But hey, where else are you going to get such an established, broad-reaching industry readership like the one we’ve cultivated over the years.  For the cost of sending us a disc to review, you’re getting an enormous return.  So, I figure you can be patient.  I might feel a little differently if many of you were taking advantage of our ridiculously low advertising rates (Industry Edition: http://www.geoffwilbur.com/ie_adrates.html; Country Music Industry Edition: http://www.geoffwilbur.com/cmie_adrates.html) or were supporting us by subscribing, but that isn’t happening, so I figure a delay here and there is nothing compared to the exposure we’re providing.  That does bring up a point – I’d suggest setting aside a few dollars from each gig for advertising (with GWRN and with other publications that support indie music), and while $75 (rock) or $60 (country) is pretty cheap for the 200 (rock)/100 (country) industry execs who’ll see your name (it’s all about name recognition), a full year (4 issues) of advertising is available for as little as just $180 if you buy in advance.  (Details are available on the advertising rate pages listed earlier in this paragraph.)  All it takes is a little advanced planning.  And if you think fans might like our publication, you can defray those costs further by taking part in the “Promotion Idea” listed at the beginning of this section.  Just a thought.

Thanks for your patience.  We continue to focus on what we do well, which is to get unsigned and indie bands’ CDs reviewed and into the consciousness of music business movers and shakers.