Calling Stephen!

I was thinking of taking the plunge and subscribing to Weird Tales, when lo and behold, I spotted a New Year's special on the website where I can save (one 4-issue subscription for $20).

Main page here: http://weirdtales.net/wordpress/

New Year's Special subscription link takes you here: http://wildsidepress.3dcartstores.com/W ... 21-37.html

Is that the best way to go ahead and to that? Just follow the link and do it, or is there a better, more advantageous way?

And can I get some sort of kick-back, or start some sort of inappropriate skimming arrangement?

Wow, this magazine's still being published eh?

Jay! Yes, that's the simplest & best way to do it. It may not be clear from the verbiage, but Wildside Press is our publisher, not just a reseller -- there aren't any better subscription deals to be had then our direct ones.



Tell you what: I declare an extra-special IMWAN deal. Any WANker who subscribes to Weird Tales will start off with a free copy of our recent 85th anniversary issue, the one with the new Michael Moorcock Elric novella and the awesome China Mieville interview and the excerpt from The Science of Dune and the big feature on the 85 Weirdest Storytellers of the Past 85 Years. Just use the coupon code "imwan2009" when you check out at the Wildside Press shopping cart.

If I may pull a Steinbrennian info-dump but quote my own website instead of Wikipedia:



I came on board in late 2006 and we started a big overhaul process: bringing in a new editorial team, lots of fantastic new artists and writers, adding new columns & features, etc. It's still a small-press indie mag... but it feels like we've started to build some nice momentum over the past two years.

I'm just surprised there's still a market for this type of serial fiction.

The market just grew by one subscriber. Done!

Two, actually.

(I meant to subscribe when I saw the China Mieville piece but forgot to, then the Neil Gaiman reader thing pulled me in.)

It's a good magazine with not just fiction, but a nice new nonfiction section and some fine interviews.

I'm glad it's still around. I think the book that spawned the mighty Conan should have a place alongside Action Comics and Detective Comics.

It would be great if Marvel would publish a comic titled Marvel Comics.

Striking out "serial" and replacing it with "short," your point nonetheless still stands -- it's a small market. That's why we've been thinking and working and planning and experimenting to begin building the magazine into something bigger than an old-school pulp fiction mag. As many loosely defined youngsters in the sf scene have been pointing out for years (most recently Warren Ellis), the remaining short-fiction magazines (Asimov's, Analog, F&SF, and previously WT before 2007) have been slowly but consistently losing subscribers for decades straight now without doing a damned thing to expand the scope of their product. At WT we've said enough is enough: it's the 21st century and we're going to start thinking that way, pulp history or not.

Is there a magazine devoted to the state of sci fi/fantasy literarture? Like a Wizard for those genres?

There's really not, except for the SFF publishing trade journal Locus, which is a decent enough industry-insider rag, but of very limited interest to non-pros. Why isn't there such a magazine? I'd say it's partly because the "journalistic" SFF magazines (guffaw) have always followed the easier path of focusing on filmed entertainment, and partly because SFF fandom has been an integral part of the internet since the beginning, so the need for establishing community through a print magazine isn't as strong anymore.

Now, all that said, do I think Weird Tales could BE that magazine? Yeah, theoretically, I do. It'll take a while, though.

What a coincidence-- this week's Permanent Damage is all about REH and the pulps-- http://comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=19456

And, quite frankly, the magazines that have attempted to fill this niche have kinda sucked. There have been a few startups since the early 1990s, but few lasted more than a year, and none really hit the mark.

The Internet factor is pretty huge, though. You're right. Not only does it doa good job, but it gives fans an opportunity to be involved in the dialogue, which is pretty important, in my opinion.

I know it's not the kind of magazine we're talking about, but the new generation will never understand what a "connectedness" feeling I got from the magazine Starlog. Just opening up it's pages was like entering my world. Every copy I got became dog eared and tattered.

I would like to get into The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction before it dies once and for all. Asimov's is more prestigious, yes, and Analog probably is, too -- and I think they both pay better and (maybe) have a wider readership -- but TMoFaSF is the one I used to grab from time to time. Plus, it's published right here in New Jersey. So that one would be a win for me.

I got my package from Weird Tales today. That Neil Gaiman Reader is a much nicer book than I expected. It's, like, a legitimately cool book on Gaiman's work that I'm glad to have in my library. Awesome!

Also interesting that the issue featuring a China Mieville interview arrived today, because in the same batch of mail I got a copy of
Un Lun Dun, his latest book.

I got mine today. That was quick!

...which I still haven't read, but I've heard lots of good things about.

Since you guys posted about it, I just read that interview. Pleasantly surprised to see so much discussion about The Terror (Dan Simmons) which was probably my favorite new novel of 2007.

Simmons' new book, Drood, comes out February 9. I can't wait.