Sudoku Xtra issue 1 now available!

Sudoku Xtra issue 1 is now available! Check out the home page of this site (www.sudokuxtra.com) for more details.

You can also order a top-quality printed copy from Amazon.com or from Lulu.com. (Lulu has printers in many countries, including the UK, so this is recommended for most people outside the US/Canada).

Issue 2 is due out in a month's time - that is, mid-December 2009.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 12/02/2009 01:04PM by gareth.

Thx, Gareth, I got issue 1.

In my opinion, getting later issues would be like shelling out 10 dollars a month (I would probably order thru amazon.com), The small amounts add up. It's like, a vicious cycle.

Like with my getting an almanac (book of facts) I don't buy an almanac every year.

If #1 is fully doable, then I might get Xtra #2. And then, #3,...

Here's a forum where you could look for ideas: http://forum.sudexel.net . They have FREE puzzles, and they call a puzzle, Sudoku Mini-sam, whick is aka Sudoku Lite.

Jeff

Great! Yes, the trouble with putting so many puzzles in is that if you want to complete them all it will take you months, and you'll never be ready for the next issue! I am thinking I will need to make each issue more 'themed', so there'll be a stronger reason to buy multiple issues for those who are more casual in their puzzle solving enthusiasm. That said, I've already done that a bit by having new variants in each issue, and since it's not a shelf magazine I can carry on selling back issues with ease, so people can just buy it at their leisure when they're ready for a new issue.

What would really help would be if you wouldn't mind posting links to Sudoku Xtra (and saying what it is!) on the other forum sites you hang out on - this would be incredibly helpful because if I can get more people to read the magazine I can keep making even more types of bigger and better puzzle. Lots of people are coming back to buy further issues, but I need to do lots more to get the magazine "out there", and people who are happy to talk about it (preferably favourably! ) on other sites and forums are a really important part of that.

I agree that $9.99 on Amazon is more expensive than a shop magazine (although I think it's at least twice as good as one of the $5 puzzle magazines you can get), but even at that price I make much less money on the sale than if you buy it direct as a download at $4.99 - so sadly the economics of printing mean that it can't be any cheaper.

What I find interesting is that lots of people sell download puzzle collections at $10 that aren't a patch on Sudoku Xtra, so I think that for your less than $5 you're getting an incredibly good value download.

Just as a matter of interest Jeff and Gareth, I have all three issues of Sudoku Xtra and decided to have a count of how many puzzles I had done in issues 1 and 2. The answer is about two thirds of each issue. However, I am constantly going back to them and doing another and another so don't feel as though I have wasted part of the issue price. The beauty of buying each issue as it is current is that you are able to discuss the puzzles with other people who are solving at the same time, which really does encourage you to have a go at some of the types you would not normally do. For instance, I decided to get to grips with nurikabe this month, got some hints from here and various other sites and have managed to complete issue 3's puzzle and have then gone back to issues 1 and 2 and done those as well. Similarly, as I am getting more used to doing the skyscrapers I find myself going back to previous issues to have another go at ones I couldn't complete before. Even if the magazine is not 100% "doable" it is the best puzzle magazine I've come across for quality and varierty (and I've downloaded a fair few over the years!!) SO keep up the good work Gareth - much appreciated!

Chrissy, (please tell me if you don't like that. I'm thinking of Chris Evert, the tennis player)

Buying all of the Xtras, if I go thru amazon.com, that's 10 bucks a month. Which translates to 120 bucks a year. If I got all the issues of Xtra, I'd always be bogged down! Vicious cycle on spending.

I enjoy puzzles. But not THAT much!

Currently I have Xtra 1. That's enuf 4 me.

Like, I wouldn't buy an almanac (book of facts) EVERY year. I'd like to make something like that last for a few years.

Jeff

Jeff; I can't say I see myself as a Chrissy!!! Chris or Christine are just fine! I appreciate your views! I think I'm just a puzzle addict and spend far too much on books/magazines but when I add up the number of hours I am kept entertained with each publication. I can't think of anything that's better value for money which is how I justify it to myself!!

Puzzle addiction.

Sudoku, kakuro, Japanese puzzles, xwords,...

there used 2 B http://puzzlersudoku.com . They simply "reorganized" under the name of http://puzzler.com

there's http://secure.nps1.net/puzzler . Worth a look-see, IMO.

J

Yes, Puzzler are probably the world's largest puzzle company. I think we've all heard of them. A few years ago they were bought for £85 million ($135 million) and no doubt are worth more now. They've got over 60 full-time staff, but I still make a better magazine than their Beyond Sudoku - and I'm not biased at all!

I'd need to sell about 5 million copies of Sudoku Xtra (assuming mostly download, some printed) to be worth the same.

Any volunteers to get, say 10,000 or so of the next issue? :-)