Hi, all -- thanks for the responses. (And thanks for being patient with my jumping in.)
Re Simon's article that sparked this thread: Yeah, print magazines in general (not just in sf) have had declining circulation for a long time. Several of the print-magazine editors generally mention that when this topic comes up, but I think their comments are sometimes seen as making excuses, so I was glad to see Simon addressing the issue in that article; still, I wish he had discussed the fact that short prose fiction in general is just not as popular as it once was, in any medium or context or genre. In the 1930s, national newspapers carried short stories, and the public read them avidly; these days, the only place where most people ever encounter short fiction is in the pages of a few major general-interest magazines (like the New Yorker). Eric: Good points; but in defense of the Big Three editors, I'm not convinced that there are really good ways for print magazines to use the web effectively to bolster circulation. As you noted, online venues are experimenting with different models, but so far none of us (as far as I know) have found a way to make enough money to pay staff; I would guess that the print prozines probably can't afford to do that kind or degree of experimenting. Steve: Oh, okay -- I apologize for misunderstanding what you wrote; I should have asked what you meant, instead of assuming. Thank you for the clarification. Yeah, I would agree that there aren't all that many SFWA members among online-prozine editors. One thing that might help in your quest: several newish pros (including some SFWA members) work in various editorial capacities for various online semiprozines. I think there may be a couple of SFWA members on the Ideomancer editorial team, for example; possibly also Abyss & Apex, and Fantasy Magazine; I think a couple of other respected online semiprozines as well, though I'm blanking on details and don't have time to go look 'em up right now. Regarding magazines closing, you wrote: > And I said we're "down to" because Helix and Aeon have closed > recently, and I'm pretty sure there was at least one other that shut > down mere weeks ago. Oh, okay -- makes sense. Still, I think it's worth keeping in mind that online magazines (like print magazines) do come and go over time; that is, at any given time, one or two of them are likely to have recently shut down, but one or two others are likely to have recently started up, and I think the overall trend in number of online prozines has probably been (slightly) upward over time. (And on a side note, though I was sad to see Helix and Aeon go, and they both published some fine work, I don't think either one was a SFWA-qualifying prozine as such. But people can argue all day about what does or should count as "professional".) > I'm also uncomfortably aware that a particularly long closed period often is a > harbinger of a shutdown. Fair enough; I was thinking you were saying that any closed period was a sign of a shutdown. Sorry for hijacking y'all's thread! I sometimes get carried away when I see discussions that touch on online magazines. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "R-SPEC: The Rochester Speculative Literature Association" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/r-spec?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
