The Alternative Angler ? Them and Us?

I understand where Kevin is coming from and there are aspects of his article that I totally agree with. But I also understand the situation from the editor?s viewpoint.

None of the magazine editors are stupid, let?s make that clear from the off. Their main aim in life is to sell as many copies of their publications as possible. Circulation figures are how their performance is measured and none of them want to lose their jobs. To help them make decisions about content they instigate surveys, talk to readers at shows and other events, and read their letters. Getting the content right, and ensuring the content is the best possible quality, is what it?s all about.

So a reasonable question that could be asked is: why do I use Kevin?s articles when, according to Kevin, no print media will?

And the answer is simple: a website can be all encompassing. FishingMagic in particular, although slanted heavily towards pleasure and specialist coarse fishing, will publish any well written, well illustrated article about any kind of fishing across the world. We?re not a carp, barbel or predator fishing website, we?re a fishing website. We don?t have to drop an article about carp fishing on a commercial to publish an article about Field Marshall Ron Clay on the Trent. We just publish both. We have negligible page costs (compared to print media) and can afford to do that.

Regardless of that, if I thought Kevin?s articles held no interest for any of our readers then I wouldn?t use them. Like all writers who write regularly, there will be some weeks when the article appeals to the majority and other weeks when perhaps only a handful of readers will be interested. On a website it matters much less than in the print media, for nothing will have been dropped to make room for an article that may have minority interest.

In a magazine it?s all about page costs and the maximum readership you can get from every page. Today, more than any time in the past, fishing journals are in a cut throat business, with too many magazines feeding from an ever diminishing readership. Magazines are now very specialised; it?s many years since we had one that covered sea, game and coarse fishing. Now, each of those three disciplines is split into many other disciplines and none are willing to publish ?out of the box?.

One thing is for sure though, if anyone submits an article, or a proposal for a series that the editor is convinced will increase his circulation figures, he?ll bite your hand off for it.

Don?t blame the editor, blame the majority of readers who want to read ?in the main, articles that have some direct tactical/technical content?.

Waterlog is the only fishing magazine that strays from ?what the majority want?. It is published quarterly and sells a mere fraction of the copies sold by the poorest selling monthly.

Read these two interviews with two magazine editors for a greater insight into what makes them tick:

tcf
IYCF

Kevin,

Have you tried Waterlog?As a subscriber from the start I would have thought it would be the spiritual home for your considered musings.

Kevin, I totally agree with you. I used to subscribe to IYCF but after seeing the same info rehashed several times I found it boring and cancelled my sub. I would welcome the type of articles you write, they,re refreshingly amusing and a pleasure to read instead of the boring 'use this bait etc and you,ll bag up' type of article. Keep them coming, I look forward to Fridays and your 'bits'

Nigel

I got a 'thanks but no thanks' to a submission I sent to Waterlog a while ago, with the usual 'not really our type of thing' comment tagged on the end......!

I don't mind the rejections (pauses to wipe real salty tear from cheek) and I am well aware that I am not a 'proper' writer, but do we really want to see the same old thing every time we open an angling magazine or paper.

I just get the feeling we are all being led by the nose at times, but being the apathetic bunch we are, no one will bother to ask for anything different

Jim

Thanks for your support

I have to say Kevin,I will continue to enjoy your stuff,even if it's sometimes a rant.
I miss the odd article in the angling mags that used to appear,CF had a regular article from,bugger, age is creeping up.The names gone for a minute.
Anyway,he had a jokey approach to his monthly page, and used to write letters in the weeklies and always was refered too by the editors.
Colin Mc...something,I think?
Grahams approach in the CF was also different,but I looked for something different in overall content, and signed up for Tcf.
Apart from the fact that has new writers, it's no better.
So Kevin,sod the mags,keep us few amused.

I dont write but I read........I love reading
I love reading books on what Im interested in i.e carp fishing ,photography,drag racing and football and I love reading Kevin's stuff
but mags are shit, I dont think they are interested in the everyday angler like me I think its all advertising
i.e just got a mag because flicking through it I saw a feature I wanted to read ,100 page mag ,31 pages advertising,5 pages products testing (advertising in my view)10 pages of how to's with one name clearly advertised on each page and thats without looking to hard
so in just my opinion theres 46 pages of adverts nearly half the mag
then the titles of each feature takes up two pages so now Im over half the mag
the mag should be free but no I have to pay for all that still

so as I say in my opinion mags dont represent me which is why I hardly buy any these days

i used to buy iycf but as jim said it is just the same thing over and over again i dont buy it now. i do buy angling times and the angling mail one of my favourite articles in them is the last page of the mail(tales from the riverbank)i find it amuses me instead of it trying to sell me tackle or show me the same method over and over again a bit of fiction or true life story isn,t a bad thing in my opinion i enjoy reading kevins articles and would not mind seeing them in any magazine.

That surpises me about Waterlog Kevin.Some of the stuff I have read in there makes even your most esoteric stuff positively mainstream.If it is is any consolation you get far more readers by your work appearing on here than in Waterlog.

A magazine I do miss is the late great David Hall's Coarse Fishing.It may not have had the production values of today's mags but it's blend of instruction and anecdote was spot on and not a picture of a caster or boilie in sight.

Kevin,

You must try Waterlog.

Even I have had an article published in this magazine, and I have been paid for it!

You must also try Angling Star, a Sheffield based publication that has articles on all sorts of angling subjects. I wrote a regular column for this paper which was called: "The Last Word" for 6 years as well as many features too. I still do the odd bit in it from time to time.

I too enjoy your articles by the way.

How do you subscribe to Waterlog/

Fred the man you referred to was Colin McMad he has not appeared in CF for a while. I too enjoyed his different approach and style.
I have made a decision not to bother with IYCF and TCF anymore. The content is repetative and dull and would certainly benefit from a Kevin Perkins Column!
CF stil continues at a high standard and I inevitably read it cover to cover as soon as it arrives.

Fred, you are remembering Colin (McMad) McHardy. A nice enough chap in person, but completely off-the-rails, out-of-his-tree, mad-as-a-March-hare. Every incident he sees he reads other stories into it, a raving schizophrenic if you were to ask me, but a jolly decent chappie to boot.


Kevin, I understand what you are saying and to keep receiving all those rejection letters is discouraging to say the least. I went through it all long before I found a mug (sorry, strike that last word) Graham to publish some of my stuff.

Like you (or maybe worse) I left school without any qualifications at all, "a waste of good space" is how one teacher described me. I did attend college, a textiles and general business studies course, and got fat load of good out of that, but I persevered with math and Engish.

I eventually got a job in an accounts department, that proved I could now add up correctly. This progressed to being a computer programmer and later a systems designer that involved writing proposals and instructions for others to understand. So now, thanks to FM I can write articles (I could before for Coarse Angling, mind) and I hope that soem of the newcomers appreciate them.

I would hate to think that it was always the same old few, Willie-What-Not, Ron, Baz, Nigel, et al and even dear old Fred. I hope that somewhere along the line I get to a few new numbskulls (Sorry - readers, members, whatever.)

I have offered the likes of Stu Dexter some bits, but sad to say he won't even waste the stamp on a reply. He's tighter than Marzdin and the only reason I keep taking his magazine is to enter the competitions every month. However, I am now beginning to believe that is a waste of time since whereas Marzdin hoards all of his freebies, Mr Dexter (I am sure) awards those prizes to all his mates who later sell them on ebay and share with him the spoils. This in turn pays for all his bait at matches like Clattercote where he then wins even more money from the likes of you and me.

It's a conspiracy, I tell you, a conspiracy.

You gotta ask yourself why you're writing.

If its because you want money then you have to fit yourself to the market and write what is wanted. [i"I cast my Shimano blah with the new Sonu blah blah into the wonderful new commercial at blah blah where Jim and the boys have stocked with record blahs and....."

What Lola wants....

If its for you, because you like to write and because you can then just sod 'em all. Van Gogh only ever sold one painting in his life but he just had to paint. Not that I am suggesting you should indulge in schizophrenic episodes and ear surgery unless you really really want to.

And I suspect that your appreciative readership on here is more than just the handful you think. There are an awful lot more lurkers and non-posting readers than posting members I think you'll find.

The best of both worlds is when you're writing what you want for you AND miracle of miracles it just happens to fit in with some particular Editor's commercial needs.... it happens, but don't hold your breath.

Just keep on sniffing the roses, dandelions and occasional stinkweed on the way on our behalf and writing about it in the meantime please..... !

To get a subscription to Waterlog:

www.medlarpress.com

To contact Angling Star:

starangling@sheffield newspapers.co.uk

Consulting Editor is Jim Baxter at:

baxfish@btinternet.com

Tel: 01246 435822

Advice for those who want to write from none other than **** Walker:

"You must read every angling publication regularly and keep your eye cocked for what the readership and editors want."

What you need Kevin is a suitable esoteric pen-name to get you into print.

For example: Gainsborough Leach or Dexter Petley.

Some great angling pen names of the past have been: Water Rail, L.O. Mycock, BB, Michael Traherne, Courtney Moore, Faddist....

We must think of a suitable pen name for some of our writers:

Maybe Ed could be "Argent Hubcap"

"L.O. Mycock" - mmm? Are you winding us up Ron?

BB and Michale Traherne were of course one and the same.

Walker always appeared to be very commercially astute when it came to his writng.If he was alive today he'd be knocking out carp bagging articles like no tomorrow.Interesting thought.

Praise from Ron, that is praise indeed...! (but the links to Jim Baxter and Angling Star don't seem to work......)

And I may be wrong but I believe L O Mycock was a nom de plume used by a certain R. Walker...........

Walker was very commercially astute Nigel and a brilliant salesman. Remember it wasn't by accendent that he brought an obscure grasscutting machinery company from the depths, to be a world leader in mowing technology.

I am certainly not winding you up about L.O. Mycock! A familiar greeting from old **** was "Hello My Cock".

He also used "Stuart Walker", his middle name on occasions.

If he was still alive today, I think he would be more involved in angling politics than writing articles on how to catch carp. Remember that although Walker might be remembered more for his carp fishing, it was only a small part of his angling career. He much preferred fly fishing for trout and roach fishing to catching carp.

I like your articles the way they are Kevin as do most people on here, I would hate to think you changed your style of writing to suit some editor and in doing so lost the wonderful humour of them.

I subscribe to Waterlog as well and I would have thought your wry humour would have been right up their street and maybe he (the Editor) would change his mind if he read some of your stuff on here, have you thought of prodding him in this direction? Maybe us subscribers should hound the editor and tell him Waterlog needs you, send him emails of "we want Kevin Perkins", only joking mate, wouldn't want to queer your pitch eh!

Good idea Graham.

Waterlog, in my opinion, provides an essential niche in angling journalism. You certainly don't read Waterlog if you want to catch carp on the long pole, or tempt "Traveller" out on pellets, or to catch "Two Tone", "Lumpy" or "Benson", yet again!

You read Waterlog for the fun of it.