How Can Science Fiction Magazines Be Successful in the Digital Age?
Simon Owens has an excellent article at the PBS Media Shift blog in which he looks at sf magazine circulation in the age of the Internet. The article is called Pulp Magazines Struggle to Survive in Wired World and has contributions from Asimov’s Science Fiction editor Sheila Williams, Fantasy & Science Fiction editor Gordon Van Gelder, and author John Scalzi.
A brief excerpt:
The figures displayed in this year’s Locus Magazine roundup were, as usual, not promising…
But these publications began experiencing turbulence well before the proliferation of the web, so it’s apparent that their problems are in many ways different than the ones currently plaguing the newspaper industry — a medium that thrived until it was suddenly met with vibrant competition from the web. But science fiction magazines are struggling to stay relevant in the Internet age.
I will reiterate Simon’s closing question here: How can science fiction magazines be successful in the digital age?
Related posts:
- The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction Goes Digital
- Portraying Science Fiction Writers as Wealthy
- Has Fantasy Overtaken Science Fiction?
- Science Fiction, Science Present
- Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine Extends to MySpace
Filed under: Books
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As I Said over on John Scalzi’s blog at some point you have to look at the actual contents. Maybe it’s the fiction itself that’s the problem. I occasionally read through summaries and it seems like most of the stories are downers. A steady diet of that doesn’t interest me.
Go electronic. Go interactive.
Several reasons: Cost savings–check the prices of pulp. Drop that and you save money. Check the cost of distribution. Electronic is cheaper. Interactive allows the fans to feeback faster and feel like they are part of the magazine. Maybe even accept “amateur fiction” and break in some new pros that way.
I really like Jim Baen’s Universe–there’s a couple of stories by new writers, a couple by pros, a couple by up and coming, a mix of fantasy, SF, non-fiction, etc.
I continue to buy Analog out of loyalty, but I’ve stopped with Asimov’s and F&SF.
Well, at the risk of sounding very snarky, they could start by publishing stuff readers want to read.
I’ve made this point before (only to be told to STFU) yet I will make it again.
I can hand a space opera to someone who is roughly interested in SF and they’ll read it. If I try to hand them a copy of one of the three big mags, they’ll thumb through it, fiddle with a few of the stories before putting it down.
The usual response?
“Boring.”
It seems to me that over the past ten years, rather than expanding our appeal in terms of readers, we are narrowing our appeal. More to the point, we are prepared to throw overboard entire subgenres within the field (try to find a decent mil SF story in the mags that isn’t a Joe Haldeman clone or worse).
The product, at the end of the day, is a very literary, heavy on style monkeyism, story which might just have a thin sheen of SF patina on it. Toss in the constant polemical nonsense, cardboard stereotypes of the military, the midwest and the South (Jesusland, anyone?) and is it any real wonder that many folks find something better to do with their recreational time?
I guess the next question to ask is this. Is the graphic novel experiencing the same problem? I do not get the impression that it is, nor the manga based adaptions. Young folks will read and so will their twenty-something peers. But the strategy we are following is not effective and it seems to be alienating far more than we are bringing in.
For what it is worth. I’m probably shouting at the walls again.
S. F. Murphy
On the Outer Marches
I don’t have much to add except to agree completely with S.F. Murphy’s comment above. I’d love to have a monthly SF and Fantasy fiction mag to read. But, geez, most of the stories in the ones on the stands these days are terrible.
I used to buy the occasional issue of Asimov’s or F&SF, but it’s been several years since I’ve done that. There are a couple of reasons:
- The mags are hard to find. I’m no longer near a good book store, and even Borders only seems to occasionally have the pulps on their newsstand shelves.
- The contents aren’t that interesting to me. The issues that I’ve browsed through recently might have one story that I’m really interested in reading. That doesn’t seem worth the cover price. It’s not like I miss out on the stories, since I do purchase annual “best of” anthologies.
- I already have plenty to read. I have a whole folder full of novels and short stories that I’ve legally downloaded, but haven’t had a chance to read yet. Why buy more when new stories are being released online every day?
I do still buy novels and anthologies because I prefer reading from paper, particularly because I do most of my pleasure reading in bed. But those give me lots of bang for my buck. The pulps simply don’t fit my reading habits and pocketbook.
I love F&SF. Always have. But I let my subscription lapse partially because there were too many back issues cluttering my already groaning shelves. Then I got a Sony Reader (which is really cool and readable and fun), and recently I discovered that Fictionwise sells digital subscriptions to my favourite mag. Needless to say, I’m in. I just read the October/November issue and it was great. I’m thinking this is the way to save SF mags in the digital age — go digital.
This is unfair since I am not writing a lot of short fiction any more, and I am so faithful to F & SF and so very thrilled to see what a great job Sheila has done with Asimovs, and I think Stan Schmidt is a great man and have many friends who write for Analog, and who do these exciting stories and funny stories and cool stories we all love.
so
http://www.bookviewcafe.com
I’m doing a blog post every Tuesday that is a description of a “creature” from my creatiary. I might put a funny original SF story up too that I think people will like who like the great SF we all remember and love. It’s about how these two aliens were responsible for Piltdown man as well as the discovery of early man in the California desert. And they sell common items like Clove gum and Bob’s (yes, different in the South) Big Boy bobbleheads on intergalactic eBay with the help of their curiously-different looking, hairy friend Tim. His ex always did say he was a Neanderthal.
You mean like that type of stuff??
I agree with a lot of what S. F. Murphy said.
To understand why written SF is “boring” and declining just look at culture trends and call it “failure by success.” Basically, all the pulp values of science fiction have gotten diffused or subsumed into wider culture:
As a result of all those juicy bits “leaving the reservation” during the 1980′s and 90′s, written science fiction became “serious” and conceptual with the pulp ‘zines becoming hymnals for the orthodoxy.
So, what would a digitally reborn SF look like (in my opinion)?
In short, the next written SF revival will happen when someone offers smart, subversive escapism that is promoted virally, packaged in convenient digital form and invites deeper participation with the story through digital community, products and tie-ins.