dr_phil_physics | Entries tagged with hard times

Realms of Fantasy Closing

I've already written this obituary -- twice -- here and here. This has gotten convoluted enough that I missed posting about RoF's sale, though I did post about their impending (past tense) switch to e-subs.

Ian Randal Strock reports some details on SFScope today, announcing "The third death of Realms of Fantasy". He includes this posting from the latest owners:

When we purchased Realms of Fantasy last year we truly thought that we could succeed in publishing the magazine for the foreseeable future. We were unable to realize this goal, have been losing money, and we must regretfully announce the closure of the magazine.

During our time with the magazine we picked up without missing a single issue and were lucky enough to produce the 100th issue. We were able to introduce poetry and bring back the table top gaming column. We have been truly amazed at the positive feedback on the issues we have produced from all of the fans. This is what makes this decision so painful for us.

As we were considering closing the magazine we thought it was important for the October 2011 issue to be released in print for the fans. We did this knowing there would not be a return on the investment, but did it simply because we felt it was right. This does mean the October 2011 issue will be the last issue. The issue did go to newsstands and we have copies for those who are not active subscribers.

Since the October issue shipped late please allow until November 15th before contacting us about lost mailings. International subscribers please allow an additional two weeks.

We are currently trying to work with other magazines to assume the subscription list. This will ensure that subscribers get something for the portions of the subscriptions not fulfilled. This does mean that we will not be issuing refunds unless we are unable to secure a deal, at which point we will follow our posted refund policy. We will update you when we have more information.

If there is anyone interested in purchasing the magazine we will listen to all offers. Those interested should send an email to support [at] rofmag [dot] com.

We would like to thank Shawna McCarthy and Douglas Cohen for all of your support and help. You have both been wonderful to work with during the last year. We would also like to thank all of the remaining staff for the quality columns and attention to detail. Lastly, but definitely not least, we would like to thank all of the fans for your support and encouragement.

Please direct all further inquiries to support [at] rofmag [dot] com.

William and Kim Gilchrist
Damnation Books LLC

As the deja vu-ness of this all unfolds, we have farewell editorials (again) by Shawna McCarthy and Douglas Cohen, whose closing comments included:

There is of course that small voice in the back of my head, saying, “Maybe you’ll rise from the dead again!” Hey, maybe we will. But as I said to Shawna, “Each cancellation has felt a little more final than the last one. This one feels like the end of the road.”

If it is, we’ve had a final year we can be proud of. We’ve won a Nebula Award, and we were nominated for another one. Our longtime fiction editor, Shawna McCarthy, was honored at this year’s World Fantasy Convention as the Editorial Guest of Honor. Artwork we’ve published has received some wonderful honors. We reached issue 100, and with this latest issue we’ve managed to publish 600 stories in RoF’s lifetime. We published poetry for the first time, and in my admittedly biased opinion, the work our nonfiction columnists delivered was second to none. There’s a lot to be proud of in this final year, and I’m glad we and the magazine managed to have it. It makes for a fitting end. It’s time to move on, and I’m excited at what the future holds for me in this field.

As I said in January 2009 and October 2010, I'm not much of a fantasy writer, so it's not that this is a market that I submit to. But it's one I've read from time to time, and a lot of the writers I know DO write fantasy. So I know this will affect some people.

Is this REALLY the end? Dunno. Lots of people tell me that the glossy physical magazine is dead in this e-world -- and "no one" has figured out how to make money in said e-world. Dunno about that either. Still, someone else might pony up and restart RoF again -- nothing would surprise me. And copy-and-paste is making this easier each time. (sad wry grin)

Dr. Phil

Current Mood: saddened

Realms of Fantasy Closing

Didn't I already write this obituary? Apparently yes. But from multiple sources, I got the link to Warren Lapine's farewell.

As I said in January 2009, I'm not much of a fantasy writer, so it's not that this is a market that I submit to. But it's one I've read from time to time, and a lot of the writers I know DO write fantasy. So I know this will affect some people.

I wasn't quite sure if Warren was the right person to run RoF, but he had it and there were some signs of life -- including writing checks to people -- and there was even some controversy about covers and such. So at least RoF was splashing around noisily in the pool and not being a wallflower. But still.

Intriguing Postscript

Towards the end of Warren's post, he did mention the following:

Should there be any interest in purchasing the magazine I will gladly sell Realms to a responsible party for $1.00 and give them the finished files for the December issue.

Does this represent true love for RoF? Or a quick way to pass on a magazine's debt load for a buck? Or does it even matter? If anyone really wanted to keep RoF going, if Warren is good to his word, then he would not be an impediment. It will be interesting to see if anyone takes him up on this.

Of course Nick Mamatas

nihilistic_kid pointed out that "I'm tempted. A shame this wasn't announced last month, when an enterprising person could have had the December issue out for World Fantasy as a pick-up."

Alas, if Real Estate is all about location, then Publishing is all about timing.

Dr. Phil

Current Mood: saddened

A Disaster With No End In SIght

The BP oil platform Deepwater Horizon disaster off the coast of Louisiana, which began with its explosion on 20 April 2010, is rapidly becoming one totally incompetent fuck up. Actually, calling it an "oil spill" is a little disingenuous -- a spill is a one-off and suggests remediation and cleanup will fix it. This is ongoing and gushing.

210,000 gallons of oil a day -- counting it in barrels makes the problem sound more manageable. But by Sunday it's some 1,600,000 gallons of oil and growing.

Don't Make Me Laugh

Some are already calling this President Obama's Katrina. Yeah, right. Hurricane Katrina was a natural disaster which was mishandled badly by the U.S., state and local governments. This was a manmade disaster mismanaged badly by BP. One where they assured the government they were on top of things, they had it under control and there was no threat of a wider spill. If the Obama administration is guilty of anything right now, it's allowing the beloved principle of self-policing to run its course until it was obvious that it wasn't working. Hell, BP didn't even know the magnitude of the problem.

As for the "delay" in Obama traveling to the area, what the hell was he going to see? Why people would just call it grandstanding. Now that oil is or is about to spoil the shoreline, NOW there's something to see.

Some of this isn't news to people who follow off-shore drilling. This article lists several issues including the lack of a switch which could allow BP to remotely shut off the well head some 5000 feet on the bottom of the ocean.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the well lacked a remote-control shut-off switch that is required by Brazil and Norway, two other major oil-producing nations. The switch, a back-up measure to shut off oil flow, would allow a crew to remotely shut off the well even if a rig was damaged or sunken. BP said it couldn't explain why its primary shut-off measures did not work.

U.S. regulators considered requiring the mechanism several years ago. They decided against the measure when drilling companies protested, saying the cost was too high, the device was only questionably effective, and that primary shut-off measures were enough to control an oil spill.

Self-policing and self-regulating industries. Yeah, works real good. Congress and Wall Street -- are you listening yet?

Expect gas prices to spike this summer. Shrimp prices, assuming you can get shrimp, will jump, too. Guess Wall Streeters will have to pull out extra hundred dollar bills to pay for those jumbo shrimp cocktails at dinner...

I Have Two Words For All This

THIS SUCKS.

Dr. Phil

Current Mood: pissed off

A Horrifying Development

Lots of people read romances. And the paranormal romances are clearly a cousin of genre writing -- and sometimes it is a pretty artificial division. I read Marjorie Liu's stuff, and Meljean Brook -- these are authors I know from Clarion and online, respectively.

Growing up, the brand name Harlequin seemed synonymous with Romance to me -- I guess in terms of sales, for good reason. But recently Harlequin decided to announce a new venture, essentially mining their slush pile for an in-house vanity press operation. For God's sake, Publisher's Weekly ran a news flash with a straight face. I heard about this first via Nick Kaufmann via Nick Mamatas.

But now Scalzi and Making Light have lit in, because -- Thank God! -- the RWA (Romance Writers of America), MWA (Mystery Writers of America) and SFWA (Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America) have all condemned the move. In particular, RWA is to be commended, seeing as they have the most to gain and lose in this effort:

One of your member benefits is the annual National Conference. RWA allocates select conference resources to non-subsidy/non-vanity presses that meet the eligibility requirements to obtain those resources. Eligible publishers are provided free meeting space for book signings, are given the opportunity to hold editor appointments, and are allowed to offer spotlights on their programs.

With the launch of Harlequin Horizons, Harlequin Enterprises no longer meets the requirements to be eligible for RWA-provided conference resources. This does not mean that Harlequin Enterprises cannot attend the conference. Like all non-eligible publishers, they are welcome to attend. However, as a non-eligible publisher, they would fund their own conference fees and they would not be provided with conference resources by RWA to publicize or promote the company or its imprints.

Sometimes the wind of change comes swiftly and unexpectedly, leaving an unsettled feeling. RWA takes its role as advocate for its members seriously. The Board is working diligently to address the impact of recent developments on all of RWA’s members.

So far, it sounds as if Harlequin sounds hurt, but has removed the name Harlequin from the new venture. It has not, however, decided to skip becoming "Romance Publish America".

Why This Is Evil

Self-publishing is when you hire someone to print your work -- it is very useful for certain limited interest publications, gifts and small runs of things for family & friends. Vanity publishing is when you hire someone to pretend you're a professional author -- they make you believe that your book is "just like" something which has been vetted and marketed by a real publisher.

As annoying as rejection is and as big as slush piles get at real publishers, you really can't judge your own work all that fairly. For someone else to say, "hey, this is good, we can work with this, and we'd like to pay you this much to publish your work", is setting the minimum bar level.

In real publishing, money goes to the author.

If I put up a story on this LJ or on my website, http://dr-phil-physics.com , I'm doing this for fun and/or to give people a taste of my writing for free -- especially given that some of my real publications are hard to get. And I've been using unpublished stories so as not to interfere with those who have published me. But I know these are not vetted, edited works. They are my words and I can give them away if I feel like, provided they're not under contract elsewhere.

For you to pay Harlequin, or its minions, hundreds or thousands of dollars to produce books that likely will not sell and will never get promoted to "the real publishing arm" is a scam. The bait-and-switch aspect of slush piles and rejection letters is just too vile to support. Harlequin's management should be ashamed of themselves and grovel at the feet of their authors, their readers and the writers' organizations like RWA and beg their forgiveness and vow to sin no more forever. Period.

So far, no. Clearly we are misunderstanding Harlequin.

And this has to be CRUSHED IN THE BUD, lest in these dangerous financial times, other legitimate publishers begin to start thinking -- hey, I've got this fucking big slush pile, too, and maybe, just maybe, it wouldn't be so bad if I followed Harlequin's lead. And don't get all sanctimonious that hey, it was Harlequin that did this, one of those Romance publishers, complete with the eye rolling of superiority. Because it could happen to anyone in any genre. No, really. It could happen elsewhere.

NO. It'd be BAD. It's not RIGHT. And you people all know it. Preying on the wallets of those with hopes and dreams of becoming published authors is WRONG. And EVIL.

So just STOP IT. NOW.

And please, PLEASE, PLEASE... Don't Fall For This Shit Yourself.

Dr. Phil

Current Mood: angry

Another SF Market Closing

Word is spreading around that Jim Baen's Universe is closing. While the most impact it has on me is that I will have no more submissions to JBU -- and will never appear on its webpages -- the fact is they are announcing this "early" and will continue e-publishing through the April 2010 issue. All the stories they currently have contracted for will be published and paid.

I'm sure that many SF writers will comment, as I did above, about losing another market to sell their stories. Of course, one of the arguments against short fiction markets is that too many of those interested in them are interested in SELLING to them and not BUYING. A lot of people hoped that JBU had found a model that would work in today's marketplace, and after being open for a couple of years, perhaps people got complacent that a successful business model had been found. It is ironic that JBU's announcement comes on the heals of SFWA's announcement that the Tor.com website will count as a SFWA pro market.

I met Eric Flint and Mike Resnick at Windycon two years, at a talk about JBU. They were both very concerned with both getting quality SF out there, and of giving a chance to the next generation of writers. Multiple people read through the slush piles, and they also used Baen's Bar as a way to help new writers wring out the problems of their stories. Though I never got a chance to meet Jim Baen himself before his passing the other year, I kind of hoped that JBU would be able to stand as part of his legacy. Alas, twas not to be.

Finally, I'd let to send out a Thank You to

nancyfulda Nancy Fulda, who was one of the slush readers for JBU and mostly the assistant editor who sent me my rejections. JBU had a fast turnaround time and a wide word count range, so nearly all of my stories could be routed through them -- and Nancy saw most of them. I used to joke to my friends that "Nancy Fulda hates me", but that's not true. Editors are rejecting the story, not the writer -- send them another one, write more, write more better. (grin) Another assistant editor who stands out is Sam Hidaka, who I know comments on the WOTF Forum, again helping out new writers.

Jim Baen's Universe and its dead tree offspring The Best of... will be missed. But not yet. They're still running until the April 2010 issue. And that's still a lot of SF stories to read. Just not mine.

Dr. Phil

Current Mood: disappointed

"It is well known that reading quickens the growth of a heart like nothing else."

Catherynne M. Valente, author of what appears to be the rather remarkable novel Palimpsest -- which I haven't yet read but have seen many good things about -- starts today a serial YA novel, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making.

(it) began as a book-within-a-book in my adult novel, Palimpsest, a part of the protagonist's childhood, a strange novel for children written in the 1920s, about a young girl spirited away to Fairyland by the Green Wind, and her adventures there, battling the wicked Marquess, befriending outlandish creatures, and growing up. As I traveled to promote the book, readers asked me one question more than any other: Is it real?

Well, circumstances have forced the book to become real. Though you can click on the banner below, donations are highly recommended by Dr. Phil, because it can be tough out there being a full-time writer and these are tough times.

New installments come out every Monday and today, 15 June 2009, is the first. I've only just had time to start it, but the writing is lovely, the kind of story which cries out to be read aloud. And indeed, though I've not clicked through, there is a link to an audio version read by the author.

Come For The Call To Arms, Stay For The Party

I met Cat briefly at Penguicon 7.0, when we were all at the mass author signing, but I learned of her through Michigan writer

jimhines Jim C. Hines, as he and Cat were doing the writing workshop there. So I heard about all this on her LJ

yuki_onna. And now that this is all up and happening, I am linking it all here for your enjoyment, too.

Thanks!

Dr. Phil

Current Mood: pleased

Realms of Fantasy

RoF announced a quick demise -- one so fast that the editor hadn't been contacted before the news got out -- and it's roaring about the blogosphere. So I thought I'd mention it here. Just in the last couple of days

slushmaster was reminding people about submissions for the Halloween 2009 issue, etc. But he confirms the story here as of fifty minutes ago. Main notice is here at SFScope -- and at LocusOnline. I daresay the staff has been caught flatfooted on this one.

I don't write much fantasy, but had a couple of stories which had been slowly percolating along and I always figured I'd submit to RoF. A sudden drop in newstand sales was cited. I've actually bought RoF at Schuler's, but I haven't been to a book store in the last two months due to weather, not economics. Given that there's been bad weather everywhere, I wonder how much of this is a knee jerk bean counter response to the wrong problem? Alas...

This is the second big hit that fantasy has taken, what with the earlier cancelation of The Year's Best in Fantasy & Horror.

Dr. Phil

Current Mood: saddened

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Page Summary

Another Market Bites The Dust... Again.. Again...
Another Market Bites The Dust... Again
Spilled + Oil = Spoiled
Harlequin Steps In It Big Time -- RWA Slaps Back
Going Out With Some Style
In Which A Fellow Author Sings, In A Manner Of Speaking, For Her Supper
Another Market Bites The Dust

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Those Who Lie In Wait, Dream Deep

Entries tagged with hard times

Another Market Bites The Dust... Again.. Again...

Another Market Bites The Dust... Again

Spilled + Oil = Spoiled

Harlequin Steps In It Big Time -- RWA Slaps Back

Going Out With Some Style

In Which A Fellow Author Sings, In A Manner Of Speaking, For Her Supper

Another Market Bites The Dust