Comments on: Vanishing Print Zines

By: Terry Martin

Terry Martin — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 17:47:15 +0000

I hope Lawrence’s statement that one magazine “is simply not answering subs or queries” isn’t aimed at us, but I’m afraid we at Murky Depths have been a bit remiss in that department this year. Mainly due to personal reasons that I won’t bore you with, but death, marriage and building sum them up. Our turnaround time for submissions at the moment can be anything from two days to eight months.
Any time spent away from pushing Murky Depths has a marked impression on sales and, like Kaolin and Fred, I find it frustrating that such good products are still unknown to the vast market that’s out there – and I do believe the market is easily big enough to take the diverse publications that you list here, Bill, as well as the hundreds that you’ll find at Ralan and Duotrope, which is where at least half of our site hits come from. The shout, of course, of “I told you so”, then goes up that it’s only writers who buy the mags. Wrong. Few of the writers who submit to us seem even bothered to read the guidelines let alone buy a copy, yet once contributors have received their contributor copies they quite often come back and buy later issues. But the question still remains: How do you reach that market? While Murky Depths is published in the UK it is mailed to all corners of the world, but our shipping costs to the USA are half again as much as the cover price. US publications should have a huge advantage over Murky Depths with a mainland audience that means far cheaper shipping costs yet we’re still receiving new subscriptions (and re-subscriptions) from the States (and other parts of the world).
I think there’s a lot more mileage for debate with the issue of small press. Distribution companies are either not interested (though some apologise guiltily) or want huge sums up front to minimise the risk. Risk? Gardners in the UK, who distribute to Waterstones, take 57% of the cover price, and then you’ve shipping costs on top – plus it’s sale or return! So I loose money on every copy that’s sold through Gardners, and a huge hit if they’re returned. How is that encouraging new ventures?

By: Lyn

Lyn — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 03:12:52 +0000

Free content (of practically every communication medium) via the internet has indeed disrupted the traditional model where primarily large conglomerates control and distribute product to consumers. And that has disrupted the traditional two-prong revenue stream that companies and creators depend on: advertising and subscriptions. Overconfidently dependent on advertising money, many newspapers, magazines, and television shows (for example) followed the wave and made their content available for free in order to gain viewers. With advertising dollars drying up in this recession the media groups are realizing that they gave away the farm and are now contemplating reinstating subscriptions for online viewers. They are having a hard time and will continue to struggle making money during this technilogicaly transitional age. Unfortunately, the issues are exacerbated for small presses and independent media companies. The answer, as mentioned above, is likely in the niche appeal of such media – but that still doesn’t answer the distribution question. Thanks for your article, Bill, and everyone’s thoughts. This is a very timely conversation. Lyn

By: Bill Ward

Bill Ward — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:49:05 +0000

I think niche appeal and artist-to-consumer marketing and sales (via the internet, of course) is probably going to be the wave of the future for artists of any kind outside the corporate world.

By: Ben Miner

Ben Miner — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 20:27:29 +0000

This feels to me like one more victim of our current age of technology-in-transition. As with record stores and bookstores (and records and books), this is a very difficult time for anyone looking to sell ideas in a physical medium. Obviously, as ever more people switch to online sources, the cost of production and printing goes up…and as fewer people rely on newsstands (I can’t tell you the last time I’ve even seen one of those outside of NYC) or bricks & mortar, the printed stuff that does exist has precious little opportunity to penetrate the market. In this scenario, the chance of genre fiction zines ending up in the hands of a casual non-genre fan is somewhat remote.

Do I think I’m relaying new and profound insights here? Not really, you’ve surely arrived at these conclusions on your own. But the topic is of interest to me as I see more and more of my favorite small businesses go under due to what feels like an inevitable tide. The hurdle now, it seems to me, is how independent artists can make their work available via the internet in such a way that they make some reasonable money on the transaction – while at the same time figuring out some new presentation of their work such that it doesn’t get dismissed as amateur.

No real easy answers here, but I have a feeling we’ll be seeing some in the next several years.

By: Apex Magazine Reanimates — BillWardWriter.com

Apex Magazine Reanimates — BillWardWriter.com — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 16:09:42 +0000

[...] I swear it won’t.Nice to have a good newsie sort of follow up to my sky-is-falling recent post on Vanishing Print Zines. Seems Jason Sizemore over at Apex just doesn’t want to let his monster die, so he’s [...]

By: Bill Ward

Bill Ward — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 02:52:06 +0000

Kaolin & Fred, I’d be curious how to get the word out to — but I suppose that really is the 64 million dollar question everybody has been wondering. Aside from getting yourselves on a reality TV show, I don’t have any ideas.

Lawrence, I hadn’t any idea of that, I’ll admit my roundup of extant print mags at the end of the piece wasn’t based on exhaustive, up-to-the-minute research, but from what you’re saying sounds like we may have a few more names to add to the dead pile in future.

I don’t think the outlook is completely bleak (am I contradicting myself? I’m allowed to do that), but print is taking a hit. Whether it rebounds, or we see e-zines expand, or, indeed, whether this is just all a natural boom/bust cycle that we (or just me) are too close to to look at objectively, time will tell.

By: lawrence

lawrence — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 22:35:18 +0000

Interesting post, but I’ll have to say some of the new magazines you mention as apparently going strong are, in fact, seemingly on shaky ground. One is begging for money via “discount” subs for cash flow to pay OLD outstanding bills and not answering queries, while another is simply not answering subs or queries.

I guess my point here is just because a magazine has a nice spiffy listing on ralan’s or duotrope and seems to be around for longer than six months doesn’t meant it’s really going to be around another six months. There are easily identifiable warning signs that seem to be universal…

By: Fred Coppersmith

Fred Coppersmith — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:04:30 +0000

Thanks for the shout-out to Kaleidotrope, Bill! The zine really is a labor of love, kept afloat by support like this. It can be tough out there for print publications — postage and production costs keep going up, even when readership numbers don’t, and it’s sad when a great venue like Talebones closes down — but there’s no lack of great writing out there that’s worth sharing.

Of course, I hope people will check out some of that writing in Kaleidotrope. Issue #6 just came out in April, and the two before that have fun stories by Bill himself.

And, like Kaolin Fire, I’m curious how we can reach more people — specifically people who are interested and invested in the genre, but who maybe haven’t heard of any of the magazines mentioned above.