Our most popular issue ever
I’m preparing the 19th year anthology in which Issue No. 111 is contained. No. 111 became our biggest selling issue ever. Anticipating its popularity, I had ordered an extra 10,000 copies from the printer, rather than our usual 1500 extra copies. It sold off the newsstand in three days, and the extra issues sold within weeks.
An astute observer could see the recession coming. In the issue before, No. 110, my editorial stated:
“You been watching the campaigns for the Democratic and Republican primaries? Scary, huh? One of these bozos is going to be our next President. Makes me want to double the size of my pantry and garden, stock up on fuel and supplies, and batten down the hatches.
“. . . Another bozo while we have a recession looming on the horizon. Some economists say it may already be here. All the talk from people like me about protecting our freedoms from Government will soon turn to protecting our butts from economic disaster made worse by Government with another bozo in charge.
“Has anyone noticed that the politicians seeking to be President don’t even talk about the looming recession? Economists do, but the candidates don’t. They pretend it’s not there. It’s almost surreal! . . .
“. . . A bozo in the White House and a recession. What an unfortunate and foreboding combination. I’d better order up a new shipment of our Emergency Preparedness and Survival Guide book. People are going to want practical survival information more than ever.”
So for No. 111 (Silveira wrote the editorial), when many readers sensed the oncoming recession, I developed this cover by holding a wad of paper in my hand and having Lisa Nourse take a photo of it in the office a few days before deadline. I quick emailed it to Don Childers in Colorado and told him, “Make that wad of paper the earth and have it and my hand shaking.”
I was in perfect sync with the readership, and Childers, my artist for 20 years, painted a cover that projected the story powerfully. We were far ahead of the politicians on the economic state of the nation. BHM subsequently had a run on the EPSG book, and I had to reprint it.
This 19th year anthology is not likely to go to the printer for another year, unless we sell a ton of preorders for Nos. 15 and 16, in which case I may send all the anthologies out to the printer, right up through No. 20, which I’ll begin working on tomorrow.
Everything depends on money coming in and money going out. Why can’t politicians figure that out?
