The Nitpicker's Guild Newsletter
| Zine | |
|---|---|
| Title: | The Nitpicker's Guild Newsletter |
| Publisher: | Phil Farrand |
| Editor(s): | Phil Farrand |
| Type: | |
| Date(s): | 1994 |
| Frequency: | |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | Star Trek: TNG |
| Language: | English |
| External Links: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
The Nitpicker's Guild Newsletter was a newsletter for fans of Star Trek: TNG. It was created by Phil Farrand as plugs for his series of for-profit books.
It is unknown what the "Guild" refers to, perhaps a fan club? In the second newsletter, Farrand says there are 1500 members, in the fourth newsletter, there were 2500 members. Not all of the members of the Guild subscribed to the newsletter, which appears to have a circulation of about 340.
Context
These newsletters were accompaniments for The Nitpicker’s Guide for Next Generation Trekkers, the first of a series of for-profit books that had been published in November 1993.
... I remembered…”Star Trek”. I had grown up in the Philippines watching the original series. It was the only television program that my mom would watch. And I had been watching the “next generation” series faithfully since it’s debut in 1987. And, millions of fans loved Star Trek and much as I did.
The question was: Did those fans do the same thing that my buddies and I did every week? Did they get together to discuss the most recent episode–even to the point of nitpicking? (Just how did those communicators work? Did the crew have to tap them before they started talking or not? Because sometimes they did and sometimes they didn’t!)
It took me several months to convince Steve Ettlinger that The Nitpicker’s Guide for Next Generation Trekkers was a good idea. It took him several more to find a senior editor named Jeanne Cavelos. She immediately got the idea and pushed it through at Bantam Double Day Dell.
The Next Gen Guide was released in November 1993. It sold 70,000 copies In the first year. It was easy after that. We released a Nitpicker’s Guide each fall from 1993 through 1997. [1]
Issue 1 (v.1 n.1)
The Nitpicker's Guild Newsletter 1 was published in April 1994 and contains 8 pages.
From the editor:
Greetings Fellow Nitpickers!
First of all, let me thank you once again for your letters and your kind words about the Guide. It's a wonderful thing to bring a project to life, finally get it out the door and then see that there really are others "out there" who love to engage in playful nitpicking as much as I do.
Things go well for the NextGen Guide. (The Classic Guide will be along soon enough. Might as well get used to the terminology.) I understand that Dell has gone back for another printing. That printing will put the total number of NextGen Guides over 100,000. Not bad for 6 months after release! There is also an edition published in England by Titan Books. They happen to be the official publisher of Star Trek: The Next Generation novels in England. (Of course, we are still unofficial and defintely [sic] not authorized.) There will also be a German version of the NextGen Guide in about 18 months. Fun stuff!
[...]
Things also go well for the Guild. We are in every state except Idaho and Nevada. (I'll let you come up with your own explanation for that.) We are also in many of the provinces in Canada and I have received letters from England, Spain, Germany, Denmark, Australia, Israel and Brazil. We are dangerously close to having over 1000 members and may have that many already. (I've fallen somewhat behind in entering letters due to compiling this newsletter.) Concerning submissions, let me apprise you of procedures. Several months ago, I built a relational database that allows me to enter your names and addresses in one file and an index of your nits in another. The database take cares of categorizing everything by show, episode, date (taken from the postmark), contents, etc. This allows me"to pull reports in a variety of different formats. I also have another file to track who has received subscription cards and who has actually subscribed. So, unless my computer has a meltdown, I should be able to keep everything straight. (Yes, I do back up my files.)
In the NextGen Guide, I said I would try to give authorship credit to the first person sending in a nit. I have decided to make an exception to this. Some have sent me very excellent and mighty tomes containing vast amounts of nitpicking. This "blanket" approach virtually insures that at least some of the nitpicking will be original. Unfortunately, it can also cut out many others who've only sent in one or two nits that arrive here at Nitpicker Central a few days late. At my discretion, and my discretion alone, I have opted to provide the latter nitpickers with credit for their submissions since the "mighty tome" nitpickers will get multiple credits anyway. I think that's fair.
From the introduction to "Reconized Corrigenda" (A nitpick: "Reconized Corrigenda" is the title from the article, the title on the front cover's TOC: "Recognized Corridena"):
Ah, the joys of writing a book. There are always those pesky little mistakes that slip in. Unfortunately, they are accompanied by the groaning, "slap your hand to your forehead," blatant blunders that you can't believe you let get past you. Here's the current list. Some of you have sent in others that I haven't had a chance to verify. I've listed individual credits for the first person to spot each error and then a group credit for misspelled words. The page numbers precede each entry.
By the way, let me take a moment to talk about the tote boards. My editor, Jeanne Cavelos, and I didn't decide to include them in the book until I had finished most ofmy reviewing. So, once I settled on the categories, I sat down with a list of episode titles and filled in the tote boards from memory. Not a good way to do this. Then, there's the matter of the production schedule. The tote boards were submitted to the Production Department sometime in February of 1993. I knew we had several more episodes to go before the end of the sixth season but Jeanne and I talked about it and we decided to risk being incorrect. As many of you know, the episodes at the end of the sixth season did include items that should have been tallied in the tote board. As Will Riker says, "Sometimes you get the bear and sometimes the bear gets you."
- Notes from the Chief (1)
- Alternate Viewpoints (2)
- Recognized Corridenda (5)
- Season One Nits (7)
Issue 2 (v.1 n.1)
The Nitpicker's Guild Newsletter 2 was published in July 1994 and contains 9 pages.
From the editorial:
Thanks to all of you who have sent along newspaper articles that mention the NextGen Guide. In addition, Sue Lajeunesse of Ottawa, Ontario sent me a copy of a rebuttal she mailed to a particularly acidic columnist who had used me as an example of a person without a real life. I don't mind those types of comments as long as the columnist mentions the Guide. (Mainly because I know that there will be closet-Trekkers out there who will read the article scratch their heads and say, "That's sounds like a pretty good book!")
One letter I received recently did send chills up my spine. It came from the Curator of History at a museum on the East Coast. Her museum will be hosting an interactive exhibition that incorporates real science technology with science fiction. She is putting together a lecture series and wanted to know if I, a Star Trek 'scholar,' would be interested in speaking. Me? A Star Trek 'scholar'? Maybe I do need a life. (I'll let you know if we work out the details.)
- Notes from the Chief (1)
- Nitpicking the Universe (2)
- A Few Common Discussions (6)
- Trek Around the World (7)
- More Season One Nits (8)
Issue 3 (v.1 n.3)
The Nitpicker's Guild Newsletter 3 was published in October 1994 and contains 8 pages.
"The Guild has over 2000 members now. Of course, not everyone subscribes to the newsletter but for those who do, I thank you for that as well."
From the editorial:
In the last newsletter, I mentioned the possibility of lecturing at a museum. On Sunday, March 26, 1995, I will give a presentation called "Ruminating On the Technology of Star Trek" at the The Morris Museum in Morristown, NJ. The museum is hosting a travelling Star Trek exhibit in the spring of next year. I've seen the exhibition guide and it looks great! If you're in the area, drop by and say hello.
SeaQuest, DSV premiered its second season last Sunday night with a two hour movie. It afforded me the chance to use a new addition to the Nitpicker's Glossary (so far we have The Elliot Effect, cabbagisms and INSF--it's not science fiction). Early in the show, Captain Bridger rides a motorcycle at 164 miles per hour around a tight curve. The bike stays upright and the road is flat. That's called a WHIRL (Wouldn't Happen In Real Life). In real life, the centrifugal force would have shoved the bike into the ditch!
- Notes from the Chief (1)
- The Funnies (2)
- Continuing Communications (4)
- Humor Not Included (6)
- Still More Season One Nits (7)
Issue 4 (v.1 n.4)
The Nitpicker's Guild Newsletter 4 was published in December 1994 and contains 9 pages.
From the editorial:
The Guild has over 2200+ members now. I'm not sure of the exact count. It might be as high as 2400 but I have fallen behind with entering names and addresses in my database with the compilation of this newsletter. It looks like I am actually going to break even on this little endeavor this year (yeah!). Originally I had calculated that I needed about 340 subscriptions to pay for the cost of printing the newsletter and mailing them and sending membership cards to everyone in the Guild. Thank you again for subscribing. I trust that you feel it was worth the money. Speaking of subscribing, a few of you have already sent me your subscription dues for next year. For the rest of you, let's hold off a bit on that. I am considering a few alternatives for the newsletter and I probably won't make any decision until I can get the NextGen II Guide completed (which should be at the end of February). I'll be in touch then to let you know. (Note to John, Allie and Susan: I can either hold onto your funds until I figure out what I'm going to do or I can send you check. If you would like a check just let me know.)
- Notes from the Chief (1)
- Continuing Communications (2)
- Humor Not Included (5)
- Still More Season One Nits (6)
References
- ^ from biography, Archived version