5 ms·

Publishing online is free so ignoring the printing, which is outdated anyway, where's the cost? Paying editors and writers? The article doesn't make it very cle

Publishing online is free so ignoring the printing, which is outdated anyway, where's the cost? Paying editors and writers? The article doesn't make it very clear.

toyg 5y ago
Publishing online isn't actually free if done professionally, but I would guess that indeed staffing costs are the biggest problem for most cultural endeavors.
dleslie 5y ago
And to wit: speculative fiction, fantasy, and horror periodicals are doing quite well. Asimov's, Analog, Clarkesworld, Lightspeed... Perhaps worth noting is that these failing literary magazines are tied to colleges? Perhaps without readily available student volunteers the magazines can't afford to operate.
- ghaff 5y ago
  >And to wit: speculative fiction, fantasy, and horror periodicals are doing quite well. Is that true? e.g. http://www.mcwetboy.com/mcwetlog/2007/10/the_decline_of_the_science_fiction_magazine.php http://www.mcwetboy.com/mcwetlog/2007/10/the_decline_of_the_...
  - dleslie 5y ago
    That's from 2007 and the magazines are still around; and since then, the digital marketplace for such magazines has grown. Enough to support a number of new magazines: https://weightlessbooks.com/category/format/subscription/ https://weightlessbooks.com/category/format/subscription/
    - ghaff 5y ago
      This more recent article suggests it's something of a mixed bag. Readership is doing pretty well but revenues aren't: https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamrowe1/2020/01/27/science-fiction-and-fantasy-magazines-in-2020-readership-is-healthy-but-revenues-arent/?sh=f2f6c404ef3f https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamrowe1/2020/01/27/science-fi... (Which I'm guessing means author pay isn't great either.)
      - dleslie 5y ago
        The original data is here: https://www.jasonsanford.com/blog/2019/12/sff2020-the-state-of-genre-magazines https://www.jasonsanford.com/blog/2019/12/sff2020-the-state-... The general take-away, it seems, is that genre readers are mostly a bunch of freeloaders; and more of them need to pony up some cash to compensate editors and authors for the enjoyment they're providing.
        ghaff 5y ago
        >genre readers are mostly a bunch of freeloaders That seems broadly true of web content generally. There's no shortage of content of various levels of quality and no shortage of readers. But it's hard to get people to actually pay.
- innocentoldguy 5y ago
  I graduated from college with a degree in English & Creative Writing, and wrote several stories for my college's literary magazine. Some were accepted and some were rejected. What I noticed after a short time was that everything I wrote that was about death, loss, oppression, and other negative topics was accepted and anything with a positive slant was rejected. I don't know about others, but I find a steady stream of downer stories boring and depressing. Since that was all they seemed to publish, I canceled my subscription. As you mentioned, it seems that certain literary magazines are still doing relatively well. Maybe if more literary magazines published things that people wanted to read, they'd be better off.
  - zebraflask 5y ago
    Funny you mention that. From my earlier comment, I run a lit zine, and we get tons of that stuff. Our journal explicitly rejects 99% of those submissions, just to stand out from the pack.
asoneth 5y ago
From the article: "The issue, of course, still lies in the money. Many of these smaller corners of the internet can't afford to pay writers, like a larger magazine with institutional funding can. And writers have to eat and pay bills, too."

Publishing online is free so ignoring the printing, which is outdated anyway, where's the cost? Paying editors and writers? The article doesn't make it very clear.

toyg 5y ago

Publishing online isn't actually free if done professionally, but I would guess that indeed staffing costs are the biggest problem for most cultural endeavors.

dleslie 5y ago

And to wit: speculative fiction, fantasy, and horror periodicals are doing quite well. Asimov's, Analog, Clarkesworld, Lightspeed... Perhaps worth noting is that these failing literary magazines are tied to colleges? Perhaps without readily available student volunteers the magazines can't afford to operate.

ghaff 5y ago
>And to wit: speculative fiction, fantasy, and horror periodicals are doing quite well. Is that true? e.g. http://www.mcwetboy.com/mcwetlog/2007/10/the_decline_of_the_science_fiction_magazine.php http://www.mcwetboy.com/mcwetlog/2007/10/the_decline_of_the_...
- dleslie 5y ago
  That's from 2007 and the magazines are still around; and since then, the digital marketplace for such magazines has grown. Enough to support a number of new magazines: https://weightlessbooks.com/category/format/subscription/ https://weightlessbooks.com/category/format/subscription/
  - ghaff 5y ago
    This more recent article suggests it's something of a mixed bag. Readership is doing pretty well but revenues aren't: https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamrowe1/2020/01/27/science-fiction-and-fantasy-magazines-in-2020-readership-is-healthy-but-revenues-arent/?sh=f2f6c404ef3f https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamrowe1/2020/01/27/science-fi... (Which I'm guessing means author pay isn't great either.)
    - dleslie 5y ago
      The original data is here: https://www.jasonsanford.com/blog/2019/12/sff2020-the-state-of-genre-magazines https://www.jasonsanford.com/blog/2019/12/sff2020-the-state-... The general take-away, it seems, is that genre readers are mostly a bunch of freeloaders; and more of them need to pony up some cash to compensate editors and authors for the enjoyment they're providing.
      - ghaff 5y ago
        >genre readers are mostly a bunch of freeloaders That seems broadly true of web content generally. There's no shortage of content of various levels of quality and no shortage of readers. But it's hard to get people to actually pay.
innocentoldguy 5y ago
I graduated from college with a degree in English & Creative Writing, and wrote several stories for my college's literary magazine. Some were accepted and some were rejected. What I noticed after a short time was that everything I wrote that was about death, loss, oppression, and other negative topics was accepted and anything with a positive slant was rejected. I don't know about others, but I find a steady stream of downer stories boring and depressing. Since that was all they seemed to publish, I canceled my subscription. As you mentioned, it seems that certain literary magazines are still doing relatively well. Maybe if more literary magazines published things that people wanted to read, they'd be better off.
- zebraflask 5y ago
  Funny you mention that. From my earlier comment, I run a lit zine, and we get tons of that stuff. Our journal explicitly rejects 99% of those submissions, just to stand out from the pack.

asoneth 5y ago

From the article: "The issue, of course, still lies in the money. Many of these smaller corners of the internet can't afford to pay writers, like a larger magazine with institutional funding can. And writers have to eat and pay bills, too."