As you may remember, March is the month of my birthday, the perfect time to be born for someone so unabashedly in love with spring. I always joke that March 1st is the ceremonial start to spring in my mind, though the calendar often doesn’t agree. With spring comes new things, obviously, and I’ve got some news to share with you today.
By now you’ve probably heard about my new project called Dig This: The bookazine for people who love dirt. If not, here it is! This project started with a simple question last summer in our offices–how can we shake up the publishing world by putting a new spin on how gardeners consume content? In a world where book sales slump and magazines blow away in the wind, you might think publishing is a business you’d rather avoid. In fact many would agree!
But I don’t. I relish a challenge, particularly in a struggling economic environment where new ideas just might merit valuable attention for their innovation. I don’t profess that the idea of a bookazine is new, because it really isn’t. Publishers have been picking up content from old issues of magazines for years and billing them under special titles, issuing a “oncer” that appears on newsstands as a fat, coffee-table style magazine.
But we’ve taken that a step further. We’ve hybridized a magazine and a book, publishing a 74-page issue (which we hope to expand to 148 pages next year) that focuses on many of the themes I make a point of talking about on this blog, in my lectures, and in my writing. If you don’t have time to read big, long books that supposedly tell you all you need to know about gardening, we hope that 74 pages fits your palette just right. If you’re tired of reading magazine articles that leave you unfulfilled, we hope this brand of content satisfies your appetite. If not, tell us!
If you find yourself having less and less time to read information on the printed page, we’ve got you covered too. By early April we’ll unveil http://www.digthismag.com (linked above), the complete online version of everything in print, and more! We’ll announce a new blog called Dirt-y, introduce some regularly updated news sections, and much more. Plus if you’d rather save a tree, you can subscribe to the online version for only $9.99 versus $19.99 for the glamorous print version. We want to give you our brand of content the way you want it.
Also, you’ll never see a lick of traditional advertising in this thing, EVER. This bookazine comes straight from my family’s nursery and my garden right to you. That doesn’t mean we won’t plug our friends, or toss in information about where to find some of the hot plants we dish on. We’ve also left behind the notions that books and magazines have to look “just so”. Instead we’ve liberally used color, rich photography, and good writing in what we hope will be an inspiring blend of dirt that you’ll find inspiring and informational.
To get your copy of Dig This in print, use the link below. The online version will be live in April. Happy digging!
