New Z Magazine

[arts.zccm]

As the EIC of Z Car Club Magazine (ZCCM), I would like to introduce you to a new publication devoted to the Z car. ZCCM, a bi-monthly magazine will cover three areas of the Z car community: cars, clubs, and events. This will include Z’s, 510’s, Roadsters and G’s with a heavy emphasis on the Z. There will also be the usual editorial content, including reader rides, parts, How-tos, DIYs, and project cars.

This is a club-based magazine that encourages its members to be a part of the magazine by submitting feature write-ups on cars, projects, events, how-to’s and just about anything else they would like the Z community to see or hear about when it comes to their Z’s.

In a nutshell, ZCCM guarantees coverage of Z car specific events and articles in every issue of the magazine. Although it is a Z club based magazine subscriptions are available to the general public either as an online version or a print version.

The cost is cheaper to get through a club then it is as a single subscription, which is why people are encouraged to join a local Z club in their area (if there is one). Check it out at zcarclubmag.com

[TomoHawk]

Hi Art,

We in Cleveburg enjoy the magazine so far, and hopefully people will start contributing so much the magazine will be fat enough to last the two months until the next issue comes out While I'm not a fan of any kind of "G" cars (G cars are not at all Z cars, nor were they built by Datsun) the content is MUCH better than the old magazine. I didn't care to read about Altimas, either; I prefer the Datsun Z only.

If I were to make a request about the online viewer, I would request a way to print the pages.

Edited October 29, 2013 by TomoHawk

[er34gtt2000jp]

Awesome!

I get a sad feeling every time I go to the supermarket and see the Import Tuner and 5-slow (no offence to the Stang crowd, I happen to like classic pony's) mags on the shelf but never a Z mag. I doubt we'll ever have a broad enough following to have supermarket magazine shelf coverage but to know there is a good quality Z-car mag out there is reassuring indeed!

Do you have any West Coast regular contributors yet?

[arts.zccm]

The magazine is only 3 issues in and the 4th is in production right now. People are a little slow to want to contribute, I'm guessing because of the fear of writing. It is starting to pick up now as far as feature cars are concerned and I'm working on getting advertisers to contribute with How-to's and DIY tech articles.

I plan to upgrade the online version of the magazine sometime in 2014. Using a much more robust user interface. Want to crawl before I run.

Really tough to put a niche magazine on the newsstands unless you have a stable of other magazines behind it. On a single magazine you can pay up to $3,000 per issue for a return of about $400.00 on a good month. Just not worth the investment. Better to spend the money on expansion of the magazine. With the rate that advertisers are coming onboard now, that will probably be in another 2 issues.

[TomoHawk]

You'd think that you could probably fill a bunch of issues with just what you find on the Tech section here....

Do you have any guidelines or tips that you could upload here, as to what you're looking for in a project or otherwise, and tips on how to write it all up (writing format, photograph size, pixel depth, etc.) so you can lessen things on your end? We have a lot of photo buffs and technical writers here that can help work with people here to get you things that you could just pop in there without any effort..

[Jarvo2]

I just subscribed and am looking forward to reading and contributing to the magazine! Looks like a great product!

[arts.zccm]

To be published in the magazine, the #1 rule is you must be a member of a Z club. Since this is an online club I will consider someone like Dave (Jarvo2) a member of a club since he subscribed to the magazine through CZCC I have pasted the writing guidelines into this post. The magazine is setup so that readers get more involved by contributing to the magazine, not just reading it. Their name and club affiliation are in the bylines.

Article Submission Guidelines:

NOTE: Before submitting an article please send a short paragraph on the car with a couple of pictures along with your club affiliation. Once you have sent it in you will be notified as to whether it will be a BTW article or a Feature article.

BTW (behind the wheel)

Word count: 1-page – 600 words, 2-page – 1000 to 1200 words. If you have a mods list you can submit that as well. Make sure to put them in their respective catagories, ie: engine, suspension, wheels/brakes, interior, exterior, etc. If you talk about all your mods in the story do not send a mods list.

Pictures: 1-page – 4 to 6 images, 2-page – 5 to 8 images. 7mp or higher camera should be used. Anything lower and it will not reproduce well in print.

Cover Feature (5 to 7 pages)

Word count: 3000 to 4000 words. If you have a mods list you can submit that as well. Make sure to put them in their respective catagories, ie: engine, suspension, wheels/brakes, interior, exterior, etc. If you talk about all your mods in the story do not send a mods list.

Pictures: 10 to 20 images. 10mp or higher camera should be used. Anything lower and it will not reproduce well in print. Since this is a cover story special attention will need to be taken with the cover photo and opening spread shot. I can direct you on what I will be looking for once a decision is made on whether your car is going to be featured.

2nd Feature (4 pages)

Word count: 2000 to 2500 words. If you have a mods list you can submit that as well. Make sure to put them in their respective catagories, ie: engine, suspension, wheels/brakes, interior, exterior, etc. If you talk about all your mods in the story do not send a mods list.

Pictures: 6 to 10 images. 10mp or higher camera should be used. Anything lower and it will not reproduce well in print. Special attention will need to be taken with the opening spread shot. I can direct you on what I will be looking for once a decision is made on whether your car is going to be featured.

Project Car (1/4, ½ or 1 page)

Project articles can be about one part of your project, ie: suspension upgrade.

Word count: 1/4-page – 150 words, 1/2-page – 300 words, 1-page – 600 words.

Pictures: 1/4-page – 3 to 4 images, 1/2-page – 4 to 6 images, 1-page – 4 to 8 images. 7mp or higher camera should be used. Anything lower and it will not reproduce well in print.

DIY (½ or 1 page)

Step-by-step articles explaining how to fix, restore or upgrade anything on your car.

Word count: 1/2-page – 300 words, 1-page – 600 words.

Pictures: 1/4-page – 3 to 4 images, 1/2-page – 4 to 6 images, 1-page – 4 to 8 images. 7mp or higher camera should be used. Anything lower and it will not reproduce well in print.

Tech article (1 or 2 page)

example: a write-up on why you should upgrade your electrical system. Not so much how to do it, but why it should be done.

Word count: 1-page – 600 words, 2-page – 1100 words.

Pictures: 1-page – 3 to 5 images, 2-page – 4 to 8 images. 7mp or higher camera should be used. Anything lower and it will not reproduce well in print.

[Galaxybj]

Great magazine Art.

I just finished reading the last issue and have to agree it is an improvement over the old magazine. I look forward to the future issues, as well as possibly contributing.

-Bill-

[TomoHawk]

I wish I had known this before I started the suspension restoration. O-L

[TomoHawk]

Mr. Singer,

You mentioned briefly what the DIY, Project car, and Tech submissions should be about, but could you tell us a little more about what the Cover Feature, BTW (behind the wheel) are aimed at? Obviously, the cover feature is the vehicle that has the main writeup, with a lot of pages in the issue, but what else do you look for as a over feature car besides a list of mods? I could easily write up my repair logs into a 15-page document.

I appreciate you making the distinction between the DIY and the Tech articles. Many people think a Tech article is a How-to writeup. For example, a Tech article discusses WHY you should add relays to your headlamps to make them operate at their brightest, and the DIY article discusses the HOW to accomplish it.

Are these kinds of articles in any of the already publishes issues? Seeing an example of a writeup would probably help.

FWIW, I initially thought the BTW article was about an experience you had or do while driving, like the Tail of the Dragon or I-101, or some kind of driving technique, all involving the Z car.

And as I mentioned, the Tech section here could supply you with many DIY articles, most recently the HEI ignition upgrade, which I am currently working on. You could have a "contest" for the best DIY writeup of, say, an H4 headlamp upgrade, which you may think is currently or of significant interest to readers.

Edited November 1, 2013 by TomoHawk

[TomoHawk]

Hey-

I just noticed that there is an ordering system setup for a digital or printed subscription to ZCCM, as well as back-issues too. Very cool!

Order - Z Car Club Magazine

[arts.zccm]

The BTW is for smaller 1 and 2 page write-ups on owners cars. Some ones car might have a good story behind it but it is not enough to fill a feature. BTW also allows the person with a average Z to be able to get into the magazine. Writing a 3000 to 4000 word article can be scary to a lot of people, BTW's are much easier for most. This magazine is done a little differently then most automotive publications. I do not send professional writers and photographers out to get a story. I want readers to participate by telling their own story. Every article that you see in the magazine were written by the owners. We take their original copy and fine tune it to make it a little more professional sounding. The first thing I ask someone when they contact me is "do you like to write".

An example of a feature car is the one coming up in issue #5. It is a 240Z RHD with a skyline motor. The person actually works at NNA and is a z car enthusiast. These three things make for a good story so I have slated it for the cover and the larger of the 2 features. To be featured, I'm not just looking for a really nice car. There needs to be a story behind it. The car doesn't have to be a concourse style show car, just a nice Z. I could easily find a hundred nice Z's to do an article on but I'm looking beyond just the car and want to know the owners story. If you bought a Z and all the work was done, there really wouldn't be much of a story other then how you purchased the car. That would not qualify for a feature unless the car was owned by a famous person and even then they would have to be really famous

Here is a link to the online version of the magazine. This password will be good until the middle of next week. Feel free to look at the magazine to get an idea of what I'm looking for in each section. If you have questions, ask away.

Link:

This area is password protected [401]

Password: datsun280z

I'm in the process of getting more people to submit tech articles. I do not want to be the only one that submits them. I have plenty of my own articles waiting in the wings but that is not what I want to do. I want readers to be involved. I will except everything from easy to hard knowing that skill levels are different for everybody.