Year-in-Review: 2018 Magazine Summary
We are mixing it up a little this year. The following sections are sorted by Hugo Eligibility: Professional, Semiprozine, etc., and by the SFWA qualifying standard for pay rate, then sorted loosely by pay rate and amount of fiction published. We covered 70 magazines, 14 audio sites, and nine critical magazines.
The short fiction market held strong through 2018, with more new voices, more inclusivity, and more translations than we’ve seen in the past. We added a few markets to our summary, both online and print, and lost a few. Online magazines experimented with print editions, some with success, others not so much; the general trend was toward increased digital distribution. We asked publishers in which Hugo category they would place, and have included the information provided this year (or last year) in brackets at the end of each write up; if not provided, we used the data from <semiprozine.org> or our best determination.
The big print-first magazines that we count for our charts went down a bit in numbers this year, due to a brief hiatus at Black Static & Interzone. We use the Statement of Ownership, required for use of a periodical permit, plus numbers as provided, to get subscriber and newsstand sales, though this becomes less meaningful as digital numbers increase. We have included print-plus-digital circulation figures for Analog, Asimov’s, and Locus wrapped into subscription numbers, keeping sell-through number just for print (since there are no digital returns). There is no digital circulation information from F&SF.
PROFESSIONAL PRINT MAGAZINES
Analog, <www.analogsf.com>, had 11,401 print subscriptions and 8,788 digital, for a total of 20,189 subscriptions, up quite a bit from last year’s 18,278. Newsstand sales were 2,880, up from 2,711. Paid circulation went up 9.9%; sell-through was 39%, up from last year’s 38%.
Analog produced six tall, digest-size double issues with 208 pages each. Cover price was $7.99. There were three serial installments of a novel, four novellas, 20 novelettes, 63 short stories, six “Science Fact” pieces, and five “Probability Zero” pieces, for a total of 88 pieces of fiction (as compared to last year’s 100), plus 12 poems. Covers were of good quality and included a beautifully painted scene of two astronauts wrestling a nebula into a golden container, a decaying purple space station, and a pulp-inspired depiction of a space goddess playing with a planet. Editor Trevor Quachri said, “The big plans for 2019 are actually going to kick off at the very end of the year, when the January/February 2020 issue goes on sale – 2020 is Analog/Astounding’s 90th anniversary!” Analog paid 8-10 cents per word for short fiction, and 6 cents per word for serials. [Professional]
Asimov’s, <www.asimovs.com>, had 7,109 print subscriptions and 10,578 digital subscriptions for a total of 17,697, up quite a bit from 15,782 last year. Newsstand sales were 2,265, up from 2,261, at 35% sell-through, down from last year’s 39%. Total paid circulation went up 10.6%.
Asimov’s produced six tall, digest-size double issues with 208 pages each. There were 11 novellas, 22 novelettes, and 33 short stories, for 66 pieces of fiction, plus 36 poems. Cover price was $7.99. Covers were good quality, including an astronaut falling through a crystalline surface, a striking purple-and-green spacescape, and a pensive detective in front of a swirling fiery London. Editor Sheila Williams said, “Newcomer S. Qiouyi Lu gave us the inventive and bittersweet ‘Mother Tongues’. Cadwell Turnbull’s ‘When the Rains Come Back’ combined economic theory and climate upheaval, and in his first appearance in Asimov’s, Cixin Liu gave us a relentlessly paced tale about art gone catastrophically wrong. We had terrific selections from Rachel Swirsky & Trace Yulie, Suzanne Palmer, Ray Nayler, Mary Robinette Kowal, Dale Bailey, William Ledbetter, David Erik Nelson, Derek Künsken, Ian R. MacLeod, Greg Egan, David Gerrold & Ctein, and many others. Long-time contributors like Allen M. Steele, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Robert Reed, Rick Wilber, and Alan Smale continued to pen thrilling page turners and, with his first fiction sale, Zack Be plunged us into a terrifying narrative.” Asimov’s paid 8-10 cents per word. [Professional]
F&SF, <www.sfsite.com/fsf>, showed subscription numbers of 6,688 in its Statement of Ownership, down from 6,935 the prior year, with 2,652 copies sold on newsstands and sell-through of 35%. Paid circulation was up 1.5%. It’s hard to know how well the magazine is doing overall, since digital figures were not available.
F&SF produced six digest-size double issues with 258 pages each: three novellas, 21 novelettes, and 39 short stories for 63 pieces of fiction, up from 61 last year, plus seven poems. Cover price was $8.99. Cover art included a faun serenading a fantasy group, a misty landscape lit by a moon resembling a skull, an astronaut braving solar flares, and a 3D digital render of a futuristic cyborg wearing a headdress.
Gordon Van Gelder was publisher; C.C. Finlay was editor. Finlay noted that five stories from F&SF made awards lists in 2018, including “The Hermit of Houston” by Samuel R. Delany (Sept/Oct) which “won the Locus Award for Best Novelette (our first Locus Award in 18 years). And ‘The Regression Test’ by Wole Talabi (Jan/Feb) won the Nommo Award for Best Short Story, given by the African Speculative Fiction Society.” F&SF was a finalist for the Locus Award for Best Magazine; Finlay was a finalist for Best Editor and a World Fantasy finalist for Special Award, Professional, and publisher Van Gelder was a World Fantasy guest of honor.
Finlay said, “Thirteen stories from 2017 issues of F&SF were reprinted 20 times in 10 different 2018 Year’s Best collections…. Jerry Oltion took over the Science Column after Paul Doherty’s untimely passing last year. We also note with sadness the passing of Harlan Ellison, who had been F&SF‘s Film Editor for several decades, and whose ‘Harlan Ellison’s Watching’ column in the magazine (1984-1995) changed the way people did film and television criticism for genre work. We haven’t named a new senior film editor yet because, really, who can replace Harlan?
“F&SF will be celebrating its 70th anniversary in 2019, and we’ll be doing a special issue to mark the occasion in September/October. We already have new stories lined up by Michael Moorcock (his first appearance in F&SF), Gardner Dozois (the last thing he submitted to us just before passing away this year), Paolo Bacigalupi, and Elizabeth Bear.” Pay rate was 7-12 cents a word. [Professional]
Locus, <locusmag.com>, we list here since we are professional and have Statement of Ownership numbers in the charts, although we also qualify as Related Work.
Locus celebrated its 50th anniversary in April, with a number of letters from authors and a gorgeous cover. Paid circulation was up 2.2% in 2018. Sell-through was 42%, down from 47% last year, but Ingram increased their order and we hadn’t seen returns from them, which means the numbers may have been artificially inflated for last year. Subscription numbers were 2,992, up from 2,820 last year.
The cover price remained $7.50 for print and $5.50 for digital. Issues included reviews, news, convention coverage, listings, international reports, special features, interviews with new and established authors, Spotlights, and regular commentary from Cory Doctorow and Kameron Hurley on alternating months.
We ran 541 reviews of SF, fantasy, horror, and YA fiction, up from 525 last year, including 217 reviews from short fiction venues; in addition there were 27 reviews of notable audiobooks. There were four Spotlight features on publishers and writers. Convention coverage included Worldcon, World Fantasy, Readercon, StokerCon, the Nebula Awards Weekend, WisCon, Norwescon, the Locus Awards, ICFA, the Williamson Lectureship, Arisia, etc., plus international conventions ICon in Israel, Estcon in Estonia, various events in China, and international reports on Ukraine, Scotland, and Brazil. There was a special feature on SF in Israel in the November issue, with an introduction and interviews with six authors conducted by Sheldon Teitelbaum. Design editor Francesca Myman created art for seven covers, including a pencil portrait of Ursula K. Le Guin, a carnivorous hummingbird, a cyborg astronaut, a dreaming woman suspended in a blue crystal, and others. Stephen H. Segal designed five covers, including a glowing digital tree, a line-art shark, a flaming fist, and more. Gardner Dozois’s final Gardnerspace column ran in the June issue, ten years after its debut in 2008 and a month after his death on May 27, 2018. Gardner was a lively and deeply knowledgeable part of the SF/F community and is sorely missed. Karen Burnham debuted as the new short fiction reviewer with the August issue. Divers Hands added new occasional reviewers Katharine Coldiron, Lila Garrott, Adam Roberts, and Ian Mond.
Liza Groen Trombi was editor-in-chief; Kirsten Gong-Wong was managing editor. The site had an average of 109,700 unique visitors per month, up from 101,100 last year, and over a million hits. [Professional/Related Work]
Galaxy’s Edge, edited by Mike Resnick and published by Shahid Mahmud, produced six issues between 97-113 pages, 19 x 24.5 cm perfect bound, with b&w interiors on book print and color matte covers ranging from futuristic cityscapes to winged warrior demons, with 77 works of short fiction, four serial installments, and 20 pieces of non-fiction. Numbers held steady with 7,000 average unique monthly website visitors, 450 subscriptions, and retail sales of about 300 per month. Print cover price was $6.99, ebook $4.99. Fiction was available simultaneously free online and for purchase at <www.galaxysedge.com>. Pay rate was $.07/word for new fiction. [Professional]
Fiction River, <www.fictionriver.com>, an “original anthology magazine,” produced four tall, digest-size regular issues from 271-287 pages and one special 296-page issue, perfect bound with glossy color covers and b&w interiors, with 75 pieces of fiction. Themes included “Wishes”, “Superpowers”, “Pulse Pounders: Countdown”, etc. Series editors were Kristine Kathryn Rusch & Dean Wesley Smith. According to publisher Allyson Longueira, “Fiction River has launched the careers of several up-and-coming authors, including Sharon Joss (Writers of the Future Golden Pen Award winner).” Cover price was $15.99. Pay rate was $.06/word and up. [Professional]
Fiction River Presents and Smith’s Monthly were on hiatus this year while WMG Publishing focused on the relaunch of Pulphouse, <pulphousemagazine.com>. We saw four perfect-bound, 17.5 cm x 25.5 cm issues of Pulphouse, from 142-194 pages, with glossy color covers ranging from a giant kitten head to a pensive woman on a boat, with one novelette and 63 short stories. The first Issue, #0, is entirely reprints from the original 1987-1996 tenure of the magazine. Issues #1-#3 are about half reprint, half new. Cover price was $7.99. Pay rate was $.06/word and up for original stories. [Professional]
Apex, <www.apex-magazine.com>, previously online only, launched monthly print editions starting January 2018, perfect-bound, 14 x 21.5 cm, 88-150 pages. Glossy color covers featured a variety of high-quality art: horse demons, cyborg aliens, and fantasy portraits. Print run was 150. Publisher and editor-in-chief Jason Sizemore said the print edition “barely broke even” and announced his decision to discontinue the print experiment after 12 issues. There were 57 stories and two excerpts, 11 poems, 38 essays and other pieces of non-fiction, and 25 interviews. According to Sizemore, “The site saw a 35% increase in traffic from 2017 to 2018. We received an average of 20,500 unique month visitors. Our subscriber base grew by 118 to 1,510.” The magazine was available for $8.00 in print, free online, and in ebook for $2.99. Pay rate was $.06/word. [Professional]
SEMIPROZINE PRINT
These are our semiprozine print fiction venues, this year mostly not qualifying SFWA markets. Don’t miss reading about the fiction podcasts, which are categorized under audio. Several are qualifying markets.
Interzone and Black Static, <www.ttapress.com>, from TTA Press are two respected genre UK publications. Both venues skipped Jan/Feb issues this year, in a brief hiatus for Andy Cox, who edits both.
Interzone had five bimonthly issues, 17 x 24 cm, perfect bound, with 96 pages and a glossy color cover; interiors were color on uncoated stock. There were 23 short stories and eight novelettes for 31 total pieces of fiction, down from last year’s 33, plus book and film reviews and other non-fiction. Covers by Vince Haig were eerie and sometimes playful scenes including suspended faceless figures, a tentacle-beleagured house, and a dog observing luminous atmospheric phenomena. Cover price was £5.99. [Semiprozine]
There were five issues of Black Static, 17 x 24 cm, perfect bound, with 96 pages and a glossy color cover; interiors were b&w. One novella, seven novelettes, and 20 short stories added up to 28 pieces of fiction, down from 33 last year, plus reviews and other non-fiction. Covers were of good quality. Cover price was £5.99. TTA remains one of the few fiction markets that does not post pay rates. [Semiprozine]
The three issues of On Spec, <onspecmag.wordpress.com>, a Canadian print digest, 104-130 pages, perfect bound, included 21 stories, five poems, and assorted non-fiction. The semi-gloss covers ranged from a biomechanical spaceship to a psychedelic depiction of amoeba-like alien organisms. Print run was 550-600, with 400 subscribers, with digital subscriptions on Weightless. Diane L. Walton was managing editor, and The Copper Pig Writers’ Society was publisher. Walton said, “We provide copies to be used as promotional giveaways at Alberta Magazine Publishers Association (AMPA) events and library conferences…. Our newest initiative is to form a working group of Alberta Literary magazines and try cross-promotion activities with them.” Cover price was C$6.95. Pay rates ran from C$.03 to C$.125/word. [Semiprozine]
Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, <smallbeerpress.com/lcrw>, produced two saddle-stitched, oversize chapbooks, with b&w covers and interiors, each 60 pages, with 12 short stories and 11 poems. Print subscriptions fell to 180 from 240; ebook subscriptions dropped to 70 from 350 after a bonus offer ran out. Co-editors were Gavin J. Grant & Kelly Link. Grant says, “Print runs are 800 and the bookstore sell-through continues to be 100%.” Cover price was $5.00. Pay rate was $.03/word, $25 minimum and $10 per poem. [Semiprozine]
Space and Time, <www.spaceandtimemagazine.com>, produced three full-sized issues, 44-48 pages, b&w with glossy color covers, with 21 stories, 26 poems, and 10 pieces of non-fiction. Editor-in-chief Hildy Silverman said, “Just when I thought we were at the end of the line… Space and Time lives! A formal announcement about the relaunch of the magazine under a new publisher is forthcoming in early 2019.” Total print run was around 2,000, with 100 print and e-subscribers, up from 75. Cover price was $6.00. Pay rate was $.01/word, $5.00 per poem. [Semiprozine]
Shoreline of Infinity, based out of Scotland, published 40 stories, 18 poems, and some non-fiction in three regular issues from 136-138 pages and one special issue for the Edinburgh International Book Festival at 192 pages, all perfect bound, digest-sized with b&w interiors and glossy color covers. The magazine won the 2018 British Fantasy Award for best magazine/periodical. Editor Noel Chidwick said, “The crowning glory was receiving the BFS award…. This led to an interview on Radio Scotland, providing a platform for Shoreline of Infinity across Scotland. In 2019 we are working with CYMERA – Scotland’s first science fiction, fantasy, and horror writing festival – a weekend event in Edinburgh that celebrates the best in genre writing.” Pippa Goldschmidt, Caroline Grebbell & Monica Burns guest-edited a women-only issue in Spring 2018 “featuring Aliette de Bodard and articles looking at women and SF.” Print run was 175, with print sales to bookshops through distributors growing via POD. Regular issue price was £2.60 digital/£5.75 print, special issue was £3.50 digital/£9.95 print. Subscriber base was 60, with 3,600 average unique website visitors monthly. Pay rate was £10/1,000 words. [Semiprozine]
Science Fiction Trails, <www.steampunktrails.blogspot.com>, published one print issue, full-sized and perfect bound, 88 pages with eight original weird Western science fiction stories and a glossy color cover of a cyborg cowboy taking a selfie. According to editor and publisher David B. Riley, “Science Fiction Trails has seen a flat year in terms of sales. We are a semiprozine selling about 300 copies: half of that is in print and the other half is an ebook.” Pay was $25 per piece. Cover price was $6.95, up from $6.50. [Semiprozine]
Bourbon Penn, <www.bourbonpenn.com>, published 12 “highly imaginative stories with a healthy dose of the odd” online, in ebook, and in two perfect-bound issues, 12.75 x 20 cm, with a color, glossy cover and b&w interior. Editor Erik Secker said, “We’re always eager to see weird stories that defy expectations, and we’d also love to see more absurdity in our weird.” There were around 100 print sales, 60 digital, and 600 average monthly unique website visitors (1,000 on issue launch months). Print cover price was $9.95; ebook was $2.99. Pay rate was $.01/word. [Semiprozine]
We saw four print issues of Into the Ruins, <intotheruins.com>, perfect bound with b&w interiors and glossy color covers of painted landscapes, from 106-108 pages, with 22 short stories, some non-fiction, and a graphic story. Editor was Joel Caris, who said, “The magazine continues to develop the nascent sub-genre of deindustrial science fiction, with stories focused on realistic futures defined by the continuing effects of declining energy and resource bases, climate change, political and economic dysfunction, and ecological degradation.” Into the Ruins was available at <payhip.com/figurationpress> and Amazon. Average circulation was 241, mostly print subscribers with some digital-only and newsstand sales. Cover price was $12 for print, $7.50 digital. Pay rate was $.005/word and copy. [Semiprozine]
We saw two issues of Alien Dimensions, <aliendimensions.com>, perfect bound, 15 x 23 cm, 92-96 pages, with glossy color covers of space scenes and b&w interiors, including 16 SF, fantasy, and metaphysical short stories and four novel excerpts. The magazine was available in ebook and POD through Amazon. Cover price increased from $6.95 to $7.95. Pay rate was $10 per story. [Semiprozine]
We saw one issue of Aliterate: A Journal of Literary Genre Fiction, <www.aliterate.org>, from non-profit Genre, Ltd., perfect bound, 155 pages, 14 x 21.5 cm, with b&w interior and a glossy color cover of aliens meeting an intrepid explorer, nine short stories, and one essay. R.S. Mason was managing editor, with editorial team Brendan Hickey, Alicia Kort, Emilio T. Jasso, and Joshua Pevner. Cover price was $12.00. Pay rate was $.06/word. [Not yet eligible]
Lontar: The Journal of Southeast Asian Speculative Fiction, <www.lontarjournal.com>, produced its final issue in 2018, 16.5 x 21.5 cm, perfect bound, double-sized at 280 pages, with a retro color cover of a floating alien doll head. The issue included 13 short stories, one installment of a serialized novel, and 20 poems. Founding editor Jason Erik Lundberg said, “Lontar issue #10, which was released in May 2018, was our final issue, and the only issue that came out this year. It was a double-sized issue, because I wanted the journal to go out with a bang, and I am extraordinarily proud of it.” Print run was 500 copies, with around 50 subscribers and 80 Patreon supporters. Cover price was SGD$18.90. Pay rate for stories was SGD$30. [Semiprozine]
We saw one issue of Neo-opsis, <www.neo-opsis.ca>, 80 pages, digest-sized, with seven stories, two poems, and assorted non-fiction, smooth book print inside, with a semi-gloss color cover. Editor was Karl Johanson. Print run remained flat at 1,000, with 125 subscribers, up from 100, a bookstore distribution of 425 with 42% sell-through, and 40 other assorted issue sales. Cover price was C$9.00. Fiction pay rate was C$.025/word, capping at $125. [Semiprozine]
For poetry, we received three issues of Dreams & Nightmares, <www.dreamsandnightmaresmagazine.com>, priced at $5.00 with 61 poems total. Print run was 140, with a subscriber base of 88. Editor David Kopaska-Merkel said, “This year I was thrilled to get a submission from Nina Kiriki Hoffman, whose fiction I like very much. Her flash story appears in issue 110.” Pay rate was $12 plus two copies. [Semiprozine]
Star*Line, <www.sfpoetry.com/starline.html>, the journal of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association, produced four issues priced at $5.00, with 362 poems total. The print run was 300 copies with a distribution of 350, and PDF memberships and subscriptions were available. Pay for poetry was $.03/word, minimum of $3. Editor was Vince Gotera. The SFPA also published 80 poems in Eye to the Telescope, a quarterly online speculative poetry journal with a different theme and editor each issue: <www.eyetothetelescope.org/about.html>. The SFPA celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2018. [Semiprozine]
Veterans Cemetery Dance and Phantom Drift both experienced production delays, with their single issues delayed till early 2019. We saw two issues of Pulp Literature, one issue of f(r)iction, and one issue of Stonecoast Review, all genre-straddling publications of high quality that embrace SF and fantasy alongside literary and other genres. We also saw three issues of new pulp-style magazine Black Infinity, and one issue each of Weirdbook, Faerie Magazine, and Occult Detective Quarterly.
ONLINE MAGAZINES, FICTION SITES, PODCASTS
PROFESSIONAL DIGITAL
Tor.com, under the Macmillan umbrella, published just under 30 short stories and novelettes (down from the prior year’s 40), as well as artwork, non-fiction, and more. Associate publisher Irene Gallo said, “2018 was Tor.com‘s tenth year…. It’s been such an privilege to work with everyone involved and of course the authors are the heart of the site.”
Gallo reported one million unique visitors per month, noting, “A few highlights include Daryl Gregory’s beautiful ‘Last Nine Days on Planet Earth’, Bo Bolander’s ‘The Only Harmless Great Thing’. I just adored Tina Connolly’s ‘The Last Banquet of Temporal Confections’…. And we won the Locus Award for best magazine!” Pay rate was the highest in the market at $.25/word for shorter fiction. [Professional]
Terraform, <motherboard.vice.com/terraform>, a spin-off of the Motherboard technology site, published one piece of fiction weekly, and debuted two short speculative film shorts, plus excerpts, articles, and more. Editor Brian Merchant said, “near-future fiction that seizes on pressing social themes tends to resonate most…. I’d love to see even more of that style of character-driven (high concept or otherwise) near-future fiction…. We were thrilled to see a fantastic piece from E. Lily Yu be selected for inclusion in the Best American SF&F collection.” Pay rate was $.20/word. [Professional]
Clarkesworld, <clarkesworldmagazine.com>, published 12 issues, with 56 original stories, 23 reprints, podcasts, and non-fiction. Covers were handsome original art. The website had 42,000 unique visitors per month, up from 40,000; podcast listeners increased by 2,000 to 14,000. Publisher was Neil Clarke. “We had a story win the Hugo Award, Neil received a Chesley Award for Art Direction, and after a concerted effort, our international submissions were up over previous years. The big down note… was Gardner’s passing. He had been our Reprint editor for the previous five years and we’ll miss him dearly.” There were 3,800 digital subscribers (up 300), and a flat 200-250 digital single-issue sales monthly. Print cover price was $7.99. Clarkesworld paid $.10/word up to 7,000 words, and $.08 thereafter. [Professional]
Forever, <forever-magazine.com>, Clarke’s “reprint only” project, posted 4 issues in 2018, with a total of 12 stories. [Professional]
Lightspeed, <www.lightspeedmagazine.com>, edited and published by John Joseph Adams, produced 12 issues with 96 SF/F stories (48 originals, 48 reprints), plus 12 reprint novellas exclusively available in digital, and interviews, podcasts, and more. The most popular were “The Quiet Like a Homecoming”, Cassandra Khaw; “Godmeat”, Martin Cahill; “Waterbirds”, G.V. Anderson; “What is Eve”, Will McIntosh; and “I Sing Against the Silent Sun”, A. Merc Rustad & Ada Hoffmann. For both Lightspeed and Nightmare, Adams said, “I’d actually love to see some horror that confronts contemporary horrors like gun violence and political malfeasance, etc.” Average monthly unique visitors was 21,000, with 2,100 ebook subscribers. Pay was $.08/word. [Professional]
Nightmare, <www.nightmare-magazine.com>, also helmed by Adams, published 12 issues with 23 original stories and 24 reprints. The most popular were “Bride Before You”, Stephanie Malia Morris; “Dead Air”, Nino Cipri; “Mr. Try Again”, A. Merc Rustad; “Six Hangings in the Land of Unkillable Women”, Theodore McCombs; and “True Crime”, M. Rickert. Average monthly uniques was 8,000, and about 1,350 ebook subscribers. Pay was $.06/word. [Professional]
The Dark Magazine, <www.thedarkmagazine.com>, published 26 “dark and strange” stories and nine podcast adaptations in 12 issues, co-edited by Sean Wallace & Silvia Moreno-Garcia, with assistant editor Jack Fisher. Wallace said, “Three stories that most represented the magazine included ‘The Last Epic Pub Crawl of The Brothers Pennyfeather’ by L Chan; ‘Snake Season’ by Erin Roberts; and ‘Being an Account of The Sad Demise of The Body Horror Book Club’ by Nin Harris…. Pay rates jumped from three cents to six cents for the next two years…. Beyond that we also brought onboard David Bowles, who is now translating works on a semi-regular basis from a number of Spanish/Hispanic authors.” About 9,400 uniques monthly, up from 3,600, with about 431 paid subscribers (up from 112), and 1,952 newsletter subscribers. Pay was $.06/word. [Professional]
We saw the inaugural print issue, full-size glossy color cover with a b&w interior, of the relaunched Amazing Stories, <amazingstoriesmag.com>, which published two issues (88-103 pages) in 2018, with 17 stories – one of which was serialized in two parts. Steve Davidson, who acquired the lapsed trademark in 2011, was publisher, and Ira Nayman was editor-in-chief. “We were quite pleased by the response at Worldcon76 – we gave out nearly 5,000 copies of the first [print] issue (Fall 2018).” Davidson quoted 30,000-45,000 uniques per month. Payment was $.06/word. Cover price was $19.95. [Professional]
SEMIPROZINE DIGITAL
Fireside is now also available in print format as Fireside Quarterly, <firesidefiction.com/subscribe>. We saw two beautifully designed tall, digest-size issues with matte spot color illustrations and full-color glossy art on triple gatefold inserts, with 26 pieces of fiction and some non-fiction. Fireside Quarterly published the stories first in print, followed by online publication as Fireside Magazine at <firesidefiction.com>. Pablo Defendini was the publisher and art director and Julia Rios was fiction editor.
Defendini said, “our strongest responses have been to our most innovative pieces: In January we published a poem by Amal El-Mohtar, illustrated by Molly Crabapple. ‘Thunderstorm in Glasgow, July 25, 2013’ is what we call a digital broadside: a highly art-directed, bespoke presentation of a unique piece. In October we published STET, by Sarah Gailey, another highly art-directed piece. This gut-punch of a story plays with form in interesting ways on its own, and when paired with the visual treatments we crafted for it – completely different visual presentations for its online, ebook, and print versions – makes for an interesting exploration of what is possible when you play to each format’s individual strengths, on their own merits.” Unique visitors averaged around 10,000 per month, up from 8,000, with 600 Fireside ebook subscribers and a circulation of 1,000 for Fireside Quarterly. The quarterly print edition is only available by subscription for $120 per year. Payrate was 12.5 cents per word. [Semiprozine]
Strange Horizons, <www.strangehorizons.com>, published 51 weekly issues with 50 stories, plus poetry, reviews, and articles, and six installments of Geoff Ryman’s 100 African Writers of SFF series. Editor-in-chief Kate Dollarhyde said, “We were nominated for the Best Semiprozine Hugo for the sixth year in a row. We were also nominated for a Locus Award in the Magazine category. The Strange Horizons podcast was nominated for a Parsec Award…. Debbie Urbanski’s story, ‘Some Person Arguments In Support of the BetterYou (Based On Early Interactions)’ was on the Tiptree longlist. ‘The Birding: A Fairy Tale’ by Natalia Theodoridou won a World Fantasy Award for Best Short Story. ‘Utopia, LOL’ by Jamie Wahls was nominated for a Nebula Award in the Short Story category.” About 40,000 uniques per month. Pay was $.08/word. [Semiprozine]
SH‘s sister magazine Samovar, “a quarterly magazine of and about translated speculative fiction,” edited by Sarah Dodd, Laura Friis & Greg West, produced four issues with six stories and their accompanying translations.
Uncanny, <uncannymagazine.com>, published six issues, with 41 original stories including one novelette and six reprints, as well as essays, poems, interviews, and podcasts. Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas were co-editors-in-chief. The mag won its third Best Semiprozine Hugo Award, and the Thomases won the Hugo for Best Professional Editor Short Form. Uncanny published award-winning and finalist titles “Clearly Lettered in a Mostly Steady Hand” by Fran Wilde, “And Then There Were (N-One)” by Sarah Pinsker, “Fandom for Robots” by Vina Jie-Min Prasad, “Small Changes Over Long Periods of Time” by K.M. Szpara, and more. Caroline M. Yoachim joined as interviewer, Chimedum Ohaegbu was promoted to assistant editor, and Michi Trota added nonfiction editor to her managing editor title. 2019 plans include the Disabled People Destroy Fantasy special issue and the pilot of Uncanny TV (hosted by Trota and Matt Peters) on YouTube. Uncanny had 1,600 subscribers and averaged 28,000 uniques, with 160 Patreon patrons. Pay was $.08/word for fiction. [Semiprozine]
Daily Science Fiction, <dailysciencefiction.com>, published 260 stories in 2018, delivered to subscribers by email and published on the website; co-published and co-edited by Michele-Lee Barasso & Jonathan Laden. It had 13,000 subscribers and 20,000 uniques a month. Pay was $.08/word up to 1,500 words. [Semiprozine]
Diabolical Plots, <www.diabolicalplots.com>, edited by David Steffen, published 31 original stories in 12 monthly issues, plus 15 reprints in The Long List Anthology Volume 4, and non-fiction. In September they released the Diabolical Plots Year Four ebook containing the stories for January-March 2019. Steffen noted, “Probably the biggest response has been for ‘Tank!’ by John Wiswell, which has gotten a lot of shares, because people really seem to connect with the socially awkward nonbinary character at a science fiction convention. Comedies like ‘The Efficacy of Tyromancy Over Reflective Scrying Methods in Divining Colleagues’ Coming Misfortunes, A Study by Cresivar Ibraxson, Associate Magus, Wintervale University’ by Amanda Helms have also gone over very well, as well as more serious work like ‘The Fisher in the Yellow Afternoon’ by Michael Anthony Ashley.” Pay was $.08/word, $.01/word for reprint fiction + pro-rata share of 50% of royalties for the anthology. Uniques/month averaged about 2,000, with 300 newsletter subscribers. [Semiprozine]
Beneath Ceaseless Skies, <www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com>, a bi-weekly “literary adventure fantasy” magazine published and edited by Scott H. Andrews, produced 26 issues containing 62 pieces of original fiction (39 short stories, 20 novelettes, and three novellas), 21 podcast episodes, and their ninth Best of BCS reprint anthology. Andrews said, “Accolades included a sixth Hugo finalist for Best Semiprozine, a ninth World Fantasy Award finalist, and ‘Carnival Nine’ by Caroline M. Yoachim named a finalist for the Nebula Awards, World Fantasy Awards, and Hugo Awards. Fiction singled out or selected for Year’s Bests included ‘The Starship and the Temple Cat’ by Yoon Ha Lee, ‘The Thought That Counts’ by K.J. Parker, ‘Ruby, Singing’ by Fran Wilde, and ‘The Crow Knight’ by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam”. The website averaged 76,000 uniques per month; podcasts, 11,000. Highlights included their 250th issue and their tenth anniversary. Pay rate was $.06/word. [Semiprozine]
Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show, <www.intergalacticmedicineshow.com>, published one novella, six novelettes, 17 short stories, and seven flash fiction pieces in six issues, plus podcasts, interviews, and more. Editor-in-chief Scott Roberts said, “I was very pleased to publish Jonathan Edelstein’s ‘Nwanyi Enwe Eze (The Women Have No King)’ in IGMS #65, an alt-history story about empowerment and rebellion in 1930’s Nigeria. Edelstein’s ‘Oba Oyinbo’ (IGMS #59) was a finalist for this year’s WSFA award; ‘Nwanyi…’ is its prequel, and is both timely and engaging. I received more action tales on my desk this year, like Bud Sparhawk’s ‘Comrades in Arms’ and Michael Ezell’s ‘Bare-Knuckle Magic’, and would love to receive more in that vein…” IGMS paid $.06/word for original fiction. [Semiprozine]
Abyss & Apex Magazine, <www.abyssapexzine.com>, published 22 stories, book reviews, editorials, and 34 poems in four quarterly issues. Editor and publisher Wendy S. Delmater said, “We’d like to see more science fiction. The ratio in our slush is many, many fantasies to each SF story. We’re excited to welcome Sarah Dix and Ef Deal on staff…. Again… we published a very large percentage of female authors: 63% this year!” Average unique visitors per month were 11,554. Pay was $.06/word to 1,250 words, with a flat rate of $75 for longer. [Semiprozine]
Compelling Science Fiction, <compellingsciencefiction.com>, published by Joe Stech and edited by Stech & Emily Goodin, published 17 SF stories in three issues, including a bonus issue for Kickstarter. Stech said, “Our near-future stories, space colonization stories, and AI stories received the best response, and we’d like to continue seeing more of those. Pip Coen was a WSFA Small Press Award finalist for his excellent 2017 debut story ‘Floaters Can’t Float’, and in 2018 he had another successful story in our bonus issue, ‘Shatter like Steel, Bend like a Bubble’.” There were approximately 200 subscribers and 2,000 uniques; pay was $.06/word. [Semiprozine]
Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores, <cosmicrootsandeldritchshores.com>, edited by Fran Eisemann, published 14 stories. “We hope to publish more international submissions, and in both English and the author’s native language. At the end of the year we plan to publish our first anthology.” There were 3,300 uniques/month and pay was $.06/word for new fiction, $.02/word for reprints, and $.01-.06/word for articles. [Semiprozine]
See the Elephant Magazine, dedicated to “progressive and humane short fiction,” published one issue with 12 stories. Publisher/editor Melanie Lamaga looks for work “in the borderlands between the real and the unreal, and between genres. Inventive, humane, metaphysical, and/or satirical work.” Pay was $.06/word. [Semiprozine]
Fiyah, <www.fiyahlitmag.com>, the “Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction,” published 17 stories and six poems in four scheduled electronic issues. Editor Troy L. Wiggins said, “‘Saudade’ (Rolon, Fiyah #8), ‘The Percivals’ (Dunbar, Fiyah #7), ‘Yard Dog’ (Thompson, Fiyah #8) saw most social media/review engagement. We also introduced our POB Score project over the summer. We were awarded the Barrelhouse Amplifier Grant, our 2017 cover artist Geneva Benton won the Best Fan Artist Hugo, and we pulled down a World Fantasy Award!” They look for SF/F from and by authors from “the African continent and diaspora that reject regressive ideas of blackness, respectability politics, and stereotype.” Pay is a flat $150 for short stories; $300 for novelettes, $50 for poetry, and $250 for cover art. There were 325 subscriptions, 497 downloads, and 1,385 average monthly visits. [Semiprozine]
Shimmer, <www.shimmerzine.com>, produced 37 stories in six online issues, including their final issue after 13 years of publishing. They also published Shimmer 2018: The Collected Stories, edited by E. Catherine Tobler. Editor Beth Wodzinski said, “Anya Johanna Deniro’s ‘Faint Voices, Increasingly Desperate’ was selected for Paula Guran’s Year’s Best. Readers were charmed by ‘Rapture’ by Meg Elison. ‘Black Fanged Thing’ by Sam Rebelein also struck a chord. Our entire final [triple length] issue kicks ass, really.” Shimmer paid $.05/word. [Semiprozine]
GigaNotoSaurus, <giganotosaurus.org>, published one fantasy or SF story monthly: “longer than a short story, and shorter than a novel.” Editor Rashida J. Smith is stepping down, and Elora Gatts is taking the helm. Smith said, “We are always looking for more sci-fi, and of course, we love stories that writers are passionate about, but are difficult to place elsewhere due to length.” Pay rate was $100/story. [Semiprozine]
Future Science Fiction Digest, <future-sf.com>, a new quarterly publication, launched with Issues #0 and #1; 15 pieces of fiction “with a strong focus on translation and international fiction.” The collaboration between Future Affairs Administration and UFO Publishing is edited by Alex Shvartsman. “Our first issue features fiction from the United States, China, Nigeria, Italy, and the Ukraine, as well as several articles, totaling 65,000 words.” Pay is $.10/word for translated fiction (split between author and translator) or fiction “written by authors for whom English is not their first language and who reside outside of primarily English-speaking countries.” [Not yet eligible, but good pay rate]
Newcomer Factor Four, <factorfourmag.com>, a flash fiction market edited by Richard Flores IV, published three scheduled issues for their inaugural year, with 48 stories. Flores is looking for “stories featuring characters we want to care about and make us feel something at the end of the story…. I’d like to see more stories with fantasy characters in them. I always love dragons.” There were 1,600 unique visitors/month, 15 online subscribers, 20 e-reader subscribers, and one print subscriber. Pay was $.08/word with a minimum of $60. [Semiprozine]
LampLight, <lamplightmagazine.com>, a dark fiction periodical edited by Jacob Haddon, published 20 stories, four public-domain reprints, four articles, and three audio adaptations in four issues. Haddon said, “Accidentally, I think, the ocean fared well this year, with several stories involving boats, islands, things coming from the sea, and some wanting to return.” Subscriptions were around 100. Pay was $.03/word to $150 max, $.01/word for reprints. [Semiprozine]
Flash Fiction Online, <flashfictiononline.com>, a monthly edited by Suzanne Vincent showcasing “some of the best darn flash fiction there is,” posted 12 scheduled issues for a total 49 flash fiction pieces – 33 original and 16 reprints. Vincent said, “Our roots are in sci-fi and fantasy, and a large chunk of our readership (and published stories) still reflects that. But we also work hard to bring our readers great stories of any genre. Science fiction can meld beautifully with a higher literary style.” Pay rate was $0.02/word for reprints and $60.00 for original stories between 500-1,000 words. There were just under 2,000 downloads for the year, monthly uniques of 28,000, and 150 subscribers. [Semiprozine]
James Gunn’s Ad Astra, <www.adastrasf.com>, “the best parts of creative magazines and scholarly journals,” published one issue with six stories. Editor-in-chief Jean Asselin said, “The best response was for a K. Eisert story…. We want more stories like that, the kind that read like literature while taking its genre aspects seriously….” Pay was $50/story. [Semiprozine]
Helios Quarterly, <heliosquarterly.com>, published four issues and 17 stories. Editor Elizabeth O. Smith said best responses were to “stories full of melancholy or shocking endings. I would like to see more diversity in characters/locales and slipstream/cross-genre work.” 2019 plans include an anthology to celebrate the best submissions of the last three years. Unique monthly visitors were 1,000 to 3,000, occasionally 5,000. Pay was $0.25/line for poetry, $0.01/word for flash fiction, $0.02/word for short stories, $0.03/word for serials. [Semiprozine]
New Myths, <sites.google.com/a/newmyths.com/nmwebsite/home>, published 44 stories plus poems, non-fiction, and art in four planned issues. Editor Scott T. Barnes said, “We plan two more ‘best of’ anthologies over the next two years, with the 2019 theme being Twilight Worlds – stories that feature the end of an age or the dawn of a new age.” Average uniques were around 1,500. Pay was 1.5 cents/word, minimum payment of $30. [Semiprozine]
Bards and Sages Quarterly, <www.bardsandsages.com>, published 60 short stories in four planned issues. “We focus on character-driven narratives…. [W]e try to make sure each issue has a nice mix of fantasy, sci-fi, and horror, with some magical realism, weird fiction, and more sprinkled in for flavor. We are always interested in stories that feature underrepresented groups in a non-stereotypical way. In February 2019, we will launch a new magazine, The Society of Misfit Stories, which will publish three times a year and feature novelette and novella-length stories.” There were approximately 1,000 newsletter subscribers and issue sales between 300-500 copies. Pay was $25 for original fiction, $10 for reprints. [Semiprozine]
Australian Aurealis, <aurealis.com.au>, published 31 stories in ten issues. Editor Dirk Strasser said, “We seemed to be getting quite a bit of military science fiction and skin-crawling horror. We’ve been getting an increasing number of submissions from non-English speaking countries. We like to see more off-world SF where humans grapple to understand an alien culture.” Subscriptions increased 41%. Pay rate was A$.02/word. Parent company Chimaera Publications also ran the Aurealis Awards. [Semiprozine]
Australian Andromeda Spaceways, <andromedaspaceways.com>, published four issues with 52 stories and five poems. Editor Terry Wood said, “We always want more work from Aus/NZ authors, and diverse perspectives. We like quirky work but try not to go crazy with the laffs. We do publish horror but prefer visceral horror over viscera. We’re investigating a return to print in the future….” Pay for original short fiction was A$.01/word, A$10.00 (min) and A$100.00 (max). [Semiprozine]
Kaleidotrope, <www.kaleidotrope.net>, a quarterly, published 22 stories and 12 poems. Editor Fred Coppersmith said, “I’ve seen good notices for ‘One and Two’ by Emma Osborne, ‘The Temporary Suicides of Goldfish’ by Octavia Cade, and ‘The Guitar Hero’ by Maria Haskins, among others, but I genuinely love all the stories this year. I think I’m seeing more hopeful stories…. Not that there isn’t still room for bittersweet or unsettling – heartbreaking but hopeful might be Kaleidotrope‘s sweet spot.” Pay was $.01/word, $5 for poetry, $60 for artwork. [Semiprozine]
Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, <www.heroicfantasyquarterly.com>, published 14 short stories and 12 poems in four scheduled issues. Editor Adrian Simmons said, “We started putting audio with some of our stories and poems…. 2019 will also see the publication of issue #40 – our ten year anniversary! We are always looking for stories that put the sorcery in ‘sword and sorcery.’ ‘White Rainbow and Brown Devil’, ‘More Blood than Bone’, and ‘The Blitz of Din Barham’ received the best response.” There were about 5,000 uniques per month. Pay was $100 for fiction, $25 for poems with some variation based on length. [Semiprozine]
Anathema, <www.anathemamag.com>, focusing on “weird, slipstream, surrealism, fabulism, and more by queer people of colour on every range of the LGBTQIA spectrum,” published 16 stories and two non-fiction articles in three issues. Editor Michael Matheson said, “We ran another successful crowdfunding campaign and our first subscription drive. We landed work on the Nebula Reading List for the second year in a row, with Suzan Palumbo’s ‘The Pull of the Herd’ and Kai Hudson’s ‘White Noise’…. And we had our first Year’s Best reprint, with our first story ever published (and still most-read piece), S. Qiouyi Lu’s ‘A Complex Filament of Light”, reprinted in Bogi Takács’ Transcendent 3: The Year’s Best Transgender Speculative Fiction.” Pay was C$100 for cover art, C$50 for fiction and non-fiction. There were around 657 uniques/month, 106 subscriptions. [Semiprozine]
Grimdark, <grimdarkmagazine.com>, published 11 stories in four issues, and one anthology, focusing on “the grittier nature of people in futuristic or fantasy settings.” Founder Adrian Collins was editor-in-chief. Collins said, “Fantasy got the best response this year…. Finding brilliant SF has been a little bit harder over the years, and that shows in the ratio of F to SF we’ve published….” They had 100 Patreon subscribers and website views averaged 2,700/month. Pay was A$.07/word up to 4,000 words. [Semiprozine]
Mythic Delirium, <mythicdelirium.com>, edited by Mike Allen, published two issues with nine short stories, including the final double issue in April. Allen said, “Our final issue was our 20th anniversary issue, our 50th issue overall and our 20th issue since we went digital.” There were about 2,400 unique page views per month. They paid $.02/word up to 4,000 words, $5/poem, and $50 for cover art. [Semiprozine]
The Future Fire, <futurefire.net>, a quarterly magazine of progressive, feminist, queer, eco, multicultural, and cyberpunk fiction published four issues with 19 short stories, one flash fiction piece, one novelette, seven poems, and an anthology. Editor Djibril al-Ayad said, “What we’d like to see more of is perhaps the less usual, more experimental pieces; ekphrasis stories (e.g. fake book reviews), poetry, flash fiction, longer novelettes, things that challenge the reader and break the rules.” There was an average of 750 uniques/month. Pay was $20 for short fiction, $10 for poems and flash. [Semiprozine]
Non-profit Electric Spec, <www.electricspec.com>, published four issues with 19 stories. Editors were Nikki Baird, Lesley L. Smith & Grayson Towler. Pay was $20/story. [Semiprozine]
Lackington’s, <lackingtons.com>, published two issues and 15 stories. Ranylt Richildis, editor-in-chief, said, “Our Gothics issue had the best response we’ve ever had. Premee Mohamed’s ‘At the Hand of Every Beast’ seemed popular on Twitter, and who can blame people? We rarely see grotesque wandering cathedrals in our fiction.” Pay was $.01/word. [Semiprozine]
Arsenika, <arsenika.ink>, edited by S. Qiouyi Lu, published three flash pieces and two poems in one issue. Pay was $60 for fiction, $30 for poetry.
Mithila, <mithilareview.com>, published one issue with eight stories. Editor Salik Shah said they are working on a first anthology, India 2049: Utopias and Dystopias. They paid $10.00 for fiction and poetry. Patron/subscriber numbers were around 50, with 2,500-3,500 uniques per month. [Semiprozine]
Perihelion, <perihelionsf.com>, a “monthly” hard-SF magazine, published 12 stories in one issue, recovering from a “catastrophic system failure” in 2017. Editor Sam Bellotto, Jr. said they “are hoping to get back on our feet with a decent publication schedule in 2019.” Pay rate was $.01/word. [Semiprozine]
Three-Lobed Burning Eye, <www.3lobedmag.com>, edited by Andrew S. Fuller, published six stories in one of two planned issues in 2018, saying, “The stories that received most readings and comments were those that did not fall into an easy genre definition. They contained elements of magical realism, horror, and unknown.” They had 600 readers and 100 PDF purchases per month, and over 300 subscribers. [Semiprozine]
AUDIO FICTION AND FANCASTS
Marguerite Kenner, COO of Escape Artists, Inc. and editor/host of Cast of Wonders, said EA published a combined total of 312 episodes with 301 stories in Escape Pod (SF), PodCastle (fantasy), PseudoPod (horror), and Cast of Wonders (YA). Kenner said “episodes are downloaded over 365,000 times a month. Kenner reported estimated audience sizes: Escape Pod (37,000), PseudoPod (39,000), PodCastle (16,000), and Cast of Wonders (1,000 – due to a recent change in web hosting). All four EA markets pay $0.06/word for original fiction, $100/story for reprints, and $20/flash fiction reprint.
There were 52 episodes of Escape Pod, <www.escapepod.org>, “The Science Fiction Podcast Magazine.” Kenner said, “We were thrilled that after 13 years of publishing free science fiction audio stories, we were recognized as a finalist for the Hugo for Best SemiProzine, as well as a Parsec finalist for Best Speculative Fiction podcast… We are already working on Artemis Rising 5 for 2019.” Editors were Divya Breed & Mur Lafferty; Tina Connolly hosted. Average monthly unique visitors: 10,800. [Semiprozine]
PodCastle, <www.podcastle.org>, produced 56 episodes. They were nominated twice for Parsecs; Khaalidah Muhammad-Ali & Jen R. Albert were co-editors and World Fantasy Award finalists for Special Award, Non-professional. Setsu Uzume was assistant editor and Graeme Dunlop was host. Average monthly unique visitors: 3,500. [Semiprozine]
PseudoPod, <www.pseudopod.org>, “the sound of horror,” produced 52 episodes, was shortlisted for the British Fantasy Awards, and won Best Fiction Podcast at the This is Horror Awards. Shawn Garrett & Alex Hofelich were co-editors, and Alasdair Stuart was host. Karen Bovenmyer joined as assistant editor. Average monthly unique visitors: 5,100. [Semiprozine]
Cast of Wonders, <www.castofwonders.org/>, published 52 episodes. Kenner said, “Our 500 flash fiction contest had a record level of participation, and we are thrilled that two of the three winners are previously unpublished. We celebrated International Non Binary Visibility Day and Banned Books Week, along with themed episodes for Halloween, Dinovember, and the winter holidays. Our production of ‘Random Play All and the League of Awesome’ is a Parsec finalist… and an Artemis Rising 4 story, ‘The Hacker’s Faire’ was a Sunburst finalist.” Average monthly unique visitors was 2,000. [Semiprozine]
District of Wonders comprises three podcast venues: StarShipSofa, Tales to Terrify, and Far Fetched Fables, all produced by Tony C. Smith. StarShipSofa, <www.starshipsofa.com>, hosted by Smith and fiction editor Jeremy Szal, published 55 stories in 50 weekly episodes and seven irregular “Echoes” (re-cast episodes). FarFetchedFables, <www.farfetchedfables.com>, edited by Gary Dowell and hosted by Nicola Seaton-Clark, produced 2 episodes with total 2 stories. Tales to Terrify, <talestoterrify.com>, edited by Scott Silk and hosted by Drew Sebesteny, published 52 episodes, most with one or two stories. Silk said, “We’ve had positive feedback for our productions of classic horror stories from authors such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Ambrose Bierce, but we’ve also received praise for our more modern tales as well.” All three paid $50/story. [Fancast/Semiprozine]
Glittership, <www.glittership.com>, edited by Keffy R.M. Kehrli, published ten original stories, ten reprints, and eight original poems in four issues, as well as anthology GlitterShip Year Two. Kehrli said, “People tend to like our bittersweet stories the most. That said, I’m always looking for happier stories (not always humor), to even things out.” Pay was $.03/word for originals. [Semiprozine]
The Coode Street Podcast, <jonathanstrahan.podbean.com>, with hosts Jonathan Strahan & Gary K. Wolfe, produced 21 episodes. Professional SF, fantasy, and horror writers were featured in roundtable-style discussions and interviews, including “Jane Yolen, Theodora Goss, and John Kessel early in the year, and later Andy Duncan, Alec Nevala-Lee, Karen Joy Fowler, James Patrick Kelly, Jo Walton, Carmen Maria Machado, Rich Larson, and Sam J. Miller. We also, rather sadly, recorded memorial episodes about Gardner Dozois and Kate Wilhelm. Talking with Jo Walton about the history of the Hugos was a particularly rewarding chat, as was our discussion of the problematical John W. Campbell Jr. with Andy Duncan (who had just published a story about him) and Alec Nevala-Lee (who had just published a major biography).” [Fancast]
Writing Excuses, <www.writingexcuses.com>, produced their 13th season and posted 52 educational episodes by writers for writers. Primarily hosted by “core crew” Brandon Sanderson, Mary Robinette Kowal, Howard Tayler & Dan Wells, they also utilize various host groups and occasional guests. [Related Work]
Galactic Suburbia, <galactisuburbia.podbean.com>, produced 20 podcast episodes of SF news and commentary with Alisa Krasnostein, Tansy Rayner Roberts & Alex Pierce. Pierce said, “[I]n each episode we added in a section where we discussed and applied a chapter of Joanna Russ’s How to Suppress Women’s Writing. It was really interesting – and a bit depressing – to see how applicable her points are, three decades on. In 2019 we will continue to do this…” An average episode “gets around 500 hits in the 2-3 weeks after it goes live; those numbers continue to go up over time.” [Fancast]
Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy, <geeksguideshow.com>, hosted by David Barr Kirtley and produced by John Joseph Adams, published 53 episodes –one a week plus a special celebrating Episode 300. Kirtley’s said, “In 2018 we had a slightly stronger focus on political/policy experts…. The most noteworthy event of the year is that our interview with Andy Duncan, in which he discussed his Tolkien parody ‘Senator Bilbo,’ received hostile coverage from The Daily Mail, which led to more hostile coverage from a range of conservative outlets, including Breitbart, the National Review, and InfoWars, as well as a hostile editorial from Glenn Beck, all of which led to our Wired.com post about the interview getting over 50,000 impressions on Facebook.” They had about 35,000 unique monthly visitors. [Related Work]
Patrick Hester & John Anealio edited Functional Nerds, <www.functionalnerds.com>. They posted 44 of 48 scheduled episodes. Hester said, “Our listeners tend to love our chats – what we call the ‘Just Us’ episodes… We love it when something we say sparks a conversation. Even if that conversation is Gail Carriger begging us to stop talking about Star Wars! We had some great guests in 2018 including Delilah S. Dawson, Jim Butcher, Mary Robinette Kowal, Gail Carriger, Mur Lafferty, RJ Theodore, and Andy Weir.” Hester reported an average of 1,200 downloads per episode. [Fancast]
Michelle Graham, Giles Hash, & Emily Singer co-hosted Beyond the Trope, <beyondthetrope.weebly.com>, “a podcast for nerds,” posting 50 episodes. Hash said, “Our guest interviews get the best response, and this year it was our interview with James Marsters from Marvel’s Runaways and narrator for The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher, and our interview with Christopher Paolini from Denver Comic Con (now Denver Pop Culture Con).” Singer is leaving the show to pursue other projects. Average downloads per month were 2,750. [Fancast]
Fangirl Happy Hour, <www.fangirlhappyhour.com>, “the intersections of fandom, literature, and culture,” produced 12 episodes. Ana & Renay said, “We’re excited that space opera seems here to stay for a bit and are excited about all the diverse anthologies coming up in 2019.” They reported 500 average visitors and 300 subscribers. [Fancast]
QUALITY
Our gauge for quality is based on our short fiction Recommended Reading list; see chart. We recommended 125 pieces of short fiction from 2018, up from 124. Recommended stories appeared in 24 magazines or online venues, up from last year’s 18. Anthologies had 19 recommended stories, down from last year’s 28, plus an additional eight from collections, up from last year’s five. Major anthologies were The Book of Magic and Robots vs Fairies with six stories each, followed by Infinity’s End with four. Beneath Ceaseless Skies led the magazines/sites with 10 stories, followed by Tor.com with nine, Lightspeed with eight, and Clarkesworld, Fireside, Strange Horizons, and Uncanny each with seven. Fiyah and Shimmer both had six. The remaining magazines had four or fewer recommended titles.
CRITICAL MAGAZINES
SFRevu published 12 monthly issues featuring “reviews of books, films, and other media, interviews with top authors and notable newcomers, and columns with the latest releases in books, DVDs, and comics and upcoming films.” Gayle Surrette was senior editor. <www.sfrevu.com>. [Fanzine]
Five issues of The New York Review of Science Fiction were available in PDF, epub, and mobi through Weightless Books, and in POD editions. Publisher was Kevin J. Maroney. Monthly ebook subscribers remain at 150-175, with half of each issue’s content available free at <www.nyrsf.com/toc>, as is the full-length October issue on Gardner Dozois. Pay rate increased to $20 for reviews and $40 for feature articles, plus copies. [Semiprozine]
The Cascadia Subduction Zone: A Literary Quarterly, <www.thecsz.com>, published by Aqueduct, produced four issues, with essays of social and literary criticism related to speculative fiction, poems, reviews, and art. Cover price was $5.00. Managing editor was Arrate Hidalgo. Other editors were Nisi Shawl, L. Timmel Duchamp, and Kath Wilham. [Related Work]
Scholarly journal Science Fiction Studies, <www.depauw.edu/sfs>, published three issues, edited by Arthur Evans. Average page count increased from 160 to 200 pages per issue to accommodate more submissions. The magazine was available in print and digital formats with electronic access through JSTOR. The subscriber base was 850. [Related Work]
There were three issues of scholarly journal Extrapolation, published by Liverpool University Press, totaling 332 pages, with essays on a variety of critical topics. Andrew Butler became managing editor beginning January 2018. The most cited article in the journal was “We Are the Walking Dead”: Race, Time, and Survival in Zombie Narrative, by Gerry Canavan. Issues were available in print and PDF from <online.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/loi/extr>. [Professional]
We saw two issues of academic journal Foundation, <www.sf-foundation.org/publications/foundation/index.html>, including a special issue on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Editor Paul March-Russell said, “For a second, and final, year I was also an Arthur C. Clarke Award judge. Dystopian, post-apocalyptic and climate change fiction tended to predominate amongst the nominations, and some of these genres were reflected in the final short-list. But, I would also point to the note of cautious optimism – this was true of Anne Charnock’s success at the Clarkes as well as N.K. Jemisin’s success at the Hugos. This, I feel, speaks to a core sensibility within the genre despite all the signs pointing towards imminent destruction.” Allen Stroud will be Reviews Editor starting in 2019. Special issues are planned for 2019 on Philip K. Dick and “Shakespeare and SF”. Print runs were 320. [Professional]
There were two issues of Vector, <https://vector-bsfa.com/>, the critical journal of the British Science Fiction Association, edited by Polina Levontin & Jo Lindsay Walton, with articles and reviews on SF in books, games, television, music, and film. 2018 themes were “Best of 2017” and “Future Economics.” Cover price was £4.00. Vector‘s planned themes for 2019 are “African and Afrodiasporic SF” and “Speculative Art.” We also saw two issues of The BSFA Review, focused on recent fiction and edited by Susan Oke, and one issue of Focus, the BSFA’s magazine for writers, edited by Dev Agarwal. [Fanzine]
There were two issues of SF Commentary, 72 pages each, with reviews, essays, and articles. Editor and publisher Bruce Gillespie said the magazine is mainly available as a PDF file through <www.efanzines.com/SFC>. [Related Work]
Two issues of Wormwood, edited by Mark Valentine, were available from Tartarus Press, with critical works exploring the fantastic, supernatural, and decadent in literature <www.tartaruspress.com/wormwood.html>. Cover price was £9.99. [Semiprozine]
There was one issue of The Burroughs Bulletin, dated 2017-2018, edited by Henry G. Franke III. Print run was 450, distributed to members of The Burroughs Bibliophiles, an Edgar Rice Burroughs fan group. Contributors were paid in copies. Centennial issue #100 is partially composed for the upcoming year. [Fanzine]
CONCLUSION
In 2018 we continued to see more international, translated, and diverse authors finding platforms in genre magazines. Making print formats break even continues to be a challenge that the magazines are willing to try to overcome, though not always successfully. Several editors said they are looking for more science fiction, but are seeing fantasy heavy submissions. Some are seeking more experimental and longer works. As with every year that passes, we see some magazines go on hiatus or close entirely, while new titles appear elsewhere. As I always say, if you enjoy these magazines, remember much of this content is being paid for, even if you are reading it for free. Subscribe, donate, advertise, and support, so that they can continue to publish!
This and more like it in the February 2019 issue of Locus.
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