Welcome to GFA 2019 Year Five – Survive the Funnel! Edition

Salutations to our fellow Gongfarmer friends and patrons! We once again lay down the offerings and start the ritual to summon all of you; The amazing authors, artists, editors, proofers, and supporters that year after year help to build the annual gift that is The Gongfarmer’s Almanac. The tenets remain the same: The almanac is open to everyone, make content you love, keep it free.

Shyloh and I are thrilled to be able to help out this year with coordination! That being said it is going to take all of our enthusiasm and effort to ensure that The Gongfarmer’s Almanac (GFA) survives and thrives. We have lost our level 10 character (G+) and we are starting over from the bottom in a new adventure. Welcome to the funnel!

I will try and summarize the process and all the important details below:

Deadline Summary

Writing: May 1st
Art: June 1st
Editing: June 1st
Proofing/Final Layout: July 1st
Funding: July 14th
Printing: July: 26th
Stapling/Assembly: July 31st
Distribution: August 1-4 at Gen Con
Post- GenCon distribution of physical copies: Sept
Post- GenCon distribution of separate digital zines: Sept
Post- GenCon distribution of compiled edition: Sept/Oct

How is communication going to work.

With the obvious loss of G+ people have already moved to several community platforms which all offer their pros and cons. Instead of getting bogged down in picking one we are casting a wide net on community notifications. We are also pleased to add a website into the mix to help centralize both current and past GFA content and information. To that end here are links to places where notification posts will be:

Website: https://gongfarmersalmanac.com/
Forums: http://www.goodman-games.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=85
MeWe: https://mewe.com/group/5bbbb38b9b97560bb8eb0273
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/dccrpg/community/?ref=page_internal
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/dccrpg/
G+: https://plus.google.com/communities/100824570401707552772 (while it is still available)

We also plan to leverage the forums for structuring conversations around each article.

How to participate

Thank you for wanting to contribute! It is because of you that the GFA continues year after year. In order to manage access and maintain people’s privacy we have created a 1-page contributor sign-up form (https://gongfarmersalmanac.com/participate/). Simply fill out the form to tell us how and what you would like to contribute. Once submitted an administrator will grant you access to the google drive documents and folders that relate to your contributor role. If you have any questions, please email coordinator@gonfarmersalmanac.com. Also, please allow a couple days for us to complete this process. Signing up will also sign you up for our mailing list.

We will be tracking project phases using the 2019 Gongfarmer’s Almanac Content Master spreadsheet found here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-FBcw1DN3k_RmPFw6I-PaVu9LHqEHcxvxhFOwK7LnzA/edit?usp=sharing

Writing Submissions: The first and most important step is content. We are looking for those who have a passionate original goodman-games related idea and want to write about it. Like always, we are open to all types of content: short adventures, new classes, gods, patrons, rules, items, monsters, etc. Generally, submissions should fall in the 200-2000 word range, but we have had some contributions that have taken up an entire volume!

Once you are finished with your work we ask that you upload it to the “1 – Submissions Writing” folder https://drive.google.com/open?id=18LCG2wYyq-3nUD9Iv-x6YCsgSVaGxLWp. Do not worry too much about formatting in a specific format for the zine, that can be handled after you submit. When you submit, update the Content Master spreadsheet with the date you submitted and any misc. notes you have about the article. You will then be assigned an editor who will work with you on the next steps. The deadline for writing submissions is 1 May. Submissions received after this date may not make it into the final zine.

Artwork: We are looking for awesome people to contribute original artwork. Some art will need to tie into the articles, but we’ll also be looking for spot art. As submissions start coming in we will be reaching out to see if there is anything you’d like to illustrate, especially pieces authors have flagged with an art request. If you want to specifically contribute Spot Art, please tag your name and spot art submission in the first tab of the spreadsheet so we can keep track of the spot art this year similar to how we track articles.

When you have artwork ready for submission we ask that you upload it to the “2 – Submissions – Art” folder https://drive.google.com/open?id=1HWPGgrrZxqijmHWXFhNA_ofCKDPl0Hlx . If you can name your artwork file with YourName_ArticleNumber_ShortDescription. This will help us identify and organize pieces. The deadline for art submissions is 1 June.

Editing: We are looking for people that want to help edit articles after they are submitted. We can’t do this without you! We will have articles that need editing as soon as they come in. As editor, you will be responsible for suggesting edits and working with the author to get the article ready for layout, including getting author approval for the edited version of the article.

Articles ready to edit will be found here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1tQEfA8r-SaH2j5SVpbhunbjLuuHDiktw The deadline for editing is 1 June.

Layout & Proofing: We are looking for people that enjoy and have experience in laying out booklets, zines, and print material to layout the wonderful content into the volumes. We will provide some basic guidelines we wish to be followed. We would be looking for a commitment from June 1st through July 14th. Typically, a Layout artist will be assigned 1 or more volumes. When art and submissions are ready for layout they will be placed found here:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1oODcIv3z0GQxPAk9P202gHHsZ_0jSk1B

Publishing: If you love the ideas and content the zine produces and want to help get it published for distribution at GenCon 2019! we will be asking for your patronage to offset the print costs. We will likely kick-off a campaign for this in June to July. More details will be given then.

Coordination: If you are interested in taking an active role in helping coordinate the GFA, you are Awesome! We are always looking for people who are interested in editing coordination, art coordination, and volume layout coordination. These people play a crucial role in helping the GFA continue for years to come. Please contact us!

You can find resource materials and guidelines for the different roles on the website’s guidelines page: https://gongfarmersalmanac.com/guidelines/

When can I get my copy

Online distribution of the GFA volumes will be available after GenCon 2019 and a full volume compilation will be available soon after that. More details will be given as they are known.

Future of the Zine

The zine is a testament to the talent, enthusiasm, and effort of the community. When we have completed this year’s zine we hope to review how the process worked and focus on process improvement to lay the groundwork for next year.

Final Thoughts

We have a website (http://gongfarmersalmanac.com .com/ ) now and plan to use it to centralize a lot of core content, resources, and status updates.

We appreciate all of your effort and it goes without saying that everyone retains ownership of their work. The intent is NOT to sell the zine for profit; we’re all volunteering our time and talents. If you’d rather get paid for your work, that is totally cool, but this is not the right venue.

If you have any questions please post your question in one of the community social medias or email the GFA community email (coordinator@gongfarmersalmanac.com). If emailing, please start the subject with “GFA 2019 – Your Subject”

Go forth, create, spread the word far and wide, and from myself (Clayton Williams), Shyloh Wideman, Marc Bruner, Harley Stroh, and Jon Hershberger:

Thank you for being awesome!