old theme for a new year
The publishing industry looks set for lean times, from the top down. Large, advertising-driven magazines are in the frontline, but I doubt any player, right down to the smallest and most irregular indie press will not feel it at some point.
In January Realms of Fantasy announced its demise, and Wheatland Press announced a hiatus. Even without a crystal ball, I can comfortably predict that these won’t be the only casualties this year.
It’s up to all of us; me, you, the person at the office, the person on the train, to join the fight.
I killed Realms of Fantasy. I never bought an issue, read an issue, advertised in an issue or encouraged anyone to check it out. While I wasn’t the only killer, I must take some responsibility for this.
We can all make a difference. We don’t have to buy everything, but we can talk about the presses doing the good stuff, let people know what great books and magazines are around. I’m not asking everyone to save every publisher single handedly, just that each one of us do a bit.
Each day, each week, each month.
Don’t shift the blame. How many publishers are we going to kill this year?
Consumers don’t kill publishers. Publishers kill publishers. I’ve heard of several cases of people trying to subscribe to Realms of Fantasy and not being able to, or being overcharged, or just ignored.
The way I see it this: all things being equal, people aren’t going to buy a book or a magazine. It’s up to the publisher to kill every excuse they have not to buy it. Excuses are things like:
- I can’t find it easily.
- It’s too expensive.
- The cover looks ugly.
- The content doesn’t seem interesting.
- It’s laid out badly.
- It’s just like that much more prestigious publication, only not quite as good so why bother?
And so on. As a reader it isn’t my responsibility to support a publisher – it’s the publisher’s responsibility to give me no reasonable choice but to support them.
Also the internet is the most important. ASIF produce a PDF version to sell as well as the physical version, so it reaches a larger audience and costs less.
HarperCollins Voyager Aust also has their own forums, where fans can talk to the authors themselves. It’s a surprisingly strong community, encouraging connection not just to the authors but to the brand of Voyager itself.
Orbit has the $1 ebooks, one bestseller a month available.
Perhaps some publishers are just not shifting with the market as well as others?
Perhaps some publishers are just not shifting with the market as well as others?
I do think the short story market in particular is shifting enough that anyone still publishing exclusively in print needs a good reason to do so – it’s not enough to just publish fiction any more, any physical magazine needs to be a beautiful-looking thing to be worth buying.