Well, that's a sad thing.

[seawasp]

From wyjoe, we get the news that Jim Baen's Universe is closing up.

It was an ambitious experiment to create another, high-paying venue for short SF/F fiction. They gave it four years.

But it never quite reached the level necessary.

I'm afraid I'm not particularly surprised. It's not a real blow for me -- I don't write short stories, really -- but for those who aren't writing in the novel category this could hurt. There just aren't that many worthwhile venues available, and those that exist are getting more pinched. I wouldn't be surprised if, by the time I'm 60, all of the SF magazines are gone.

Comments

[mouser.livejournal.com]

Without Jim Baen to drive it, I'm not surprised.

[kjn]

Jim Baen was hardly involved, apart of lending his name and giving the initial capital (which is no small thing, I grant). The actual running was very much divided from Flint and Resnick, and their staff.

But I'm not surprised anyway. I took the first year, but a combination of lack of a good e-reading device and a not-too-easily navigated web site meant I never subscribed for another year. And short fiction is dying a slow death commercially, even before JBU launched.

[wyjoe.livejournal.com]

That's not entirely accurate. Jim Baen would no doubt have been at least a little more involved, but fate intervened.