Editing The Pen Addict 275/transcript (section)

== Field Notes Dime Novel ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' So what are we talking about today, Myke? We're going to talk about the Field Notes Dime novel.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Hashtag shocking.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Fall 2017 quarterly edition came out a little bit earlier than normal, which is perfect because it means that we don't have to play the guessing game for the show. As in when it's going to come out. However, I want to play the guessing game that we played last time, which I really enjoyed, which is where me and Brad, we have not spoken about this edition at all. And we're going to try and guess what each other think of the edition. But before we do that, let me give some deets, some of the deets of this. I'm going to give you some of the specifications that we're working with here. Obviously, you can find this all on FieldNotes, brand.com and on our website. You can find links to all these pages as well. So you get two 72-page blank books for this edition. They are four and a quarter inch by six and a half inch, which is bigger, right? Yes. Standards three and a half by five and a half.

'''Myke Hurley:''' 100-pound French paper co-construction safety orange cover. So it's an orange cover with a bunch of really interesting looking print on it, which I assume is... They say this is how they print that, right? It's like some old press that they're using, like an antique press.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's a very vintage-based edition. So it's related to that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' 70-pound natural white Strathmore premium plain paper, which are numbered. There are 72 pages in each book and they are smith-sewn in three 24-page signatures. So when you look at it, it looks like three mini notebooks of a cover around it. Because it's glued to that cover and the notebooks of a glue to that cover the paper is. 27,500 packs. This is a slightly smaller edition by a couple of thousand packs than some of the previous runs. And subscribers get a free one-inch button. Do you want to take the first crack? Do you want to guess what I think of this edition?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So as excited as you are to play this game, I'm not as excited because I failed last time on the campfire edition. So now I have a greater amount of pressure. So yes, I will go first. And I'm going to say you love it. I'm going on taking another risk here. I thought you would love the campfire. You did not. And you had very, very good reasons why. So I'm not fully in your head. But I think you love this primarily for the larger format and the unique shape and style of the covers. I'm going to go that you love it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay. I am going to say that you love it too for many of the same reasons of Campfire. Because it's got some real Americana in here again. And I'm going to assume that you would really like the way that they have put the covers together with the glued cover and stuff like that. I'm going to assume that you really like that. So do you want to go first? Did I get it right? Do you like it?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, I really like it. I don't have it yet. I was hoping it was going to come yesterday. I love the format. The thicker, wider format. It's blank pages, which I'm super happy it's not lined. I thought for sure this would be a lined edition. I did too, actually.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I was worried about it being lined.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I was scrolling. When I saw it come up and I saw the size and I saw what it was related to, I was scrolling, scrolling, scrolling until I found whether it was lined or not. If it was lined, I would really not like it as much.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Well, we just don't really like lined very much, me and you.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But yeah, I mean, it's not a shock that I like this edition. I'm anxious to see the covers and I hope they're more orange in person than in the pictures, but I don't even care if they're brown like they look. You know, that's a weird color to photograph, but they look kind of brownish, but it's this vintage style. And we'll talk about more what it was based on in just a second. But what do you think?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh, I love them, man.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Yeah. I felt better about guessing you on this one.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, this one is a clear win, like for me. You know, based on the things that I like about Field Notes, this is just like ticks every box. It's got a super strong story, which isn't alienating in its Americanness, right? And they took the idea, turned it into a real good product that embodies the idea and played around with their format, right? Like they didn't just make a book that looks like craft with this print on it, which is what they could have done, right? They could have basically just taken a craft notebook and put that stamp on the front of it, everything they've got. But instead, they made a type of notebook they have never made before. And if you look at two of my favorite editions of all time are Arts and Sciences and Byline. And they are two notebooks that are completely unlike any other notebook that they make, right? They're completely different formats. So I expect that this is going to end up being a favorite of mine for very, very similar reasons. Like I love the standard format, but I love it when they break it because then I have more variation and the notebooks are sitting in my drawers.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right, right. So the size and shape of it was what I was hanging my hat on that you, in guessing that you would love this edition. Yeah, that was a real good bet. As opposed, I think that overweighed the Americanness of it because it's not truly an American like thing. It's a thing that existed everywhere.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But as JVK in the chat room said, we had Peny Dreadfalls, which is a similar kind of thing, right? Right. Like this is just a people were publishing as opposed to like sitting around the campfire, which is in my mind more kind of like just like a thing that I never did and has more of that Americana flavor to it than this does, I think. Right. But yeah, I think that this is just a wonderful edition. Because again, it's like, I don't mind when the theme doesn't appeal to me if the notebook has something about it and like Campfire for me just didn't. It just didn't have something that I was looking for. But this is incredible. It's wonderful. And I can see, I think when you see this, you can see why they were fretting over as much as they were, because I expect this was an incredibly hard edition to put together.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, so you said it earlier on, if you're going to create a Field Notes edition in your head, this one checks all those boxes of what you expect from a very traditional, lives up to the brand name Field Notes edition, I think.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yep.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But I think the paper signatures are hopefully the right move. I would rather see that than, you know, a perfect bound, all the sheets, 72-page sheet book, because I think it will break in a little bit better with the signatures sewn in.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And signatures means the individual, like, notebooks inside of the one notebook, right?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, they're almost like mini packets within there. You don't really notice it unless you look at the binding and you see, like, three curved, you know, little inserts, if you will. And I hope that's going to improve, like, the flexibility and openness of the notebook, because it is a weird size, but I appreciate the weird sizes. They made a point to say this is the thickest stock paper that they've ever used. It's a 70-pound paper.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I'm so excited about that.