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

[katestine.livejournal.com]

Not terribly surprising. I should be their target market - disposable income, casual fangirl sci-fi reader - and while I subscribed at the beginning, I let it lapse bc I read maybe two stories in that year that made me glad to have a subscription :( Maybe they'll focus more on the main publishing business and bring me more books I can buy.

[mouser.livejournal.com]

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

[baka-bacchus.livejournal.com]

Has anyone tried just including a short story or two with a novel. An established novelist can help out/mentor another but including the short story author's story at the end of their novel.

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't take you up on your bet. I haven't been able to read Analog once the editorial policy got silly enough, and I haven't had an interest in any of the other mags. Hell, I can barely get the interest to check out Tor.com ever once in a while.

[rasmusb.livejournal.com]

I was there for the first year -- but I'm not so fond of short stories. I'll get the anthologies if it contains a story set in the universe where I have novels (aka. Michelle West's Sun Sword, Mercedes Lackey 'Heralds', etc). but not just for the short stories themselves. I don't find them as satisfying as true book.

science fiction magazines

[mzrosemary.livejournal.com]

Unlike most kids who started reading sf in the sixties, I never read magazines. I don't remember ever seeing them for sale in my small town. I was introduced to Asimov by a selection included in an SRA reading program in seventh grade and started checking books out of the library. Our public library bought quite a few best of anthologies. Some one else in town must have read SF, but I didn't know who they were. I went to my first Con in Feb. I was amazed, by the percentage of women in roughly my age group who attended. I did know another girl who read SF until I was in college. Most of the women I met at the Con started with fantasy and continued to read more of that. I started with "hard" SF.
I bought and subscribed to some mags as a young adult, but that was when downer SF and Harlan Elison type work seemed to dominate the magazines.
I wasn't interested. Most of the short work I read is in an anthology by a favorite writer, or set in a multiverse I enjoy, or is in an anthology with an interestng concept or catchy title. If I Were an Evil Overlord is one my favorite titles. I think that anthologies are where most short stories will be published. I'm afraid that new writers will almost have to write their stories in other author's multiverses because most other anthologies seem to be primarily solicited stories. I enjoy buying and reading Baen's ebooks. I have all the Grantville Gazette volumes. Their free library has introduced me to many writers that are new to me including Mr. Spoor. I assumed Ryk E. Spoor had to be a pen name until I searched it. I thought Digital Knight was excellent! I doubt I would have ever bought it because I hate 99% of the vampire stuff I see. Now I'll buy a couple of other titles where he is a coauthor. I bought a netbook specifically to read ebooks on. I don't understand the appeal of electronic readers. They are very expensive for machines whose uses are so limited.