Realms of Fantasy - Very Sad

As reported by Ian Randal Strock in SFScope yesterday, one of the great genre magazine, Realms of Fantasy, is closing. This is a harsh blow to fans of great short fantasy, and Space and Time extends its regrets and best wishes to editors Laura Cleveland, Shawna McCarthy, Douglas Cohen, and the other dedicated folks at RoF. We also extend our sympathy to the authors and readers of RoF, who have lost another pro-level market, another source of top speculative fiction.

Not to be a total downer, but I doubt RoF will be the last giant to fall. The sad fact is that magazines owned by publishing conglomerates can be tremendously successful in terms of advertising and subscriptions — to the rest of us — but to a corporation comparing their sales figures to other, bigger, more generically commercial enterprises? Not so much. The definition of “success” is mighty subjective in the publishing business.

In any case, for fans AND authors of speculative short fiction who want the remaining markets to survive this economic crisis, here is the only advice I can offer: Subscribe. Buy off the shelf. Invest a few bucks. It doesn’t have to be Space and Time, either (although I have a certain bias). Throw some cash at Fantasy & Science Fiction, Asimov’s, Analog, Weird Tales, Fantasy Magazine, Cemetery Dance, etc. Go to Ralan, read through the list of options, and pick one or two with “your” kind of fiction.

It’s all about the numbers. The art won’t survive without ‘em.