Hello Everyone,
As some of you are aware either because you received the notice or because you read about it in various corners of the web, a subscription notice recently went out for RoF. In it, our publisher wrote that he wanted to make our subscriber base aware that, as things currently stand, subscription renewals have been insufficient to support the magazine. This was not a notice informing subscribers that the magazine was being canceled. It was, as Warren put it in the note, intended to make people aware of the danger to the magazine. To this point, no one from RoF has blogged about the situation to the online world on any of our personal blog accounts or on the RoF website. However, Warren has recently asked me to do just this, and so I’m writing this to inform you all about where the magazine currently stands.
As the publisher, Warren will obviously have more details about this than I do. That said, I know a fair deal about where things stand and I’ll share with you what I can. Since Warren bought the magazine, newsstand sales have been up and advertising is definitely trending in the right direction. That’s the good news. The not-so-bright news is what I just mentioned, i.e. the subscription renewals aren’t coming in at a high enough clip. Because of that, there is indeed a danger to the magazine’s future. When Sovereign abruptly closed RoF back in 2009, it came as something of a shock to the community. So instead of risking subjecting everyone to that exact same scenario once again, Warren has chosen to make the community aware of the situation. When the magazine was initially cancelled, there was a tremendous outcry, so this time around the magazine’s new publisher is giving the speculative community the opportunity to have a say in the magazine’s future. If RoF isn’t meant to continue, it won’t be because the community as a whole didn’t have a chance to get involved.
Since Warren took over we’ve delivered a year’s worth of issues. In that time, he has been terrific to work for. He’s improved the magazine’s cover stock and he’s given us a terrific website to complement the magazine. We’ve added a column to the magazine without sacrificing any existing ones. Warren has also made the magazine available for purchase through the Kindle and we’re currently exploring other avenues to make RoF available to an even wider audience. Transitioning under a new publisher is a long process. There is no denying there have been some road bumps along the way, but we’d like to think that with each issue the revived RoF has been steadily improving. We have a lot more in the works to continue building on what we’ve started, and we’re confident that if our readers stay with us, their patience will be rewarded.
With the forthcoming August issue, we have a new graphic designer lined up, and in the next couple of months we have an exciting announcement planned concerning the magazine’s staff that we’re certain our readers will be thrilled with. Warren also has plans to re-launch a second magazine–Dreams of Decadence–under Tir Na Nog Press. Having a second speculative magazine under the same publishing company will do a lot to help complement and stabilize RoF.
We’re constantly working to improve the magazine. Creatively speaking, RoF’s future is looking bright and there is a lot to be excited about. Financially speaking, I’ve mentioned the pros and I’ve mentioned the cons. It’s fair to say we’re currently navigating some choppy waters. Behind the scenes, there has been some sacrifice involved in RoF reaching this point. But I don’t want this to sound like all gloom and doom. Our publisher has been very proactive since taking over. The subscription note he sent out is one more example of that. We have a lot of things planned for the magazine, both in its immediate and long-term future. If enough subscriptions come in, it isn’t our intention that this be a short-term fix. There are a lot of avenues we mean to capitalize on to keep this magazine running. We just need to stick around long enough to take advantage of them. If we can get through this rough patch the magazine could be secure and stable for a very long time.
In addition to doing our best to improve the magazine, the past year and change has been about rescuing RoF, transitioning under our new publisher, and getting this magazine back on track as we juggled and integrated inherited materials from Sovereign Media with new ones delivered to Tir Na Nog Press. With the publication of the August issue, the magazine’s transition from Sovereign Media to Tir Na Nog Press will be over in about every major respect you can imagine. It’s been very exciting to reach this point, and the magazine’s future is looking just as exciting, if not more so. It’s just a matter of whether we, the readers, writers, and artists will have that chance to enjoy what’s on the horizon. If not, so be it. It’s been a great ride. But if yes, we have lots more in store.
So if you’d like to see RoF continue, the easiest thing you can do is make as many people as possible aware about where things stand with the magazine. But the most important thing you can do is subscribe or renew your subscription at your earliest convenience. Writing a note like this is never easy. No one likes asking for help. But as much as RoF means to everyone on the staff, we also understand that this magazine is bigger than any of us. It belongs to the speculative community, and it has for almost sixteen years. It’s a community filled with tremendously intelligent and creative people. Not everyone in it will always see eye to eye, but when it comes to speculative literature, everyone will agree that we want what’s best for the community as a whole. But it’s not for the magazine’s publisher, editors, or columnists to state that RoF continuing is best for the community. It’s for you to decide, the readers, writers, and artists. The other editors and other publishers and other nonfiction columnists. In short, the community should decide what is best. And that’s why we’ve chosen to make you aware of the magazine’s situation. And if you should choose to support the magazine, please know it will be most appreciated and we’ll all do our best to reward your faith in and support of us.
So that’s where things stand as I write this. If you have questions, please feel free to ask. We’ll do our best to answer you. If you have concerns (besides the obvious concern for the future of the magazine), please express them. We’ll do our best to put you at ease. Thanks so much for your time.
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Just wondering if you are going to offer the magazine as a subscription to handheld devices, like the Kindle or iPad?
It would be cool for you guys (or the publisher) to have an iPad app like Marvel or Time which you download for free, log into and have access to the issues you have paid for, or if you subscribe they appear in your list on release date and a list of other publications you might like to purchase. This is particularly handy for people like me who live overseas.
You can already get the Realms of Fantasy mag online through the Kindle but, you can’t get a subscription and developing your own iPad/iPhone/Mobile app to deliver this service would enable the mag/publisher to maximise profits. You could also push free reading bits, or even wall papers, out like individual stories from past issues or past issues.
As noted in this announcement, we’re exploring additional options to make RoF available to an even wider audience. This includes additional electronic options. As to offering free content, it’s a great suggestion, but we’re already doing it. Each month we offer a different RoF reprint on the website for free. This month’s selection is “A Fish Story” by Sarah Totton: http://www.rofmag.com/a-fish-story-by-sarah-totton/
We also often offer a variety of nonfiction on the website as well, also for free.
I’d actually not read RoF in over 15 years, since the first issues, and had forgotten about this great magazine until I saw a note about the subscriptions on another site. I’ll offer that I don’t need another printed mag in my mail, but I would pay the subscription fee for the stories if they were in some electronic format. I know that there is some loss of beauty, but the short stories do lend themselves to this kind of thing. Have you considered something like an audiobook version of the magazine to the print mag where the authors could read their stories?
I’ve occasionally heard of your magazine before but never read it. And I am nearly broke myself, but after browsing your site I went ahead and got a subscription. Hate to see good fantasy magazine die. Hope this helps keep it afloat and I will share this blog post with my Facebook friends.
Good luck; cheers!
Thank you very much, Marina.
Logan, we’re currently available on Kindle, albeit not in subscription form, only from issue to issue. Our most recent issue available through Kindle is April 2010. I would imagine June 2010 (the current issue) will be available soon. The link is here: http://www.amazon.com/Realms-Fantasy-April-2010-ebook/dp/B003D7LW6I/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1269893824&sr=1-3
We’re currently exploring other electronic options.
Hello, this is me from the Black Gate blog.
I read your correction of me on two issues I pointed out from memory, and while I did not say them out of any intent to deceive, perhaps due to the length of time and confusion with many more magazines active I was mistaken so I have politely retracted them.
—-Specifically, my memory of that “Troll” story and the “Alumni Only” though again it was ’03 ish I went submitting it;-)
So, polite apologies, I meant in no way, shape or form any deception or deliberate misinformation and since I didn’t buy the “Troll” issue or any issue saying “Alumni Only” I’ll retract, and I’d be glad if it was one of the likely out of business much earlier magazines that did either horrible offense… I’m quite open with opinions but I think the truth is most important… I’ve also made notice on BlackGate.
Anyways, I have another question for you; I keep hearing the name “Warren”… Is that any connection to THE “Warren” aka “Creepy, Vampirella, etc.” and tons of other “Pulps” that carried on until the 70s/80s?
If so, I really, REALLY wish he’d do another “Retro Pulp” thing, something rabidly non-PC, and I’d even work out a neat idea. Won’t go into it here since I went into it in length on the other board, but I’d like a totally non-PC one full of art, stories, ala “Adventure Fantasy” perhaps combined with other cool dead pulps like “Men today”…?
I tried in my post, not so much to gripe though I ended up doing that, as to say “this is why I didn’t buy it”/”this is what I’d like to buy”.
One magazine that I really liked that I eagerly bought EVERY issue the second it came out right till the end was “Fantasy Illustrated”. I devoured it like a starving shark in a shipwreck that dumped thousands of french toy poodles into the ocean!
In any ways I wish you good luck keeping afloat or your next ventures. And if you are going to add some elements like I like I’ll consider buying/subscribing, etc.
Green, no worries at all. I wasn’t upset, but it was something I thought it best to address. Thanks for the redaction. I’m pretty sure you’re thinking of a different Warren. Warren Lapine didn’t get involved with publishing speculative literature until well after the 70s. It might have even been after the 80s that he started publishing in this field. I’m not sure. By the time I met him he’d already been around publishing for a while …but not that long!
Thanks for the good wishes.
Run an online contest; have writers submit a portion of their story for readers to vote on. Therefore, the readers who chose a story for publication might buy the magazine in order to read the whole story.
You can run it as an addition to your main site, which would enable you to use a free service. weebly.com, groups.yahoo.com, wordpress.com
Ask for submissions from writers and artist who accept payment as publication. Tir Na Nog Press can save a great deal of money even if this is done temporarily.
Seek out new artist from schools and online communities who may want to be published in a magazine for credit alone.
Remember, a true writer or artist just wants to be recognized…pay or no pay.
Love your magazine,
Subscriber,
Crystal
Hi Crystal,
Shawna once wrote an editorial in an older issue about contests and why the magazine doesn’t have them. Essentially, she said that the submissions piles represent one giant ongoing contest to get into the magazine. It’s kind of true when you think about it. I’m not sure if I’ve heard the idea of a contest wherein readers vote on stories they like. However, I think I can speak for Shawna when I say that we’d both be hesitant to conduct a story in which people vote on just part of a story. Over the years, I’ve read a lot of stories in the slush that start out great only to peter out at some point in the middle or end. So while some people might be intrigued at what the rest of such a story offers, there would be no promise that such stories would deliver. If they didn’t–and that is a distinct possibility when you only read part of a story–such a contest would ultimately hurt our product as opposed to helping it. Maybe not in the short term, but certainly in the long term.
As to asking for submissions from writers and artists who accept payment as publication, again, I think we’d end up hurting our product. For starters, we would lose our SFWA status. Without that, a lot of upcoming writers would choose to submit their stories to places recognized by SFWA. I also fear that a lot of excellent writers and artists who are established would stop working with us if we stop paying. I’m not sure the new folks we bring in would make up for all the ones we lose, which would be a significant number. I’m sure we’d find some good ones. You always do. But I’m not convinced we’d make up the difference concerning what we’d lose. In the end, I strongly suspect that you and other readers would find yourselves left with a magazine that you like far less.
All the same, your suggestions are most appreciated. Any other ones you’d like to make are also more than welcome. Thanks for the kind words about the magazine.
A true writer only wants to be recognized? I can only laugh. You obviously haven’t seen Harlan Ellison’s online interview where he berates the writers that are so willing to work for nothing? I’d have to echo Douglas’s sentiment here. If RoF became non-paying it would move straight down a writer’s submission list. Most writers I know start at the top market and work their way down the list.
Anyway, I just wanted to say that I’ve been a subscriber for a year and during that year I’ve been entertained by the fantastic stories in the mag. I’ll be renewing my subscription immediately. I’ve also posted on my Facebook about this and I hope that this meagre contribution of mine can help in some way.
I’ve never read your magazine, but just read a blog post about you needing subscribers, and after some looking around on your web page, I thought I could give it a try. But still, I didn’t get a subscription, and maybe you’d like to know why.
First, I’m much more interested in an electronic subscription. But offering digital content for Kindle only means that you are locking out the majority of your readers who prefer digital. Even if you must have DRM (which doesn’t make much sense, as it is a hassle to paying customers and doesn’t prevent piracy), why don’t you start with a format which virtually anybody can use – say, a locked .pdf which anybody can get directly from your site – and then add platform-specific formats for the comfort of users who have chosen a platform?
Second, I thought that maybe I could live with a paper subscription after all, if the material is good. All I saw was a PayPal button where I could pay $30 to get a year’s international subscription. There was absolutely no additional information. Do I have to pay shipping costs beside the $30? Do I pay some kind of VAT? Do I pay import fees or something? Does it just get dropped into my mailbox, or is it some kind of insured package for which I have to be home to place a signature? Which service do you use for sending the magazine? I didn’t even see how to tell you my home address, or do you just send everything to the address named in my PayPal account?
While I can understand that you need a lot of time and resources to start offering a customer-friendly digital format, it should be easy to add all relevant information about the traditional subscriptions on your site. This could get a lot of uncertain people to decide in favour of a subscription.
I just discovered your magazine today, and it was an easy choice to pick up a subscription. Thank io9 and Boing Boing for their publication of your current status! Just a reminder to all you self employed spec fiction writers out there, something like this may indeed be tax deductible as a trade magazine for your craft!
Thanks very much for your support.
Michael,
Thanks for the nice words about the magazine and thanks for all of your support. But no need to laugh at anyone, my friend. Like you, Crystal is just trying to help.
I’d be happy to help free however I can. I’m a freelance writer/editor. I edit for a local micropublisher, Cyberwizard Productions, have 4 columns at Examiner.com, contribute to North Texas eNews, published short stories, and do websites for authors. I don’t want to see such a classy sff mag go down. Let me know how I can help
Alley
I’ll have to admit the magazine isn’t what I’d hoped for. Too much on gaming, too many fantasy romance adverts, no letter column, and a large number of stories involving pre-industrial societies. I was hoping it would more along the lines of UNKNOWN (1939-1943), which had a perfect balance of humor, horror, and modern and “medieval” fantasies, and FANTASTIC from 1960-1964, which had tons of great stories. Where are today’s Fritz Leibers, John Jakes’s, Robert Arthurs, Robert F. Youngs, Roger Zelaznys, Charles Beaumonts, Theodore Sturgeons? It’s been a long time since I’ve enjoyed a frisson from reading a story.
We actually published a Zelazny tale in our very first issue. And I know we reprinted one Sturgeon tale. Sorry the magazine isn’t for you, but hey, it sounds like you gave it a try. Thanks for taking the time to check it out.
@ Rumtscho:
Right now our only electronic option is Kindle, but we’re currently exploring PDFs, nook, Sony, and Iphones.
As to your questions about a physical subscription for an international subscriber, I’m afraid that’s a little bit outside of my department since I don’t process subscriptions. I wouldn’t want to give you faulty information, but you can easily check this information with our customer service department: realmsorders@publishersserviceassociates.com
Thanks so much for your interest.
I’ll still renew when the time comes—I think I’m up to 2011. I’ll support you and your Great Work. Now, about that revival of Fantastic you alluded to a year or more ago….(Hint Hint!)
Lol. I’ll leave that one for Warren, but in terms of magazines I do know that beyond RoF, his current focus is on re-launching Dreams of Decadence. After that, well, like I said, I’ll leave that for Warren.
I am subscribing again (had a subscription many years ago for my daughter, who was into fantasy gaming at the time). I hope this little bit helps.
Re the pdf. option, I subscribe to the digital format of The Nation Magazine. I get an email letting me know when each issue is ready for download. The process takes only a few minutes, and I have each issue on my computer hard-drive for perusal at my leisure. Saves a bunch of paper, also. Just a thought.
Thanks very much for the support. From what I understand, our webmaster is currently working on making a PDF version available.
I used to subscribe a number of years ago for several years, but the magazine’s direction in regards to its articles, not to mention many of the covers, drove me away (although the stories and the Folkroots column still held my interest). Honestly, until a couple of months ago, I figured it had long since gone the unfortunate way of many magazines. When I realized it hadn’t, I picked up a copy and thought I might give it another try. Figures now would be the time that it might really come to an end. I hope I will be able to subscribe, but this is a bad time for me. If the magazine can make it just a couple of more months, I will be subscribing then. Oh, and for some of us we don’t give a hoot about electronic options, some of us still want hardcopies!
I was saddened to hear about RoF situation but I was not surprised given the current economic climate and the rapidly changing print environment.
Times have changed, like most folk I love hard copies but with a mortgage and food to put on the table I cannot justify the cost of a printed copy. Not just that but my life has changed with technology, I carry a work laptop and an iTouch with me when I travel – I don’t carry books or magazines – I get eBooks and generally these are cheaper and more convenient for me. I would wager that a good percentage of fans are in my situation too.
I would reiterate what a number of others have said and suggest you work on electronic publishing options. I’ll be one of the first to buy an electronic subscription as a pdf or suitable for iPhone(that would be the best option).
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. As I’ve said, we are exploring other electronic options in addition to Kindle. Our webmaster is actually working on our pdf version and should have it ready soon. And we’ll continue pursuing other avenues after the pdf is up and running.
Dear Realms of Fantasy,
Sorry to hear of your recent woes. I have posted your banner on my website
http://xenophon.page.tl/Captain-h-s-Blog.htm
to help support you. If you have a better one, send me a copy and I will post it instead. Hopefully, I will be submitting to your great magazine one day. We live in an age where reading is on the decline and need to do all we can to keep the genre alive.
Thank you for your support.
Hi, just a quick suggestion to try and help you reach more readers. You could use our site at http://www.eliberato.com There are currently over 70 categories to list publications and eBooks in – but if you can’t find a category to suit you please email me and let me know what you would like and I can ask for a category to be created for you. Hope this helps – because we all love what you are doing!
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Thanks. I’ll pass this along to our publisher and webmaster.