When you publish a how-to magazine you always have a special problem: How do you present your how-to instructions so they'll have the maximum value to all of your readers?
Let's say, for instance, that you want to tell your audience how to build a particular kind of homestead-sized hydroelectric plant. Well, in the first place, a very large percentage of that audience won't be interested in (or able to construct) that specific project at just the time you feature it ... which means-beyond a certain point-that the less magazine space you devote to it the better, as far as most of your readers are concerned. Those folks are gonna be a whole lot happier if you keep the hydroelectric feature short ... thereby leaving more room for stories on wholistic gardening, home businesses, low-cost houses, and other subjects that they (collectively) would rather know about at the time.
On the other hand, you have another much smaller group of readers who are interested in that specific hydro, plant and who do wanna rush off and build it right now. But these folks are also a tough problem for an editor. Because some of them are such good mechanics that they'll be able to fabricate a working plant from little more than a suggestion that it can be done ... others will need a complete construction manual detailed down to the last nut and bolt ... and still others fall somewhere in between.
To say nothing of all the people in the first and much larger section of your audience (the ones who don't happen to care at all about the hydroelectric plant right now) ... who, for one reason or another, very definitely will want to build one of the units sometime in the future. But who'll never know how because, at that time, they'll have plumb forgotten that your magazine once ran plans and how-to instructions for the project.
See. It's not nearly as easy to present a simple set of plans and/or building instructions in a magazine as you might have thought. And the problem only compounds itself as your publication's circulation grows (MOTHER's is mushrooming) ... and you daily find yourself trying to satisfy more and more readers with a constantly expanding variety of interests, skills, priorities, etc.
And that's why-starting with the sprouting cabinet article (pages 102-103) and the stove article (152-163) in this issue-MOTHER is beginning to offer a brand-new service. Increasingly, from now on, we'll try to keep our construction articles as short as possible (which should really please the greater percentage of MOTHER's readers, who-at the particular time of any individual article's appearance-probably aren't interested enough in that subject to build the project anyway). At the same time, however, we'll start making sets of detailed plans and instructions available at a fair price for anyone who does want the more complete information at the time the original article is published ... or at any other time (within reason ... say, for another five or ten years or so) thereafter.
No, we didn't think of this clever solution to the problem all by ourselves. All the big mechanics, crafts, shelter, and other how-to magazines have been doing this for years (for the very reasons outlined above) and we've wanted to offer this additional service to MOTHER's readers since (at least!) 1973 or 1974.
This is the first time since MOTHER began publishing (back on January 1, 1970), however, that we've actually been "caught up" enough to do it.
If you think the above expansion of services is a big move for MOTHER to make ... you ain't heard nothin' yet. After six and a half years of talking about it, we're finally getting around to buying a piece of land and starting the construction of an energy-unintensive "community of the future".
And, as part of the development and construction of that community, we're thinking of setting up a seminar-workshop-work/study program that will allow those interested folks (you, we hope) to come out to North Carolina, spend some time here in the mountains, and study and work-productively and on a "hands on" basis-with some of the leading environmentalists, solar energy experimenters, wholistic gardeners, etc., in the world.
This whole proposed program is discussed at some length on page 127 of this issue. So, if we've managed to stir up your interest at all in the concept, flip on back to that page ... then let us know just what you think about the potential of this project. If you'll react to it ... we'll act on It.
If our mail is telling us the truth, some of the very hottest subjects in this country today are [1] solar energy of any kind, but especially passive solar heating systems for individual one-family homes, [2] underground houses and how to build them, [3] any kind of low-cost housing construction that "ordinary" people can handle themselves, but particularly the easy and economical stackwood concept of construction, and [4] insulation and how to make and install it yourself.
We only bring this up here because (as usual during the holiday season) MOTHER's circulation has just taken another jump upward ... and an awful lot of her new subscribers have written in to ask her to cover the above subjects.
And she will. In the meantime, however, all you new readers should know that this magazine has-in its last few issues- already covered the above subjects (and a great many others) as well as or better than any other publication in the world. And all that great material is still available in the form of back issues.
For starters-If you're interested in stackwood construction-try "How to Build a $75,000 House ... for Only $10,000!" (MOTHER NO. 45) and "The Return of the Cordwood House" (MOTHER NO. 47). If underground houses, homes that sit above ground but act as if they were under the surface, and passive solar heating are what you want to know about take a look at "The Andy Davis Interview' (MOTHER NO. 46), "The David Wright Interview" (MOTHER NO. 47), and "Here's a Passively Heated and Cooled House That You Can Afford ... and Will Want!" (MOTHER NO. 48). For quick, low-cost solar heat, read "Build This $32.18 Solar Collector in Just One Hour!" (MOTHER NO. 47) or "Solar Heat for $30!" (MOTHER NO. 48). And if you want to know how to make your own cellulose insulation-and make it better than you can buy-get a copy of "How to Make and Install Your Own Insulation ... for 5 cents or Less a Square Foot!" (MOTHER NO. 48).
See pages 154 and 155 of this issue for the appropriate ordering information for these and other back issues.
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