Newsletter #7

Welcome to the seventh New Escapologist occasional newsletter.

1. 10% discount on all orders of our complete back catalogue

I’ve been plugging this offer a fair bit lately, especially to the readers of our blog. Sorry about that. But it’s a good deal for you and actually generates a bit of money for us. Besides, a complete collection of New Escapologists on your shelf will astound your friends and crush your enemies (should the shelf give way and collapse upon them). Take advantage of this great offer at our here.

2. Bookfair appearances

We’ll be at the Montreal Anarchist Bookfair on 19th-20th May 2012. Rather alarmingly, this will be our third visit. Do come along to say hello (and stock up on New Escapologist goodies) if you’re in the locale.

Much later in the year, we also hope to be at the London Anarchist Bookfair in October 2012.

3. Robert Wringham elsewhere

You Are Nothing. It would make a great title for a self-help book, eh? Alas, it’s nothing to do with Escapology, it’s a book about comedy written by New Escapologist‘s editor Robert Wringham. It’s an exciting non-fiction volume about Cluub Zarathustra: a viciously inventive but sadly forgotten cabaret show featuring Stewart Lee, Simon Munnery, Roger Mann, Kevin Eldon, Richard Herring, and many others. The book is based upon new interviews with the main cast, various supporting artists, critics, and members of the audience. The book is published by Go Faster Stripe and is available here.

4. Wanted: your opinions on digital editions

A lot of people have asked about digital editions of New Escapologist. It’s something I’ve always been reluctant to do: craftsmanship and getting away from computer screens are things we’re keen to promote. But are these goals too lofty? Too silly? Too reactionary? It seems there is a real desire for New Escapologist in PDF format and for download to the various Kindle and iPad-type devices, and we’re not completely immune to peer pressure or market forces. How do people feel about digital editions? Please get in touch by replying to this email if you feel strongly in favour or strongly against.

5. What the readers said

“Thank you for the work you’re doing. I’m currently very far from the lifestyles you depict in your magazine, being an armed forces officer working in NATO, but your accounts of escape paths definitely triggered something in me and gave me sense I was not alone feeling this way and that it’s actually possible/feasible to live another life and to say ‘Goodbye to all that’.” – G, Europe.

“NE didn’t change my life but it would have if only I’d have found it sooner. Now it’s like a great companion.” – Anonymous, via the reader survey.

“All my back issues are by the toilet (pride of place you understand) and have been complimented more than once by people making use of the facilities!” – Mark, Leicester.

“One night I read every New Escapologist blog piece instead of sleeping. I can’t recommend it more. It’s life affirming.” – Alan, Glasgow

6. Issue Seven

Issue 7 is now in production. The theme, broader than usual, is “On the Lam” and attempts to bottle the excillerating feeling of an escape in action.

7. New Esapologist on the web

As ever, you can subscribe to our free blog by RSS.

Good recent blog entries include a review and scanned sample of a 1949 book called How To Avoid Work; a Will Self-inspired discussion about the politics of walking; a reflection upon things of true value in a pleasant life.

Goodbye to all that,

Robert Wringham
Editor, New Escapologist

New Escapologist Newsletter #6

Welcome to the sixth New Escapologist occasional email newsletter. This time, we’d like to tell you about the sixth issue of our magazine, and about a few past and future events.

1. Issue Six

The sixth issue of New Escapologist is out now. It is titled ‘Against the Grain’ and features Reggie Chamberlain-King’s essay about the unconventional career of naturalist Leonard Dubkin (nicely illustrated by Peter Landis Blair); several escape stories; an interview with Leo Babauta; Aislínn Clarke on unorthodox funereal practices; poetry to commemorate office life by Graham Fulton; lavatorial fun with Jon Ransom; and plenty more. It enjoyed a splendid launch at the Edinburgh Festival earlier this year.

The new issue is now available to order at the shop.

2. Issue Seven

Issue Seven is due for release in the new year. It will be titled “On The Lam” and will explore the idea that Escapology is sometimes akin to a state of constant flight. Even when you leave the system amicably, it still does all it can to pull you back in. The issue will feature personal escape stories; practical articles on how to evade Agent Smith; and real-life profiles of interesting fugatives, vagabonds, duckers, divers, and prison breakers.

3. Expozine 2011

There will be a New Escapologist stall at Montreal’s Expozine independent media fair this year. The dates are 26th and 27th November.

4. New ordering system

You may have noticed some small changes at our online shop. This is because we’ve changed the way we distribute the magazine. In the old days, we would store all printed editions at New Escapologist HQ in Glasgow and ship every single copy by hand. This was getting a bit much to handle, so we essentially outsourced the process to our printers, Lulu.com.

Your ordering via Lulu has the added advantages of secure shipping, better packaging, occasional discount coupons, discounts on batch orders, and cheaper shipping for most international readers. The disadvantage, however, is that New Escapologist loses a money in the processs, so the jury is still out on whether the new system is good for us.

I’d like to hear any feedback you have about the new Lulu ordering system. Drop me a line by replying to this email if you especially love or hate the new system.

5. The Salon

I recently spoke at a now critically-acclaimed and completely sold out performance art event called The Salon, by Unitled Projects, at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh. It was a brilliant experience and I’d like to extend thanks to the organisers for inviting me along. I presented a diatribe called The Escapological Eutopia: Five Dodgy Prophecies to paint a portrait of a future friendly to Escapologists. I’ll post something about this to the blog soon.

6. New Escapologist on the Web

As ever, there are a number of ways to engage with New Escapologist online. In addition to our website and active blog, we have accounts on Twitter, Facebook, and an RSS Feed to which you can subscribe. We get especially excited about your subscription to the latter. We are the Borg.

Thank you for the continued support. Enjoy the latest issue!

Robert Wringham
Editor, New Escapologist

New Escapologist Newsletter #5

Welcome to the fifth New Escapologist occasional newsletter. This time, we’ve beautified it. Blimey.

1. Order Issue 5 from Lulu.com and receive a 20% discount

As an experiment, we’ve made New Escapologist Issue Five exclusively available from our printers, Lulu.com. We’re not not married to the new system and desperately solicit your feedback on it, but there seem to be several advantages to distributing our publication in this way. If you order a copy before August 14th, you will receive a lovely twenty percent discount.

Issues 1-4 are also still available at the shop.

2. Issue Six

The sixth issue of New Escapologist is on its way. It is titled ‘Against the Grain’ and will feature Reggie Chamberlain-King’s essay about the unconventional career of naturalist Leonard Dubkin (nicely illustrated by Peter Landis Blair); several escape stories; an interview with Leo Babauta; Aislínn Clarke on unorthodox funereal practices; poetry to commemorate office life by Graham Fulton; lavatorial fun with Jon Ransom; and plenty more. It’ll be released officially later in August at the Edinburgh Festival. In the meantime, the option to pre-order is now available.

3. Dudeism film

I recently met with writer Oliver Benjamin and film-maker Thomas Fazi, to record a segment about Escapology for their documentary about Dudeism. The film will be in cinemas and on DVD some time next year. It feels like there’s no turning back now.

4. The Escapological Utopia

On October 10th, I’ll take part in The Salon for Untitled Projects at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh. The theme for the evening is ‘The Future’ and will involve my dressing up in Nineteenth-Century garb and talking about the Escapological Utopia. There will be other speakers too, and even the audience will be invited to dress up. This will be amazing.

5. Reader Survey

The eternally-open New Escapologist reader survey is a gigantic cochlea, yearning to vibrate with your opinions. New readers are thanked for completing the questionnaire.

6. Edinburgh stockist

The famous WordPower bookshop on Edinburgh’s West Nicholson Street is now a proud stockist of New Escapologist. If you’re in the vicinity, do pop in and buy a copy of The Bohemias Issue. It’ll help the project immensely.

All for now,

Robert Wringham
Editor, New Escapologist

New Escapologist Newsletter #4

Hello readers,

Welcome to the fourth edition of our occasional newsletter. We’d like to tell you how our recent launch party and zine fair went down, and to tell you about some small upcoming developments. If you hate newsletters and never want to see this one again, you can reply with a request to unsubscribe. Rest assured, however, you won’t see these very often.

1. Fifth edition available now.

Our fifth print edition is has been available for a while and is selling modestly well. It’s a splendid issue featuring Alain de Botton on status anxiety; Dickon Edwards on Quentin Crisp and the Bohemian bedsit; Reggie C. King on Erik Satie; Chris Miller on Emperor Norton; Neil Scott on beards; and plenty more. A new cover format and some elegant illustrations from talented artists like Jason Botkin and Philip Dearest (all curated by Samara Leibner) make it our most beautiful issue to date. At 106 pages, it is also our heftiest. If you’ve not ordered a copy yet, you can do so from the shop.

2. Recent events.

Last month not only saw the launch party of Issue Five but also the zine fair we organised at the student-occupied Free Hetherington in Glasgow. Big thanks to everyone who came along to both.

The website contains our blog reports of the zine fair and the http://newescapologist.co.uk/2011/05/11/eventful/.

There’s also a nice page about the fair at Zine Wiki.

We’ll have another stall at a zine fair in Edinburgh on August 7th at The Forest Cafe.

3. Issue Six.

We’ve slightly altered the theme of our upcoming sixth edition. The previously announced title was ‘A Rebours’, but we’ve gone for the less esoteric title of ‘Against the Grain’. The main theme will be non-conformity as a practical Escapological virtue.

Perhaps over-ambitiously, we’re aiming for an August release so that we might coincide our launch date with the Edinburgh Festival.

4. Escapology elsewhere.

I’ve an essay called ‘The Business of Escape’ in Issue 44 of The Idler. Some of the material has been covered before in New Escapologist but I’d like to think I’ve pulled it together into a entertaining and useful summary of why the Escapologist (or idler) might want to consider small entrepreneurship, Bohemia, and basic personal book-keeping. Copies can be pre-ordered at the Idler website.

Our typographer, Timothy Eyre, has an article about our typographic process in a Czech typographic journal. As well as behind-the-scenes technical information on how we produce New Escapologist, there are some nice historical recollections about how the project started in the first place. Well worth a read. With the journal’s permission, we’ll post an excerpt online soon.

I also posted a short piece about Bohemianism at the School of Life blog recently.

5. Reader Survey.

The eternally-open New Escapologist reader survey is a gigantic lug hole, waiting to hear your opinions. New readers are thanked for completing the questionnaire.

6. Help the project.

As ever, there are myriad ways you can assist in New Escapologist‘s expansion without losing any dosh. Take a look at the Help us out page if you’re interested.

Until next time,

Robert Wringham
Editor, New Escapologist
www.newescapologist.co.uk

New Escapologist newsletter #3

Dearest Readers,

Welcome to our third newsletter. Among other things, we’d like to tell you about our new issue and invite you to celebrate its launch at The Arches bar in Glasgow.

1. Issue Five available now.

Our fifth print edition is now available. It’s a truly splendid issue featuring Alain de Botton on status anxiety; Dickon Edwards on Quentin Crisp and the Bohemian bedsit; Reggie C. King on Erik Satie; Chris Miller on Emperor Norton; Neil Scott on beards; and plenty more. A new cover format and some elegant illustrations from talented artists like Jason Botkin and Philip Dearest (all curated by Samara Leibner) arguably make it our most beautiful issue to date. At 106 pages, it is at least our heftiest. Subscriber copies and pre-orders will be shipped in the next two days. If you’ve not ordered a copy yet, you
can do so from the shop.

2. Issue Five launch event in Glasgow, Scotland.

New Escapologist comes home to celebrate the most recent addition to the Escapological library.

The launch event will be held on 10TH MAY 2011 at The Arches in Glasgow. All are welcome. Bring friends. Meet the creative team behind the magazine, mingle with other readers and buy a copy of the mag. Free entry, naturally.

3. What the readers say about Issue 5.

“After I read it I wanted to scream their name from the rooftops. NEW ESCAPOLOGIST! It’s a magazine so good that I immediately went to their website, ordered every issue they’ve ever published AND subscribed.” – Nicolette, Mainz, Germany.

Upon buying a second copy: “Although I’ve already ordered an issue 5 previously, I loved it so much I’m giving it to a friend.” – Mark, Leicester, UK.

“The presentation is quite beautiful. I was expecting a magazine, but this is more of a collector’s item.” – Heather, Glasgow, UK.

“It kept making me laugh out loud while waiting in the doctor’s office.” – Gwen, Birmingham, UK.

4. Reader Survey.

The eternally-open New Escapologist reader survey is a gigantic ear, waiting to receive your opinions. New readers are thanked for completing the questionnaire.

5. New Escapologist online.

As ever, you can freely subscribe to our blog by RSS.

You can also follow us on Twitter (@NewEscapologist) and there’s a Facebook group now too. Blimey, what have we become?

6. Rob Westwood’s eBook.

Our handsome friend Rob has released an eBook called ‘Simplify’ on the subject of minimalism. It is for sale through iBooks and other channels, but Lulu are offering a 10% discount.

7. Issue Six.

The theme of the forthcoming issue is evolution; and will be titled À rebours after the inspiring and hilarious French novel by J.K. Huysmans. We’re aiming for an August release.

8. New friends

The Wivenhoe bookshop in Essex are our latest stockist. They are a remarkable bookshop. Pop along if you’re in the area.

Thank you again for reading. Enjoy Issue Five.

Robert Wringham
Editor, New Escapologist
www.newescapologist.co.uk

New Escapologist newsletter #2

Hello Readers,

Welcome to our second New Escapologist email newsletter. Among other things, we’d like to tell you about our Christmas and New Year special offer, and to solicit your own escape stories.

1. Yuletide and New Year offer

Get Issues One and Three together for just £7 (€8.40 / $11.16). This is a great opportunity for New Escapologist blog readers who’ve missed out on the printed editions so far. This is almost certainly the cheapest New Escapologist will ever be, so cash in quickly if you’re interested. Offer runs until the end of December at.

2. Survey results

Thanks to everyone who took part in our recent survey. 73 people have completed the survey to date: far more than we had anticipated. Feedback was largely positive, but we’ve got a feel for the areas in which you’d like to see changes and the direction in which we should now move. A summary of the results can be found at the blog.

3. Issue Five

Our fifth print edition is coming along nicely. Coming in January 2011, the Bohemia-issue will celebrate the artists and eccentrics of history who have chosen to live as Bohemians, plus lots of practical articles on how to live the Bohemian life. Featuring Jacob Lund Fisker (of Early Retirement Extreme), beards, entropy, rambling, flâneurism, bedsits, Quentin Crisp, garrets, Buddhism, Bohemian neighbourhoods, digital work ethics, Alexander Trocchi, Erik Satie, Emperor Norton, Bohemian dating, brewing your own beer, and more.

Pre-order Issue Five at the shop.

4. Expozine 2010

We had a great time at Montreal’s Expozine 2010. I’ve never seen so many dealers and consumers of independent media under one roof. I’m told it is the biggest event of its type in North America. Almost everyone to whom we spoke was enthusiastic about indie media. A journalist called Jeremiah had a very positive outlook, explaining that many of the big, exciting cultural movements — the Surrealists, the Beat poets, John Lennon, the Merry Pranksters, movements in jazz — began as single events such as this one. These happenings become legend. A nice outlook, I thought.

You can read about our Expozine experience in our blog report.

5. New Stockists

Thanks to Expozine, we have three new stockists in Montreal: Drawn & Quarterly Bookstore (211 Rue Bernard); the Concordia Cooperative Bookstore (2150 Bishop)); and Galerie Monastiraki (5478 St-Laurent).

The GmbH bookstore in Glasgow also recently took some of our stock. Stockists in other towns coming soon.

6. Wanted: escapee case studies

Have you escaped? Do you have particular ideas on how you might escape a tedious desk job? We’d love you to write about it at our blog. Simply reply to this email if you’d like to get involved. The best stories will get a free copy of New Escapologist.

7. Escapology Microblog

Rather embarrassingly, we’ve opened a Twitter account.

If you hate Twitter, you can also enjoy our lengthier blog entries by subscribing to our RSS feed.

8. An Escapologist’s Manifesto

A useful blog entry from a couple of weeks ago reproduced the mini-manifesto we published in Issue One. The feedback in the comments thread was great. If you’d like to offer an opinion on our manifesto and contribute to the interesting conversation, you can still join in.

Thanks again for reading.

Until next time,

Robert Wringham
Editor, New Escapologist
www.newescapologist.co.uk

New Escapologist newsletter #1

Hello readers,

Welcome to our first newsletter. Most people who completed our recent survey indicated that they’d enjoy receiving a newsletter, so here it is. A few of you also voted against a newsletter, so feel free to reply to this email with ‘unsubscribe’ in the subject heading if you don’t want it.

The aim of the newsletter is to keep you up to date with developments at New Escapologist. These newsletters will also be archived at the website.

1. ‘Collected Works’ book in production

We’ve almost completed work on a hardback compilation of New Escapologist Issues 1-4. The four issues will be presented in their entirety as well as a new introduction and some extra features. This is our bid to get a New Escapologist product into the shops. We’re currently in discussions with a few different distributors.

2. Different currencies and overseas shipping

Our online shop will now accept payment in Euros, US Dollars and Canadian Dollars. We’ve also reduced overseas shipping fees by committing to Airmail over other postal options.

3. Feedback

We’re always open to feedback and to suggestions for improvement. You’re welcome to reply to this email with feedback or to complete our open survey.

4. Articles elsewhere

I’m publishing an interview with philosopher, Joseph Heath in an arts magazine called ‘Side Street Review’ in December. In it, Joseph and I talk about consumerism, economics and rebel trends. There will also be a more directly Escapological piece in the 2011 edition of the ‘Idler’, which will focus on the business side of escape. I think it will be called ‘Business Plan / Escape Plan’. Finally, the hawk-eyed among you will already have noticed my guest post at Jacob Lund-Fisker’s website, ‘Early Retirement Extreme’, which contains detailed directions on how to leave office life behind.

5. New Escapologist at Czech typography conference

It was gratifying to present our approach to typography at the 4th International ConTeXt meeting in Brejlov, Czech Republic. We couldn’t attend the event in person, but our chief typographer was able to submit a conference poster depicting pages from our printed editions alongside a macro code used in the production of the magazine. Also on display were copies of our first three issues and take-away copies of sample material in pamphlet-form.

6. Expozine 2011

Montrealers are asking whether New Escapologist will be represented at Expozine in November. No details of this massive indie-press gathering have yet been released but, all being well, we will be there to peddle our wares.

7. Issue Five

Issue Five of New Escapologist is in the works. The theme is ‘Bohemia’. It should be available in December. We’re aiming to have a good body of historical and philosophical essays, and to salt-and-pepper it with shorter ‘How To’ pieces on the various qualities of the Bohemian.

Until next time,

Robert Wringham
www.newescapologist.co.uk