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History of The Pyrates Way
*October 2005 • Steve "The Black Fox" Kimball meets up with several senior folks from "Faerie Magazine (FM)" via the Greenmen of MDRF (of which Black Fox is a member) as photos are taken of the traditional annual march. The FM folks are interested in possibly beginning a Pirate Magazine. *November 2005 • Steve decides to come on board with the new FM magazine called "Pirates and Mermaids." The first issue is planned for May 2006. *January 2006 • After several meetings, it is decided to drop the "Mermaids" part of the title but the drive of the magazine is to present pirates in a similar vein of FM. The idea of a "Pirates and Faeries" theme park is seriously considered, with FM and the owners of the Medieval Majesty Ren Faire looking for plots of land in Maryland. The launch of "Pirates Magazine" is moved back to June of 2006. The Website is launched, taken down, re-launched, taken down, and relaunched as mgmt appears lost as to the focus of the magazine. *early March 2006 • Steve agrees with mgmt to pull out from the project as the direction of the magazine does not reflect the pirate enthusiast, in his opinion. (i.e. he didn't want a FM for pirates). With these creative differences never to be worked out, he pursues a dream which includes being part of a successful magazine that gives information and yet shares in the PG/R-rated fun of pyracy, he brainstorms with several Pyratical friends and his shipmates of The Polly Dodger. His 20-year-experience in Art Direction give him ample credentials to publish his own magazine. . . . a BFA in Publication Design doesn't hurt either! Arrrrgh. The idea of "The Pyrates Way" is born. mid-March 2006 • The website: www.pyratesway.com goes live with just a few pages including subscription and first issue information. It is another month before the entire site is not only re-designed but is completely finished. The Magazine has received the backing of several investors and Steve "The Black Fox" Kimball begins assembling his staff and building the skeleton of the works. The Bulletin Boards also goes live. There is now a place where subscribers, contributors, advertisers and administrators can meet and discuss the magazine. April 2006 • The short time goal of collecting the first hundred paid subscribers within 30 days is reached in 15 days. Without much advertising outside of a few chat rooms and online pyrate haunts, we brought a hundred new pyrates on board with us (no, not all Steve's relatives). Mid-April 2006 • The short time goal of collecting 1/4 of the magazine's advertising sales is completed. . . and the advertising kit has yet to be sent out! May - August 2006 • The Pyrates Way kicks into high gear as articles and photos are put together and the initial layout is approved and set up. Corporation & Licensing for "The Pyrates Way, LLC" and other legal paperwork are finished. A much bigger PO Box is required to catch all the mail. Websites, bulletin boards, and newsgroups begin to buzz about The Pyrates Way as the June-promised-Pirates Magazine has yet to be seen by anyone outside of it's "mock-up" state. August 2006 • Your favorite Pyrate Music and Pirate Talk! Working hard to bring you information in all kinds of formats, The Pyrates Way has a voice. It is heard via streaming music from all seven seas via the internet. Interviews of pyrates and audio versions of articles directly out of each Pyrates Way Issue will also debut come Spring. In late August (a full two-months later than promised) Pirates Magazine premieres and is everything Black Fox predicted. Although the magazine is a beautiful piece of printing, it is the pirate version of Faerie Magazine. The direction that Pirates Magazine headed for was absolutely NOT the magazine that Steve envisioned. The split months earlier was a good thing! A Live Journal blog is set up to report day-to-day trials of running a small publishing company and on August 31, The Pyrates Way was delivered electronically to the printer. September 2006 • Proofs approved, the magazine is being printed as of 9/19/2006 as the premiere of this updated website goes live. October 6, 2006 • THE PYRATES WAY IS RELEASED IS DELIVERED AND RELEASED TO THE PIRATE PUBLIC! October 11, 2006 • Pyrates Way Radio Statistics Stats since inception (in July):
January 15, 2007 • Winter issue Copy & images are finished and layed out. Major editing and proofreading begins. Estimated street release date is February 28. (Spring issue will quickly follow on April 30) Steve gets hold of Pirates Magazine #2 and notices a lot of new things. They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and PM#2 bears that out.
February 28, 2007 • The Winter Issue arrives and we get the copies out to both subscribers and to our new distributors. We're very pleased at the growth. April 20-23, 2007 • Our booth was set up in the overflow vendor's area at PyrateCon2007. Considering how much $$ we spent in free advertising for the event we were NOT pleased at the situation. Read all about how frustrating a vendor's life can be when there's no organization and promises NOT kept by a convention's management in the Summer Pyrates Way! April 21, 2007 • The Spring Issue arrives and we sell a ton of them at the PyrateCon2007. We get it out to subscribers upon our return home. April 28, 2007 • We set up our first tented sales area at The Fells Point Privateer's Day (Baltimore, MD) and we had our Spring Issue sell out there (or at least all we had on hand) with its interesting article on Fells Point Pyrates! May 17, 2007 • Due to new internet copyright laws going into effect for broadcasted music, The Pyrates Way Radio Station at Live: 365 is shut down. The $400/month that will keep the station active no longer brings in enough ad revenue to keep it alive. June 1-3, 2007 • The Pyrates Way sported our new tent with painted pyrates on the side and a huge sail with out logo on it, fluttering high above at The Blackbeard Festival in Hampton, VA. Although the last day was rained out, it was a wonderful event. The best part was that we were able to mend some over-due fences with the editors of No Quarter Given, the very first Pyrate Publication and the best information source for Pirates of all magazines. . . .including ours. June 9-10, 2007 • The Black Fox attended Norfolk Sail as his new personna, "The Pyrate Man" where he plunged his hook about, dropping off business cards at pyratey business places. He also spent most of his time assisting Blackbeard's Crew with their duties around Norfolk's waterfront by attending to the Pub all day. . . putting his arm around very cute bar wenches and screaming folks into the joint. He also made friends with many children by passing out his trademark plastic pyrate hooks. Our friends at No Quarter Given were on hand. . .but no PM anywhere! June 16-17, 2007 • We set up to sell our wares at The Virginia Renaissance Faire and we were Ÿber-successful! We sold more in two days than at any other booth spot yet this year. See, 'twas Pyrate Weekend at VARF and we occupied one of the very first tent areas set up inside the gate. You couldn't miss us. . . and our competition was NO WHERE to be found. . . a lot of face time with our D.C. Pyrate brethren was had. August 3, 2007 • We had an incredible time at our first Anniversary Party for The Pyrates Way. You can see some of the photos HERE. The Piratz Tavern opened up their outdoors porch for us and we had a ball. "Mad Eye" Mitch Toles comes aboard as a West Coast/Hollywood Editor and ad salesman. August 3, 2007 • Also released was our 4th issue of the year, Summer 2008, which was met with HUGE attraction and a lot of buyers! It's our most successful issue yet! August 15, 2007 • We had a crisis. Because we weren't getting the grand distribution to Barnes & Noble and Borders like we wanted, we contacted them directly outside of our distributor's view (Ingram). Needless to say, they tripled their order and took most of our stock of the Summer issue!!!! This means there are MUCH LESS copies for that issue as a back order and we've had to triple the price of the issue online because of the shortage. (The magazine was already printed when the new orders came in). We're able to meet said orders for the stores, but not so for us. It's literally our first sell-out and it's only our FOURTH ISSUE! We've upped the order quite a bit for our spectacular Autumn 07 issue but don't be surprised if we can't keep up. . . if you don't subscribe, you'd best get to it, mate! September 2, 2007 • "Re-Enactor's Corner" is added to the regular feature of the magazine. October 15, 2007 • As bonus booty for the subscribers of The Pyrates Way, the metal ring of The Phantom (a tie-in to the Autumn Issue) is sent out. It is considered the "coolest booty" given away by the magazine thus far. October 31, 2007 • The fifth issue of The Pyrates Way is released to a huge sales numbers. This anniversary issue is so chocked with pyrate information that it was expanded to 84 pages! November 3, 2007 • The Pyrates Way is named The Official Magazine of PyrateCon2008! Publisher Steve Kimball accepts the offer to be a Guest Speaker. With a complete change in management to folks that we know and trust, PyrateCon2008 should be an incredible event. Steve Dapcevich comes aboard as editor and regional advertising salesperson. November 25, 2007 • A fifth Wench of the Quarter is added as a regular feature starting with the Winter Issue. As of this date there has not been a release of any issue of Pirates Magazine since their Spring Issue. We received information from angry advertisers and subscribers that no one from PM has been in contact with them as their phones have all been disconnected. *From the written notes and audio recordings (micro cassette) of Steve "The Black Fox" Kimball. |