Busting a myth: “only writers subscribe to genre magazines”

http://neil-clarke.com/busting-a-myth/

by ilamont • 3 years ago

37 26 3 years ago

neil-clarke.com

hoppyhoppy2• 3 years ago

https://web.archive.org/web/http://neil-clarke.com/busting-a...

Alexss• 3 years ago

This is interestingly close to the off-repeated line that on a forum 10% of users comment and 1% create content.

mighmi• 3 years ago

Here is a great treatment with sources, musing on the real meaning of it: https://www.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/comments/9rvroo/most...

NoMoreNicksLeft4• 3 years ago

Only rich people subscribe to genre magazines. Like, I really like Clarkesworld, but between it, Analog, Asimov's, and a few others... I just can't.

And last I checked, libgen hasn't had any Clarkesworld since about 2019.

bigbillheck2• 3 years ago

For the record, at time of writing, an electronic Clarkesworld subscription appears to be $2.99/month, increasing to $3.99/month in September.

NoMoreNicksLeft4• 3 years ago

It's not my first choice of science magazine subscription. So at $50/year, how much am I spending on subscriptions?

Is their digital-only subscription any cheaper? Don't need the paper one. If I do have to pay $50/year for their digital only subscription, do I get access to their back catalog for that, or only the new ones going forward?

I'm not just picking on Clarkesworld. For the longest time now, Analog has been under the impression that it's ok to half-ass it and have their digital edition not match up with the paper edition, not to mention refusing to release it in standard formats. Quite frankly, in a world where even National Geographic can't make it, what hope is there for these pulps? In an earlier time you might liken them to the farm leagues for genre novel publishing, but that's dying too.

qingcharles2• 3 years ago

That's a lot of reading, if you're reading them from cover-to-cover.

NoMoreNicksLeft4• 3 years ago

Analog and Asimov's were bimonthly last I had subscribed, just 7 or 8 per year. They're not even novel-sized. When I had more time to read, I could keep up with those and still read 5 or 6 novels per month.

Dunno what I would have done if I'd been alive when there were more titles in publication. I think of the old stuff, I like Worlds of If, archive.org has most of those. The new stuff's a little too pandering anyway.

veave• 3 years ago

What is a genre magazine? I googled it and got a list of magazine genres, which I think is not the same thing

maxbond• 3 years ago

I think they mean something like say, Lightspeed Magazine is a genre magazine, and the genre is scifi.

However, we seem to have saturated their database connections (friends don't let friends have connection pools without bounds/with the wrong bounds, especially not to serve static content), so I haven't read the article. [ETA: Did read it, am now positive.]

robertlagrant2• 3 years ago

Friends don't let friends serve static content in a way that involves a database!

A_D_E_P_T2• 3 years ago

A literary magazine that focuses on a particular genre of fiction. These typically publish short stories and novellas, but sometimes serialize longer works. (e.g., Dune was serialized in Analog magazine.)

The blogger, Neil Clarke, runs a science fiction genre magazine called Clarkesworld. Other science fiction genre magazines include Asimov's, Analog, and F&SF.

Other genres, including so-called "literary fiction," all have their own magazines. Apparently none of them are doing particularly well, because short stories are now out of fashion. The trend right now is to make everything as long as possible: Don't write a novella if you can write a novel, and don't write a novel if you can write a three-part (or seven-part!) series.

the_af2• 3 years ago

It's a shame literary gigantism has become fashionable or at least marketable.

Novels are ok, but I've come to despise "book series". It seems everything wants to grow and, if possible, become a Netflix show.

Short fiction is a marvelous art form, which requires a precision with plot and/or words that is hard to match. Novels have room to breathe and grow, but there's no such luxury with a short story: every word matters.

Few things are as enjoyable as a well-crafted short story.

mediumdeviation• 3 years ago

"Genre" here means genre fiction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genre_fiction, the sort of mass-market books like romance, fantasy, science fiction and horror. Compare with literary fiction like classics and poetry. It can be used derogatorily to separate commercial literature from "real" literature since genre fiction were usually printed on cheap trade paperbacks, sold in volume and read for entertainment compared to more serious literary and artistic fiction, but I don't think many people today would make that distinction.

boomboomsubban• 3 years ago

I'm not disagreeing with the author, but how many of the 5300 subscribers are libraries or similar institutions? That seems like it could be a significant portion of the non corporate subscriber base.

jackvalentine• 3 years ago

I subscribe to Clarkesworld because I love a good short story and I want my house to be filled with boxes of books that my son can discover when he’s old enough and if he’s inclined the same way I was as a kid reading what my parents did.

hn30000• 3 years ago

I’m an author and I never hear this, what I hear is “only writers subscribe to lit fic magazines.”

Busting a myth: “only writers subscribe to genre magazines”

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