An Economic Stimulus for the SF community
mabfan is going to like this:
I work in a library, and we stock a lot of magazines on the shelves. In the past few weeks, we've received word of some magazines going under and others (like Mad) cutting back the number of issues they'll be publishing. While I don't have any interest in reading a magazine like Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion (one of the ones that is going under), it still makes me feel sad to see a magazine end, especially when I think of the absence its loyal sufferers will be feeling.
The SF pulps have been in decline in the sales department for some time, even before the Great Darkness came upon us all onset of Great Depression II: The Wrath of WReaganomics. I don't know that I've even seen the pulps for sale outside of certain bookstores in recent years, whereas in the mid-1990's, I could still buy them in the grocery store or the local chemist. (Fifteen different Sudoku books seem to have replaced them in Walgreens.) I never really read the pulps as a kid -- and really should have, had the right people pointed me that way early on -- but I did take to buying the occasional issues of Analog and Fantasy & Science Fiction in the 1990's, in part to follow the beginnings of mabfan's writing career and in part to catch some occasional gems from the likes of David Gerrold (it was in F&SF that I first discovered "The Martian Child", and I still have the issue preserved in a ziploc bag on The Gerrold Shelf). In the later 90's, as I became more wrapped up in my now defunct teaching career, I found little time to read and stopped buying them. And now I regret that quite a bit.
In the meantime, as David Gerrold and other SF greats have noted in their own blogs and elsewhere, it's getting harder to find buyers for literary SF. The trend seems to be towards umpteen-book series (and if tied into a popular TV show and the author is willing to work for peanuts, even better), fantasy, vampires (Anne Rice, Joss Whedon, and Stephenie Rice all share a bit of blame there, I think -- criminy, even the number of vampire-themed lame Romance paperbacks I have to shelve these days!), or preferably some combination thereof that can be bought on the cheap by the publisher.
I have to admit that while I do like to read a good SF novel (and really have no patience anymore for bad ones -- and never had patience for fantasy), there is something about the short form that I really admire. As busy as my life can get now, it's nice to be able to settle down with something short. And the short form can really lend itself to thoughtful and powerful exploration of a single concept or a single character, without getting bogged down in "all those endless gravel quarries" of a multi-novel series. I have a few collections of really old, classic SF short form stories, and I love 'em. There have been some real gems in the past twenty years as well, though with the declining interest in pulps, a lot of people just aren't seeing these anymore. Even me, as it's turning out...
Slashdot is reporting on the demise of Realms of Fantasy, and upon Fantasy & Science Fiction's recent decision to cut back to six (albeit thicker) issues per year.
Well, despite the flagging economy, Dr K and I aren't doing so badly these days, considering she's finally finally finally done with being a student after, you know, thirty-odd years, and she's making real money. I've let a lot of magazine subscriptions slide over the years, either due to not being able to afford them or just not being able to afford the time to read them.
But, you know, after reading the Slashdot story, I figured it was time for a small economic stimulus package of my own. I just fired off two-year subscription requests to both Analog and SF&F. (Yes, I realize there is Asimov's as well, but these are the two I always enjoyed reading before.)
And, hey, not long ago, after a nearly five year absence from buying from them, I started ordering Doctor Who [etc] audios from Big Finish again. I started listening to the first episode of the first series of Gallifrey this morning and have three seasons waiting for me. I also have Dalek Empire III and IV and the Davros box set audios to look forward to. I hope to start catching up on the 50 or 60 audios in the regular DW series I'm behind on soon. My last subscription ran out at "Axis of Insanity", and I want to work forward progressively from there.
I'm also thinking about contributing a few things to CONvergence's silent auction this year.
So, who's with me?
I work in a library, and we stock a lot of magazines on the shelves. In the past few weeks, we've received word of some magazines going under and others (like Mad) cutting back the number of issues they'll be publishing. While I don't have any interest in reading a magazine like Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion (one of the ones that is going under), it still makes me feel sad to see a magazine end, especially when I think of the absence its loyal sufferers will be feeling.
The SF pulps have been in decline in the sales department for some time, even before the Great Darkness came upon us all onset of Great Depression II: The Wrath of WReaganomics. I don't know that I've even seen the pulps for sale outside of certain bookstores in recent years, whereas in the mid-1990's, I could still buy them in the grocery store or the local chemist. (Fifteen different Sudoku books seem to have replaced them in Walgreens.) I never really read the pulps as a kid -- and really should have, had the right people pointed me that way early on -- but I did take to buying the occasional issues of Analog and Fantasy & Science Fiction in the 1990's, in part to follow the beginnings of mabfan's writing career and in part to catch some occasional gems from the likes of David Gerrold (it was in F&SF that I first discovered "The Martian Child", and I still have the issue preserved in a ziploc bag on The Gerrold Shelf). In the later 90's, as I became more wrapped up in my now defunct teaching career, I found little time to read and stopped buying them. And now I regret that quite a bit.
In the meantime, as David Gerrold and other SF greats have noted in their own blogs and elsewhere, it's getting harder to find buyers for literary SF. The trend seems to be towards umpteen-book series (and if tied into a popular TV show and the author is willing to work for peanuts, even better), fantasy, vampires (Anne Rice, Joss Whedon, and Stephenie Rice all share a bit of blame there, I think -- criminy, even the number of vampire-themed lame Romance paperbacks I have to shelve these days!), or preferably some combination thereof that can be bought on the cheap by the publisher.
I have to admit that while I do like to read a good SF novel (and really have no patience anymore for bad ones -- and never had patience for fantasy), there is something about the short form that I really admire. As busy as my life can get now, it's nice to be able to settle down with something short. And the short form can really lend itself to thoughtful and powerful exploration of a single concept or a single character, without getting bogged down in "all those endless gravel quarries" of a multi-novel series. I have a few collections of really old, classic SF short form stories, and I love 'em. There have been some real gems in the past twenty years as well, though with the declining interest in pulps, a lot of people just aren't seeing these anymore. Even me, as it's turning out...
Slashdot is reporting on the demise of Realms of Fantasy, and upon Fantasy & Science Fiction's recent decision to cut back to six (albeit thicker) issues per year.
Well, despite the flagging economy, Dr K and I aren't doing so badly these days, considering she's finally finally finally done with being a student after, you know, thirty-odd years, and she's making real money. I've let a lot of magazine subscriptions slide over the years, either due to not being able to afford them or just not being able to afford the time to read them.
But, you know, after reading the Slashdot story, I figured it was time for a small economic stimulus package of my own. I just fired off two-year subscription requests to both Analog and SF&F. (Yes, I realize there is Asimov's as well, but these are the two I always enjoyed reading before.)
And, hey, not long ago, after a nearly five year absence from buying from them, I started ordering Doctor Who [etc] audios from Big Finish again. I started listening to the first episode of the first series of Gallifrey this morning and have three seasons waiting for me. I also have Dalek Empire III and IV and the Davros box set audios to look forward to. I hope to start catching up on the 50 or 60 audios in the regular DW series I'm behind on soon. My last subscription ran out at "Axis of Insanity", and I want to work forward progressively from there.
I'm also thinking about contributing a few things to CONvergence's silent auction this year.
So, who's with me?