by Sharon Lovering
Subscribers
"The Braille Forum" has 23,591 subscribers. Of those, 12,740 are large print readers; 7,781 are tape readers; 2,323 read braille, and 747 access the magazine on disk. We also have 488 e-mail subscribers.
The large print costs 54 cents per copy. That's $6.48 for a year's worth of copies for one person. For all 12,740 readers, that totals $82,555.20.
The cassette edition costs 54 cents per copy as well. For a year's worth of copies for 7,781 readers, that amounts to $50,691.12.
The braille edition costs $2.51 per copy. For a year's worth of copies for 2,323 readers, that totals $69,968.76.
The disk edition costs about $1.75 per copy. For 747 readers for a year, that's $15,687.
Sending out the Forum via e-mail is virtually devoid of expense for us! The grand total for all of this amounts to $218,902.08.
We have a large number of subscribers overseas. One organization which receives the Forum is the Trinidad and Tobago Blind Welfare Association. Other subscribers include the National Federation of Blind Citizens of Australia and the Kawara State School for the Handicapped in Nigeria. We also have readers in China, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, England, Russia, India, Egypt, Spain, Malawi, Sweden, Sri Lanka and Turkey. Returns Are Costly
In an average day, the U.S. Postal Service brings back about 45 copies of the Forum for a variety of reasons: for example, the death of a recipient; a subscriber has moved without leaving a forwarding address, etc. Starting this month, the names of people whose magazines are returned will be removed from the distribution list. Each returned copy costs us between 60 cents and $1.50. If you have moved, please let us know. If you no longer wish to receive the magazine, please let us know that as well. To change your address via e-mail, send a message to [email protected]. Please make sure to include your name and former address along with your new one. You may also call the ACB toll-free number and leave a message in mailbox 22. Please be certain to spell your name and any difficult-to-spell words in your address. It's Easy to Subscribe to the E-mail Edition
Would you prefer to receive the Forum via e-mail? To subscribe to the electronic version, visit www.acb.org and select the "join our e-mail discussion and information lists" link. Once you're on that page, select the "subscribe or unsubscribe to the Braille Forum e-mail list" link. Follow all directions. Then each month you will receive, when it's available, "The Braille Forum" in your e-mail in box.
Are you interested in writing an article for the Forum? Do you have an item for Here and There, High Tech Swap Shop, or Affiliate News? We work a month in advance. For Here and There, we need your item two months in advance. We go to press on the 15th of the month; this issue went to press on April 15, and the June issue will go on May 15. We need your items by the first of the month. Send items for Here and There to Billie Jean Keith via e-mail at [email protected]. Send items for High Tech Swap Shop and Affiliate News to Sharon Lovering via e-mail at [email protected]. Of course, if you don't have access to e- mail, you can still call us and leave messages in mailbox 22 for Sharon Lovering, or mailbox 26 for Billie Jean Keith, or you may send us items in print or braille via the U.S. mail.
All other articles need to go to Penny Reeder, attached in MS Word or plain text formats, or pasted directly into a message, via e-mail, [email protected], or in virtually any other format except handwriting -- i.e., Penny will accept articles sent via the good old U.S. mail, in print, braille, or on audiocassette, and there have been occasions when a writer has dictated his or her letter or article into Penny's voice mail, and she has transcribed and edited it from there. This magazine is your forum, and we encourage readers of all ages and stages in life to write for us and to share with others your ideas, your experiences, your techniques for coping with blindness, and your opinions. Our youngest writer was only 10 years old, and we have received articles from people who are in their 90s, so whether you are old or young, whether you have completed postgraduate studies or you're still working toward a high school degree, we want to hear from you.