Monday, August 19, 2013

The 2014 AQ Letterboxing Calendar is ready!

Yes, it's that time of year again where the annual AQ letterboxing calendar is hitting the proverbial shelves! =)

I usually don't announce the winners until I have a stock of calendars ready to ship. Admittedly, this year, I have no calendars to ship. Unlike previous years, I wasn't able to get any sort of bulk discount to save a few bucks from the cost of the calendar by reshipping them myself, and it would actually increase the cost of the calendars if they went through me first. So this year, you'll have to order them direct from the publisher, Lulu.com.

However, since they print on demand and can make 1 or a million of these things at whim, I've added a second calendar option: a larger size. I've never ordered the larger size before since they're about $10 more than the smaller version and I didn't want them siphoning off bulk discounts, but since I don't qualify for them anyhow, who cares?! =) If you feel like splurging for the large-sized calendar, go for it!

So, here's AQ's listing of the calendars. Check it out to see all the wonderful photos sent in by different letterboxers. =) (The cover photo is actually slightly different for the two calendars since the larger version needed a much longer, vertical image to fit, but I used another photo of the same location I had taken. Same place, but it was useful for me to have essentially the same photo for both the horizontal and vertical formats!)

If I used one of your photos, I did order standard-sized calendars for you all. I'll be sending an email for your address and mail them out when I can. (They haven't arrived here at AQ headquarters yet, so there's no rush at the moment!)

On a related note, this is the last year I will give out calendars to those whose photos I use. The calendars are just getting too expensive and not enough people are buying them to pay for that expense anymore. The calendars were always meant to be a break-even thing for me, but it's turning into a money hole mostly because the calendars I give away cost far more than I recoup from selling them. So this is the last year I'll be doing that. I'll give some sort of prize or consolation for anyone whose photos I use in the future, but I haven't decided what as of yet.

So I'll still be making a 2015 calendar (upload your submissions today!), but you won't be getting a free calendar if I use your photo anymore. Sorry about that. It's just not affordable anymore.

Thanks to everyone who submitted photos for the 2014 calendar! It looks great! =)

If you do order a calendar from Lulu.com, right now they're having a special where, if you type in the coupon code "FBC18" (without the quotes), you'll get 18% off your order. It's only valid for one use per account, though, so be sure to get all your calendars at once if you want the 18% discount on multiple calendars!

2 comments:

Tivoli West said...

I think you might want to check the links. The small calendar link is $33 and the large calendar link is $22. I think they might be reversed. :)

Ryan said...

Hmm.... I'm not seeing this. What page exactly are you seeing incorrect links?

(I did notice, however, that I use single quotes instead of double quotes which was suggesting that the calendars were several FEET in length rather than in INCHES! So I did fix that!)

-- Ryan