Questions about publishing short fiction online
A few months ago, I was at a retirement party for a newspaper editor and the subject of publishing material online for free came up. “Who ever thought it was a good idea to give away your main product for free?” asked one veteran journalist. “I remember when I was at Time and we looked at it. One of the smartest people I know said, ‘If you start giving it away, no one’s going to pay for it.’”
That comment has been echoing in my head a lot lately. At Readercon, a veteran editor told me, “Even with PayPal, I think it’s going to get harder and harder to get anyone to pay for anything online. There’s just too much out there for free.”
On August 3, John Scalzi posted in his blog (http://scalzi.com/whatever/?p=1231) that his story “After the Coup” published at www.tor.com has already gotten 49,566 hits, which is close to the combined circulations for Asimov’s, Analog, and F&SF. When I pointed out that he was comparing the number of paying customers with the number of people who took a freebie, he replied, ‘Well, on my end, I’m comparing eyeballs to eyeballs.’”
Here at F&SF, we’re open to experimentation and for the past year or so, we’ve been publishing one reprint a month on our Website. Last month, the free story was “The Political Officer” by Charles Coleman Finlay. A few days ago, someone posted on our message board (http://nightshadebooks.com/discus/messages/378/12233.html?1219150161) that he wanted to read that story. I explained that it was no longer on our Website but he could buy a copy of that back issue from us or from Fictionwise.
As I did so, I realized that I was putting a reader in a position where he had to decide if he would pay for something he could have had for free just a few days earlier . . . which doesn’t strike me as a good position. I know that I don’t like being asked to make such a choice.
So I started to wonder: has short fiction been devalued by the fact that so many places offer it for free online nowadays?
I was thinking of this question in terms of contrast with trilogies. The format of a trilogy has been around for a long time, but I think it’s accurate to say that in the 1970s and ‘80s, book publishers (especially the team of Lester and Judy-Lynn del Rey) trained readers to expect fantasy fiction to come in series formats, particularly in sets of three. For instance, Stephen Donaldson’s original Chronicles of Thomas Covenant were one book—the del Reys split it into three volumes and published the trilogy to great success. Nowadays, it’s noteworthy when someone published a fantasy novel and nothing indicates that the book is the start of a series.
I look at trilogies and the form appears to me to be thriving. But I don’t see many publishers giving away the books for free. By contrast, I see publishers posting short fiction for free in many places, but I don’t see many of those publishers reaping rewards for their efforts. I think short fiction giveaways have been good for individual authors, but are they working for publishers?
Also, I realized that I’ve done something extremely stupid. I’ve run an experiment without trying to measure the results. Sure, we’ve looked at the number of hits our online stories and columns get, and we’ve done one or two other things to measure the effects of our online publications, but we’ve never done a survey.
So I’m posting now to ask for feedback on a few things:
- When you read a story online that you like, do you feel inclined to support the publisher of the piece?
- Have you ever subscribed to a print magazine on account of a story you read on their site?
- Most magazine publishers post their Hugo- and Nebula-nominated stories online for free. If F&SF started charging the cost of an issue to read these stories, would you do so?
- Do you think the prevalence of free short fiction online has made you less inclined to pay for short fiction?
Please note that I’m trying to keep the discussion just to fiction (not articles).
If you would care to do so, I’d be grateful if you’d include your age with your post. No need to get specific—I just want to know if you’re in your teens or if you’re in your eighties.
And finally, please be aware that I plan to convert this post into an editorial for the print magazine, so don’t post anything here that you wouldn’t want me to reprint. If you’d like to comment but don’t want to do so in public, you can use the Contact Us form on our Website (here: http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/contact.htm). Write “DNQ” on your email if you don’t want to be quoted.
Thanks for your feedback.
—GVG
World Fantasy Award ballot
This year’s World Fantasy Award ballot is out: http://locusmag.com/2008/0806WorldFantasyNominations.html
Congrats to Ian MacLeod and to Lucius Shepard.
Regarding my own nomination, well, the first time I was nominated (back in ‘96, before I got the job editing F&SF), I asked one of the judges, “Is this a case where you couldn’t nominate all the players so you nominated the manager?”
She stopped, thought, and said, “Well, yeah, that’s about right.”
I suspect that my nomination this year is the same sort of thing. So this manager wants to take a moment to point out the fantasy stories we published in 2007:
“Two Weeks After” by M. Ramsey Chapman
“Dance of Shadows” and “The Diamond Shadow” by Fred Chappell
“The Recreation Room” by Albert E. Cowdrey
“Car 17″ by P. E. Cunningham
“The Bone Man” by Frederic S. Durbin
“The Mole Cure” by Nancy Farmer
“Elegy” by Melanie Fazi
“At These Prices” by Esther M. Friesner
“The Devil Bats Will Be a Little Late This Year” by Ron Goulart
“Unpossible” by Daryl Gregory
“Requirements for the Mythology Merit Badge” by Kevin Haw
“The Helper and His Hero” by Matthew Hughes
“Wizard’s Six” by Alex Irvine
“Wrong Number” by Alexander Jablokov
“Episode Seven” by John Langan
“Atalanta Loses at the Interpantheonic Trivia Bee” by Heather Lindsley
“A Thing Forbidden” by Donald Mead
“Fool” by John Morressy
“Fragrant Goddess” by Paul Park
“The Dark Boy” by Marta Randall
“Magic with Thirteen-Year-Old Boys” by Robert Reed
“Memoir of a Deer Woman” and “Don’t Ask” by M. Rickert
“Against the Current” by Robert Silverberg
“Stone and the Librarian” by William Browning Spencer
“Urdumheim” by Michael Swanwick
“Cold Comfort” by Ray Vukcevich
“The Great White Bed” by Don Webb
“Kaleidoscope” by K. D. Wentworth
“Onocentaur” by Sophie White
“A Wizard of the Old School” by Chris Willrich
Thank you all (and anyone I might have accidentally missed) for letting F&SF publish your work
Chesley Award finalists from F&SF
Two of our covers last year are on the final ballot for this year’s Chesley Awards:
http://www.asfa-art.org/admin/ches.php?chesyear=2008
Congrats to Maurizio Manzieri and to Cory and Catska Ench!
F&SF and Kindle
Since people keep asking us when F&SF will be available for the Kindle, I thought I’d post here.
F&SF is currently available in electronic formats through Fictionwise.com: http://www.fictionwise.com/eBooks/spilogaleinceBooks.htm?cache.
I believe you can buy F&SF in a format like Mobipocket and read it on the Kindle without any problem.
I looked into the possibility of selling F&SF directly through Amazon.com, but I found their terms unwelcoming, so I haven’t pursued this avenue further.
If anyone finds that they cannot use Fictionwise to get an electronic edition of F&SF that’s readable on the Kindle, please let us know. Thanks.
Top Ten SF Novels by Women
In the Guardian, Gwyneth Jones has a Top Ten list of SF novels written by women. It’s an interesting list, though I note that only two of them are from the 21st century. Which is fair enough, considering it’s a Top Ten of all-time sort of list. But seeing the list made me wonder: What would this top ten list look like if we restricted the timeframe to books published in 2000 or later? So let’s hear it: What’s in your top ten? (Keep in mind we’re specifically talking about SF here, not fantasy.)
Paolo Bacigalupi on NPR
I thought some of you would be interested in hearing Paolo on NPR:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92008378
By the way, Paolo’s story “Pump Six” will appear in our September issue. We’re reprinting it from the story collection.
New Dave Truesdale column posted
Dave Truesdale’s latest F&SF column is up:
http://www.fsfmag.com/2008/dt0807.htm
Oddly enough, it overlaps a bit with Chris Moriarty’s first column, which appears in the August issue.
Algis Budrys
I’ve heard that A.J. Budrys died today at the age of 77.
I didn’t know him well, but our encounters were always amiable. (The last time I remember seeing him was about ten years ago, when he was Guest of Honor at Readercon, and I seem to recall him clapping me on the shoulder and calling me “a good kid” or somesuch.)
Regardless of our friendship, he was a great friend to F&SF, publishing many stories in the magazine (including the shorter version of ROGUE MOON). He was also our primary book reviewer from the Sept. 1975 issue through the Jan. 1993 issue.
Rest in peace, Ayjay.
Quotation for the day
“Time was, when you went to the corner newsstand looking for your favorite science-fiction magazine, you had to poke your way through a few-score girlie sheets, a barrier of Confessions, mechanical, and how-to magazines—and then, if you were lucky, you might just find a battered copy of what you wanted. More often than not, it was upside-down and, often enough to make you gnash your teeth, it was last month’s issue, anyway. Stares, smiles, and—you suspected—jeers followed you out the store and all the way home, unless you happened to have a convenient newspaper into which you could tuck the magazine.
“Happily, today it’s different. Today the two dozen extant science fiction magazines—stf, in the terms of the trade—receive top priority at most newsstands, and the crowd at the corner is eager to discuss them with you.
“The science-fiction pulps and pocket-size magazines have quite suddenly become a respected form of escapist literature.
“Not long ago, you were home twirling the dials of your TV set. Westerns. Hackneyed murder mysteries. Variety shows ad infinitum. Quizzes and leering M.C.’s.
“Today, if you belong to the junior set, there’s Space Cadet and Captain Video and Flash Gordon. If you’ve outgrown knee-britches, there’s Eye Witness and Tales of Tomorrow as well as occasional science fiction on most of the better drama shows.
“That rapidly blossoming medium of entertainment, TV, has mated with that rapidly blossoming field of fiction, stf.”
 —Milton Lesser, Looking Forward, 1953
Competition #76 — act fast!
The deadline for Competition #76 was five days ago, but our competition editor is traveling so you can still get an entry in if you act fast. Here’s the competition:
