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| SFReader Forums > Book, Magazine, and eZine Publishers > Flashing Swords > Flashing Swords Print magazine? | Forum Quick Jump
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erazmus
Master
      
Date Joined Jul 2005
Total Posts : 4539
| Posted 10/9/2006 4:56 PM (GMT -5) |   | When I get my tax refund check next year, I plan to subscribe to several worthy publications. Until then, it was attend my one convention for this year (milehi38, three weeks coming) or subscribe to my regular magazines. The convention won.
Until then I can post all I want about how I would subscribe or not, but its all air.
If you have a anthology of FS stuff out next year, I'll be buying t then. If you have a magazine, I subscribe then. I'll be getting my subs to Black Gate and Weird Tales then as well. Maybe one or two others, maybe not.
But I'll add this, any writer who follows the 'rules' about markets and buys a copy or a subscription to every market they think may be possible for them to sell a story too, has a _lot_ more money to put into the writing biz than I do. I manage to slide in an occasional newsstand pub into my grocery budget. But I can't get too Jazzed about buying a 'magazine' that no one has ever heard of, or seen. I get what I can, I buy product from people I 'know' over the internet rather than blindly working my way through Ralan's market lists sending out money. I've sought out your publications more than once, and I've never been disappointed. I can't say the same for others.
Two years ago I sent off for about a dozen 'markets' I wanted to check out. All cashed my checks and half sent me the magazines I wanted. I can't take that kind of return ever again.
Mike
Michael D. Turner
"Psyched Up" in _Turn the other Chick_-ed. E. Friesner-Baen books
www.baen.com
"Dutchman Rescue"in Continuum SF #6
www.continuumsciencefiction.com/orders.htm
"An Incident at Black Tongue Tavern" in _Bash Down the Door and Slice Open the Badguy_ from Fantasist Enterprises | | Back to Top | | |
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Daniel
Carl Jung's Waterboy
Date Joined Aug 2003
Total Posts : 4515
| Posted 10/9/2006 4:32 PM (GMT -5) | | | | |
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Daniel
Carl Jung's Waterboy
Date Joined Aug 2003
Total Posts : 4515
| Posted 10/9/2006 12:44 PM (GMT -5) | | | | |
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von Darkmoor
Small Press Publisher (and Dancer still)
Date Joined Dec 2005
Total Posts : 3056
| Posted 10/8/2006 7:05 PM (GMT -5) | | | | |
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von Darkmoor
Small Press Publisher (and Dancer still)
Date Joined Dec 2005
Total Posts : 3056
| Posted 10/8/2006 7:02 PM (GMT -5) | | Valid points, Dan, Lisa and Armand.
One thing I've observed, however, and this does apply to me (though I personally agree with Lisa's reason 2 in making my own purchases) is that most of the people I know don't really read short fiction. In fact, not many read anything outside of the mega-tomes and trilogies so popular now-a-days. With that in mind, the short fiction that is read is usually magazines. Because there it's expected, it's what the magazine was bought for in the first place. Because they're quicker reads, something caught their eye, whatever. Books, on the other hand, are expected to be, anticipated to be, longer reads, continuous reads; not broken up, unrelated stories with different protagonists, but one long story the reader can immerse themself in, become a character in. The complaints I hear about magazines are (1) too many advertisements and (2) crappy stories that don't meet the reader's image of the magazine. I believe neither of these would be a problem for a print Flashing Swords, however.
SOO, I mention all this to say that, while I've enjoyed the PB and Carnifex anthos and will buy more of them, and I like that I can include them on my shelves with all the other books, I'm really not an antho guy. Nor is anyone else I know. So perhaps that is one selling point in favor of the print magazines.
Anyhow, I just dropped in to say I've posted an emphatic advertisement for Sword & Sorcery.org and Flashing Swords on my blog. Not that I'm highly popular and majorly visited (yet), but every little bit helps, eh?
-------------------------------------------------------
J Waltz
~ Read My Reviews @ www.vondarkmoor.blogspot.com
~ Take The Challenge @ www.finepoll.com/display-poll~poll~124.htm | | Back to Top | | |
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Daniel
Carl Jung's Waterboy
Date Joined Aug 2003
Total Posts : 4515
| Posted 10/8/2006 6:54 PM (GMT -5) | | Great post, Lisa!
Rest assured, FS will continue as an E-zine, with an annual print antho. I am not all that eager to start a print periodical, for the reasons you mention and more, but I would make FS print if there was a big enough demand.
Right now there doesn't seem to be; most of my comments upstream were meant to cast the discussion ina bigger light, like why *all* the print pubs ultimately start to stagger and then fall.
And also, why I think it *is*incumbent on writers to support short SF periodicals because they are the only ones who read short SF periodicals any more!
Over at the rumor mill someone was casting dispersions on PB for aksing writers for contributions<gasp>; meanwhile F&SF runs a "slush God" site with apparent impunity. LOL Add to that, the fact that F&SF has about a 1% conversion rate via their slushpile and you start to see just why they are open to unsolicted subs (most of which are returned in two or three *days*) in the first place. It is certainly not to find new talent, or they are very patient in looking for this one-percent. Comparitively, PB has a much higher conversion raten for submitters because we offer a wider range of publications: from Flashing Swords E-zine, to Prism Quarterly, to stand-alone novella prestige print editions, to trade-paperback anthologies and e-books.
When you are talking about print SF magazines, they are *all* dependent on writers or aspiring writers for their livelihood these days.
Daniel
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carnifexpress
Sage
Date Joined Feb 2005
Total Posts : 1314
| Posted 10/8/2006 6:36 PM (GMT -5) | | Lisa,
You bring up valid points... one of the reasons I decided to put Clash of Steel Magazine on hiatus was for some of the reasons you listed, as well as my financial situation... I thought that a print magazine was a big risk at a time when I couldn't afford to do it. For now Carnifex Press will rely on our single-author books with our anthologies scattered in.
I'm sure that Daniel can put out a great product and I'm sure he'll get the needed subscribers, including myself.
Armand Rosamilia
Visit Carnifex Press for more information!
Freehold short stories:
"Dew Scented" Stalking Shadows anthology
The Freehold site is now up!
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LisaM
Stablehand
Date Joined Sep 2006
Total Posts : 16
| Posted 10/8/2006 6:17 PM (GMT -5) | | As I was reading this thread and debating my own response, I realized something: I'm willing -- even eager -- to buy print anthologies of S&S, but I can't honestly say that I'd be interested in subscribing to a print magazine as a reader, rather than as someone essentially making a donation to support a worthy enterprise.
I bought both _Sages & Swords_ and _Lords of Swords_ and greatly enjoyed both. I'd buy more anthologies of this type in a heartbeat if they were out there. I may well buy extra copies for my brother's Christmas gift, since I know he also enjoys this type of fantasy and they're quality collections.
But a magazine subscription? If I didn't know any of the people involved and were looking at it purely as a reader? Nope. Not even if it contained the exact same fiction that I would be happy to buy in books.
I can't claim that these reasons are true for anybody else, but I'll give you mine:
-- A magazine comes stamped with a date. Perhaps it's a carryover from newsmagazines and other rapidly dated periodicals, but if I don't read a magazine within a month or two of its issue date, I feel like it's somehow gotten "stale" and is no longer good. Since I work a lot and often don't have time to read my purchases for months after I've bought them, this makes me less inclined to pick up magazines and even more reluctant to subscribe to them -- because that represents a theoretical commitment of future time that I'm not willing to make.
-- Magazines don't look nice and neat on the shelves the way books do. I like books. I like being able to arrange them on a shelf or in a stack and immediately locating whatever I want to read with a glance at its spine. I can't do that with magazines. They don't really lend themselves to keeping in the same way.
-- With a book, I know exactly what I'm getting at the time of purchase. With a magazine, I'm trusting the editor to pick out a good selection for me in the future, but at the time of purchase I can't be sure how it's going to work out. I may have a very good guess, but I don't actually know. And even if I trust and like one particular editor's tastes, there's always the possibility that he may retire or hand the business over to someone else, or not get any great submissions for a given issue, or whatever. There's just no way to be sure.
-- Books make good gifts for people. Magazine subscriptions, not so much. Sometimes I don't know the person's mailing address and it's awkward to ask. Other times it's related to one of the lists above. In any event, that too limits the number of purchases I make.
So, with apologies for the long post and the repeated disclaimer that these are just my reasons, that's why I wouldn't subscribe to a print edition if I were an outside reader. If there actually were a print version of Flashing Swords I'd buy it because I'd view it as a worthy venture, but that would be my reason.
Now, with that said, I love the e-zine and I hope it continues, because it's great to be able to send people a link to the website with a brief blurb along the lines of "here's something you might be interested in, and it's free!" People love free stuff, and it's a great hook to get them buying the print anthologies if they like the stories online. | | Back to Top | | |
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Daniel
Carl Jung's Waterboy
Date Joined Aug 2003
Total Posts : 4515
| Posted 10/8/2006 1:58 PM (GMT -5) | | SFReader.com has over 700 *registered* members. Sword and Sorcery.org/Flashing Swords E-zine receives abt. 200 unique visitors a day and we have had 19 pledges to subscribe.
Now, consider from that fact, how many people then *read* any given story in any given venue. Factor in also, that there is no pub out there with some magic "big audience" where there are readers who aren't aspiring writers. You'll see why so many print magazines have the life-expectancy of a may fly.
The irony is: in truth, no writer should EVER submit work to a magazine or pub which they have not *recently* read. You simply have no business submitting to a pub that you are unfamiliar with. The only reason to submit an *unsolicited* ms to any market is because you've read that pub and decided your work might be a good fit.
Upwards of 90% of all unsolicted mss. to any venue are bounced and the reason in the vast majority of cases (other than incompetency) is that the writer submitted something inappropriate for the market's needs.
So, if writers were serious about their work, they would familiarize themselves with the markets they submit to. Without doing so there is a 99% chance they will be rejected anyway and they are really just wasting everyone's time and clogging up the slush piles for no good reason.
Take a magazine like Black Gate. They have very few subscribers and get a TON of submssions. Because so many of those submissions come from writers who are submitting blind, it takes 12-14 months for people to get a response and meanwhile you can all anticipate a day when John O' Neill just gets tired of spending thousands of dollars each quarter out of his own pocket to put out a magazine that no-one reads! Or buys from the bookstores, either.
So, I hope some of you are starting to get a picture of how this all works. I didn't want to burst anyone's bubble, but in a way I did, because the only thing more frustrating than NOT getting support from the core audience here is listening to them go on and on about "what somebody could/wopuld/should" do to re-energize print heroic fantasy short fiction.
Hopefully, this little demo will help folks keep a bit more perspective on the hellish realities facing print pubs and also -- remind everyone who wants to be a SF writer and especially when they want to get PAID for doing it: you have to have markets to send your work to and you must support these markets because there is no longer a substantial non-writer audience for print periodical short SF in America.....
Daniel
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Kuroboshii
Shogun
Date Joined Apr 2004
Total Posts : 549
| Posted 10/8/2006 10:52 AM (GMT -5) | | | | |
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carnifexpress
Sage
Date Joined Feb 2005
Total Posts : 1314
| Posted 10/8/2006 10:06 AM (GMT -5) | | Nathan,
I thought it was: the red ball is on the table, but I could be wrong.
I've outlined a plan to get a true S&S online presence together ala shocklines and since Project Pulp won't answer e-mails or update, but a worried that it would be a conflict of interests, so I've been hesistant.
Armand Rosamilia
Visit Carnifex Press for more information!
Freehold short stories:
"Dew Scented" Stalking Shadows anthology
The Freehold site is now up!
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nathan
Sage
Date Joined Mar 2006
Total Posts : 2122
| Posted 10/8/2006 10:02 AM (GMT -5) | |
Daniel said...More is better but if my local Smith's store will put it on their newstand or something I think that would be the best thing *** Spoken like a true novice. Retail distribution is the LAST thing any small or even medium sized pub needs!!
Well -- this is true. I am a complete marketing novice.
Armand: the chair is against the wall. Susie's dress is blue.
VIEW IMAGE"Writing the wet dreams of teenage boys" - Lindsey Llyod, Tangent Reviews
Tarantino himself has been forward and unapologetic about his influences. In a 1994 interview with Empire magazine, he said, "I steal from every single movie ever made. If people don't like that, then tough tills, don't go and see it, all right? I steal from everything. Great artists steal, they don't do homages." | | Back to Top | | |
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carnifexpress
Sage
Date Joined Feb 2005
Total Posts : 1314
| Posted 10/8/2006 9:23 AM (GMT -5) | |
nathan said.
To bad there isn't a Shocklines for S&S, or a Shcoklines just friendly to S&S/Heroic Fantasy.
Perhaps someday soon there will be....
Armand Rosamilia says cryptically
Visit Carnifex Press for more information!
Freehold short stories:
"Dew Scented" Stalking Shadows anthology
The Freehold site is now up!
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Dragon Angel
Lord Dragon
Date Joined Sep 2004
Total Posts : 1066
| Posted 10/7/2006 10:52 PM (GMT -5) | | | | |
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Daniel
Carl Jung's Waterboy
Date Joined Aug 2003
Total Posts : 4515
| Posted 10/7/2006 9:44 AM (GMT -5) |
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