The A4 Project

Brushing my teeth last night, I started to wonder about how to continue New Escapologist should it become unsustainable after Issue 21. (See the August newsletter to hear about the financial challenge).

One solution is to return to the magazine’s origins and to print it for free on stolen office paper.

Alas, I don’t have access to an office or its paper anymore, but it occurred to me (while flossing) that I could ask OUR READERS to steal office paper and send it to me, ideally through their workplace outgoing mail.

Maybe people could even pay for their copy in stolen office paper. The patrons (those who currently spend a couple of hundred quid when we launch a four-issue Kickstarter) could be the people who send the most stolen office paper, but even those who send just a few sheets of stolen office paper would receive their copy for free.

Some people would still need to pay for their copy with money, as I’d still like to receive some some recompense for my time and also to pay for the stamps.

Is this a good idea? There’s the obvious legal/moral objection in encouraging theft, but I find that I don’t care very much about that. Come after me, employers, I dare you. Another concern is the decline in quality (I enjoy making a good-looking product worth its space on a bookshelf), but this could be outweighed by the appeal of the mischief. The main show stopper is that I’d need to pay for a Mailbox so that I don’t have to give my home address to the type of dubious character (that’s you, madam) who is willing to steal paper from work and send it to me. Could be fun though, eh?

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Here’s where to tip me and New Escapologist before it comes to this.

New Escapologist Issue 19 and the anniversary edition of Escape Everything! are both available now.