New Editing project and a plea Doctor Fantastique's
So, while I was away a few interesting things happened.
Due to circumstances beyond anyone’s control, Drollerie Press closed this fall, thus ending my editorship of its LGBTQ imprint before it really got off the ground. But happily, this isn’t the end of me editing longer works of all things LGBTQ speculative fiction. Publisher Matt Delman has graciously invited me to continue the work I was trying to do over at Doctor Fantastique’s Show of Wonders. The imprint is called Fantastique Gearworks, and we specialize in LGBTQ steampunk novels and novellas--or, well, more broadly, if it dabbles in any -punk genre, we’re interested, and our first reading period is going on now: .
But I’m not making this post to promote my work over there, not really--even though I would love to get some submissions to my slush readers (hint, hint).
I’m posting instead about the Kickstarter campaign that Doctor Fantastique’s will be running until November 23.
Doctor Fantastique’s Show of Wonders is, first and foremost, a magazine about everything steampunk. And when I say everything, I’m not joking. Past issues have included con reports, articles about steampunk travel destinations in the USA, interviews with costumers, and, of course, stories-stand alones and serials (because let’s be honest; what’s a steampunk magazine without serial fiction?)
Or, as Matt puts it:
"Imagine, if you will, a Victorian-style magazine published with 21st Century technology. A similar type of paper, a similar format of type, and the most incredible coverage of Steampunk in the United States, Canada, and abroad that you can find."
And here’s the thing: we’d like to grow our project while making it more affordable to the people who want to read it. To do this, Matt has set up a Kickstarter page. The problem, though, is that we need $12,000 to pull this off--and with less than 30 days to go, we have about $1,000.
Now, I know that steampunk is bigger right now than the Beatles among genre people and fandom, so it’s understandable to ask: Why do we need another steampunk publication? Well, gentle reader. Because there isn’t anything quite like this one out there, in terms of comprehensiveness or diversity. Matt and I, and everyone else on staff at Doctor Fantastique’s is not only committed to making this magazine wonderful, we also want to make it reflect the diversity of the steampunk community--meaning that we encourage fiction and non-fiction submissions by and about people of color, people living with disabilities, LGBTQ people, and other marginalized and mis- or under/un-represented identities. We also recognize and celebrate the fact that steampunk isn’t a US/UK only movement with Canada and Australia participating every so often. We want to know about, write about, and publish pieces about steampunk from all over the world, because we know and believe that steampunk isn’t just Victorian recreationism (and thank God for that).
OK. So why do we need $12,000? I’ll let Matt explain again. I know this is kind of long, but please read it through. It really is a better explanation than I can give you, seeing as, well, I don’t own the company and don’t handle the printing.
From the Kickstarter page, then:
"Doctor Fantastique's Show of Wonders magazine has as its mission statement "Reporting on the Steampunk world, one cog at a time." So far we've done that through website updates, and recently through a print-on-demand print magazine. We've met with some success doing this, but there are a few major problems with doing a POD magazine:
"The price is $15 per issue, with $17.63 being the real cost when you figure in shipping.
"We can't offer subscriptions, which means people have to spend $17.63 every single time they want a copy.
"We're limited when it comes to various back-end aspects of the magazine, which includes colors, paper quality, paper type, and so much more.
"What we want to do is take the magazine to a traditional offset press. This will allow us to do a LOT of very, very exciting things with the magazine. Imagine if you will a traditional Victorian magazine, one that readers in New York City or London of the 1890s would enjoy off the newsstand. Now take that same magazine and have it covering a subculture which seeks to emulate the optimism of that period.
"Suffice to say, we want to create the new Doctor Fantastique's Show of Wonders magazine as a Victorian magazine using the same or similar types of paper, similar typeface, and be able to offer things like subscriptions, single issues for sale at US$6.99/CD$8.99 as opposed to $17.63, and be able to sell these to you at conventions as well as other Steampunk events.
"We want to take the magazine to offset in order to make a better product for you, the fans of Steampunk. In order to do that though, we need your financial support. We're running on a shoestring budget as it is, and though we're offering subscriptions on our website right now, we want to offer another way for you to support our mission.
For anyone going "tl;dr" right now: If we raise the money, we can go to offset printing, which lets us do more, and makes the magazine higher in quality, and lets people who want it get it for nearly $10 USD less. And we really want to do that, believe me.
If I’ve piqued your curiosity, please consider checking out our Kickstarter page. Donations start at just $1, and you get lots of awesome prizes the more you donate. I mean, folks: $10 gets you a free business card-size advertisement in the magazine, and $25 gets you a hand-painted pin. This is some good stuff.
Whether you can or want to donate or not, please consider helping us spread the word on LJ, Dreamwidth, tumblr, Facebook, and especially Twitter. Folks, I really want Doctor Fantastique’s to take off and do great things for the community, and with a little help, I know we can.
Due to circumstances beyond anyone’s control, Drollerie Press closed this fall, thus ending my editorship of its LGBTQ imprint before it really got off the ground. But happily, this isn’t the end of me editing longer works of all things LGBTQ speculative fiction. Publisher Matt Delman has graciously invited me to continue the work I was trying to do over at Doctor Fantastique’s Show of Wonders. The imprint is called Fantastique Gearworks, and we specialize in LGBTQ steampunk novels and novellas--or, well, more broadly, if it dabbles in any -punk genre, we’re interested, and our first reading period is going on now: .
But I’m not making this post to promote my work over there, not really--even though I would love to get some submissions to my slush readers (hint, hint).
I’m posting instead about the Kickstarter campaign that Doctor Fantastique’s will be running until November 23.
Doctor Fantastique’s Show of Wonders is, first and foremost, a magazine about everything steampunk. And when I say everything, I’m not joking. Past issues have included con reports, articles about steampunk travel destinations in the USA, interviews with costumers, and, of course, stories-stand alones and serials (because let’s be honest; what’s a steampunk magazine without serial fiction?)
Or, as Matt puts it:
"Imagine, if you will, a Victorian-style magazine published with 21st Century technology. A similar type of paper, a similar format of type, and the most incredible coverage of Steampunk in the United States, Canada, and abroad that you can find."
And here’s the thing: we’d like to grow our project while making it more affordable to the people who want to read it. To do this, Matt has set up a Kickstarter page. The problem, though, is that we need $12,000 to pull this off--and with less than 30 days to go, we have about $1,000.
Now, I know that steampunk is bigger right now than the Beatles among genre people and fandom, so it’s understandable to ask: Why do we need another steampunk publication? Well, gentle reader. Because there isn’t anything quite like this one out there, in terms of comprehensiveness or diversity. Matt and I, and everyone else on staff at Doctor Fantastique’s is not only committed to making this magazine wonderful, we also want to make it reflect the diversity of the steampunk community--meaning that we encourage fiction and non-fiction submissions by and about people of color, people living with disabilities, LGBTQ people, and other marginalized and mis- or under/un-represented identities. We also recognize and celebrate the fact that steampunk isn’t a US/UK only movement with Canada and Australia participating every so often. We want to know about, write about, and publish pieces about steampunk from all over the world, because we know and believe that steampunk isn’t just Victorian recreationism (and thank God for that).
OK. So why do we need $12,000? I’ll let Matt explain again. I know this is kind of long, but please read it through. It really is a better explanation than I can give you, seeing as, well, I don’t own the company and don’t handle the printing.
From the Kickstarter page, then:
"Doctor Fantastique's Show of Wonders magazine has as its mission statement "Reporting on the Steampunk world, one cog at a time." So far we've done that through website updates, and recently through a print-on-demand print magazine. We've met with some success doing this, but there are a few major problems with doing a POD magazine:
"The price is $15 per issue, with $17.63 being the real cost when you figure in shipping.
"We can't offer subscriptions, which means people have to spend $17.63 every single time they want a copy.
"We're limited when it comes to various back-end aspects of the magazine, which includes colors, paper quality, paper type, and so much more.
"What we want to do is take the magazine to a traditional offset press. This will allow us to do a LOT of very, very exciting things with the magazine. Imagine if you will a traditional Victorian magazine, one that readers in New York City or London of the 1890s would enjoy off the newsstand. Now take that same magazine and have it covering a subculture which seeks to emulate the optimism of that period.
"Suffice to say, we want to create the new Doctor Fantastique's Show of Wonders magazine as a Victorian magazine using the same or similar types of paper, similar typeface, and be able to offer things like subscriptions, single issues for sale at US$6.99/CD$8.99 as opposed to $17.63, and be able to sell these to you at conventions as well as other Steampunk events.
"We want to take the magazine to offset in order to make a better product for you, the fans of Steampunk. In order to do that though, we need your financial support. We're running on a shoestring budget as it is, and though we're offering subscriptions on our website right now, we want to offer another way for you to support our mission.
For anyone going "tl;dr" right now: If we raise the money, we can go to offset printing, which lets us do more, and makes the magazine higher in quality, and lets people who want it get it for nearly $10 USD less. And we really want to do that, believe me.
If I’ve piqued your curiosity, please consider checking out our Kickstarter page. Donations start at just $1, and you get lots of awesome prizes the more you donate. I mean, folks: $10 gets you a free business card-size advertisement in the magazine, and $25 gets you a hand-painted pin. This is some good stuff.
Whether you can or want to donate or not, please consider helping us spread the word on LJ, Dreamwidth, tumblr, Facebook, and especially Twitter. Folks, I really want Doctor Fantastique’s to take off and do great things for the community, and with a little help, I know we can.