Magazine thoughts.
My recent craving for excellent short fantasy fiction has, of course, reminded me of when I ran Scareship. Finances and time constraints mean I can't revive the magazine (or, more likely, start up a new one, with perhaps back issues of Scareship available on the future site) for at least a couple more years. But when I do it, I want to do it right. I will begin with some vague overall thoughts for now:
+ Most importantly, no more PDFs. Or rather, PDF will be one of several formats. People read on ebook readers, not computer screens. That means I have to learn how to create and format ebook editions.
+ With ebook formats comes the opportunity to hawk copies on Amazon or wherever else, for actual money. No more "have a copy for free but consider donating to the magazine." (Spoiler: no one will donate.) $2.99 for about a hundred pages of art and fiction seems more than reasonable, though the free market is rarely reasonable, so we'll see.
+ This in turn should permit actually paying authors -- at the very least a token rate, perhaps $20-30 a story, depending on how many copies I can move. I'm not good at sales, not at all, so most likely the payments will be closer to $5-10 a story, but I never did like taking people's stories for free, and I don't want to do it again.
+ I want to pay artists better rates, as well. I squeezed some amazing artwork for a pittance, and I don't feel good about it. I want interior illustrations as well, but that may be difficult to format.
+ The new magazine will not have science fiction. It will be exclusively fantasy, dark fantasy, and maybe fantastic horror (with a strict rule against Old Gods and ancient chthonic evils). I am interested in the whole gamut of fantasy, from fairy tales to urban fantasy to hard fantasy to high fantasy to science fantasy to the subtler stuff you find in Jeffrey Ford stories, but I've lost much of my taste for hard science fiction.
+ Between limiting the content I'm looking for, and having to pay money for stories, I expect to publish significantly fewer stories. Biannual publication seems likely, perhaps in spring and fall.
+ I must resist padding out the first issue (or subsequent issues) with my own hastily slapped together anonymous fiction. For one, that's unprofessional, and obvious should anyone think to Google, say, "Danny Ruiz-Espinoza" or "Mitch O'Donnell." (Which is not to say their careers or dead; I may find it amusing to publish ebooks under those names in the future.) For another, it's a damn lot of work for something that won't even bear my name. And I don't want to be one of those amateur editors publishing my own stories, under my name or an imaginary one.
+ Instead I must do the footwork and email authors, those whose fiction I enjoyed in the amateur and token-payment zines as well as poor suckers in MFA programs. I'll send feeler emails toward a few authors from the Scareship run, as well, assuming I haven't burned those bridges by abandoning that zine.
+ After a couple issues, when unsolicited submissions begin to trickle in, I must be prompt with replies. Which means no more struggling to compose diplomatic critiques in rejection emails. If I see promise, I'll offer feedback. Otherwise, strictly form rejections forever. No more getting backed up three months because I hate the thought of slogging through a particular story to offer tips that won't be heeded. Perhaps I'll set aside time once or twice a week to clear the inbox and force myself to keep things moving efficiently.
+ No more novellas. It's just too weird paying a token amount for fifty pages of story. If you put that much work into it, publish it on Amazon yourself. The new length guidelines will be something like "up to 25,000 words." I dunno.
+ At some point, I should come up with a new name or something for the magazine.
+ Most importantly, no more PDFs. Or rather, PDF will be one of several formats. People read on ebook readers, not computer screens. That means I have to learn how to create and format ebook editions.
+ With ebook formats comes the opportunity to hawk copies on Amazon or wherever else, for actual money. No more "have a copy for free but consider donating to the magazine." (Spoiler: no one will donate.) $2.99 for about a hundred pages of art and fiction seems more than reasonable, though the free market is rarely reasonable, so we'll see.
+ This in turn should permit actually paying authors -- at the very least a token rate, perhaps $20-30 a story, depending on how many copies I can move. I'm not good at sales, not at all, so most likely the payments will be closer to $5-10 a story, but I never did like taking people's stories for free, and I don't want to do it again.
+ I want to pay artists better rates, as well. I squeezed some amazing artwork for a pittance, and I don't feel good about it. I want interior illustrations as well, but that may be difficult to format.
+ The new magazine will not have science fiction. It will be exclusively fantasy, dark fantasy, and maybe fantastic horror (with a strict rule against Old Gods and ancient chthonic evils). I am interested in the whole gamut of fantasy, from fairy tales to urban fantasy to hard fantasy to high fantasy to science fantasy to the subtler stuff you find in Jeffrey Ford stories, but I've lost much of my taste for hard science fiction.
+ Between limiting the content I'm looking for, and having to pay money for stories, I expect to publish significantly fewer stories. Biannual publication seems likely, perhaps in spring and fall.
+ I must resist padding out the first issue (or subsequent issues) with my own hastily slapped together anonymous fiction. For one, that's unprofessional, and obvious should anyone think to Google, say, "Danny Ruiz-Espinoza" or "Mitch O'Donnell." (Which is not to say their careers or dead; I may find it amusing to publish ebooks under those names in the future.) For another, it's a damn lot of work for something that won't even bear my name. And I don't want to be one of those amateur editors publishing my own stories, under my name or an imaginary one.
+ Instead I must do the footwork and email authors, those whose fiction I enjoyed in the amateur and token-payment zines as well as poor suckers in MFA programs. I'll send feeler emails toward a few authors from the Scareship run, as well, assuming I haven't burned those bridges by abandoning that zine.
+ After a couple issues, when unsolicited submissions begin to trickle in, I must be prompt with replies. Which means no more struggling to compose diplomatic critiques in rejection emails. If I see promise, I'll offer feedback. Otherwise, strictly form rejections forever. No more getting backed up three months because I hate the thought of slogging through a particular story to offer tips that won't be heeded. Perhaps I'll set aside time once or twice a week to clear the inbox and force myself to keep things moving efficiently.
+ No more novellas. It's just too weird paying a token amount for fifty pages of story. If you put that much work into it, publish it on Amazon yourself. The new length guidelines will be something like "up to 25,000 words." I dunno.
+ At some point, I should come up with a new name or something for the magazine.