the living dead
At the end of 2005, online short fiction publishing was dealt a double blow when SCIFI.COM <scifi.com> pulled the plug on Ellen Datlow <datlow.com> and Sci Fiction <scifi.com/ scifiction> while Eileen Gunn <eileengunn.com> decided that she could no longer continue to publish The Infinite Matrix <infinitematrix.net>. Of course, just because they are no longer being updated doesn’t mean that you can’t still visit them. For the time being, the content is still available to all, although eventually the ghosts of both of these sites will fade away. In one of Eileen Gunn’s farewell editorials—there were many, since her site has a strong streak of zombie in it and twitches briefly to life from time to time—she predicts that the Infinite Matrix will persist for about a year. Which means it may have disappeared by the time you read this.
Or maybe not—allow me to digress. I have in the past mentioned the Internet Archive <archive.org> and its marvelous Wayback Machine. If you know the URL of any defunct site, there’s a good chance you can use the Wayback Machine to summon it back from the dead. The Internet Archive offers some fifty-five billion pages dating back to 1996 for your browsing pleasure. Not everything is available, but, for example, longtime fans will recall that Ellen Datlow’s previous two online editing gigs were the groundbreaking OMNI Online <www.omnimag.com> and Event Horizon <www.eventhorizon.com/sfzine/>. Typing either of their URLs into the Wayback Machine will get you . . . well, something. The sites are by no means intact, but there is a trove of material there for the taking, enough to give the Kopyright Kops nightmares. So just because a ghost site finally moves into the Great Beyond doesn’t mean it’s lost forever.
For almost six years, Sci Fiction was not only the premier online showcase for original SF, but it was also one of our genre’s highest paying markets. Most of the SF community reacted as Gardner Dozois did when he wrote in his yearly summation of the state of the field that Sci Fiction was “killed by short-sighted corporate bean counters.” The stories on Sci Fiction were often reprinted in Bests of the Year and several of them won awards. Sci Fiction itself took a Hugo for Best Website in 2005. Similarly, the Infinite Matrix’s mix of cutting edge fiction with an eclectic stable of columnists made it a must-click site. No one could question the artistic excellence of these fine webzines. So why are they ghosts?
SF webzine publishing is still in an experimental stage and no one has yet come up with a robust formula for success. It seems to me that a truly successful webzine will have to stand on three legs. First, it will have to deliver content to readers at a price they will pay. The challenge here is that the price most readers are comfortable with is free. Second, it will have to pay its contributors. The challenge here is balancing the equation between income and outgo, since in general, the more the pay, the better the contributions, and the more readers. Third, it will have to pay or otherwise satisfy its staff and offer its owners some return on investment. The challenge here is to define otherwise satisfy and some. I have no inside information on the demise of the Infinite Matrix or Sci Fiction, other than to note that they gave content away and they paid professional rates. I have to believe it was the third leg that gave way.
living well
Now that the Infinite Matrix and Sci Fiction are no longer updating, Strange Horizons <strangehorizons.com> is clearly the alpha SF webzine. It updates weekly—daily for reviews—with a pleasing mix of fiction, poetry, interviews, opinion, and art. Stories from Strange Horizons now regularly appear on awards ballots and the tables of contents of Year’s Bests. The zine has published a clutch of Rhysling Award <sfpoetry.com/rhysling.html> winners, given every year by the Science Fiction Poetry Association <sfpoetry.com>. I have been a fan of Strange Horizons since its debut in 2000. One of the secrets of its success, I think, is that it did not arrive on the scene fully formed, but rather grew into its current estimable state.
There is no charge to read Strange Horizons and they pay professional rates—not quite the lofty sums that we earn here at Asimov’s, but none the less respectable. Thus it stands squarely on two of the three necessary legs. But the folks who bring you this particular webzine have constructed a unique third leg. For one thing, Strange Horizons has an all-volunteer staff. Nobody gets paid. I confess when this was first explained to me in the early days by Mary Anne Mohanraj <mamohanraj.com> and Jed Hartman <kith.org/logos> I was skeptical. Good luck with the burnout, is what I thought, but didn’t say. I was wrong. According to the masthead, there are upward of thirty dedicated staffers working today to bring you Strange Horizons. There has been some turnover over the years, most notably in that Mary Anne has moved on and the dynamic Susan Marie Groppi <sugarspun.net> is now editor-in-chief, but there is continuity as well. The satisfaction of the SH crew must come from knowing that they’ve created one of the most indispensable SF sites anywhere—a showcase for new and emerging talent. Another key to its success is that it has received 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. That means that readers and other supporters can make tax deductible donations to Strange Horizons during their fundraisers. And if you’ve ever been to the site, you’ve seen that these folks are savvy about raising funds! So in a sense, the readers do pay for this webzine, even though they aren’t charged for it. It’s a system that has worked well for six years and here’s hoping it continues to work for the next sixty.
newborn
Meanwhile three new webzines have debuted.
Actually, Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show <intergalacticmedicineshow.com> began just before the demise of the Infinite Matrix and Sci Fiction, with its first issue in October of 2005. Since then it has published just one more issue, but release of a third is imminent as I type this. Orson Scott Card <hatrack.com> serves as Publisher and Executive Editor and Edmund R. Schubert <edmundrschubert.com> is Editor. In order to read the fiction in the Intergalactic Medicine Show, you will have to register and pay $2.50 an issue—a fair price, sez me. Many of the contributors to the Intergalactic Medicine Show are newer writers like Brad Beaulieu <quillings.com> and Scott D. Danielson <scottddanielson.blogspot.com>, although there are some old pros like my pal from our Clarion <theclarionfoundation.org> days together, Al Sarrantonio <alsarrantonio.com>. But clearly the big draw here is the promise of a new Ender’s World story by Scott Card in every issue. Also, there is more to the Intergalactic Medicine Show than stories. All the lively non-fiction, reviews, columns, and the like are free to read any time.
Jim Baen’s Universe <baens-universe.com> is a bold experiment from one of the boldest minds in publishing. The first issue had a stellar table of contents, featuring stars like Gregory Benford <gregorybenford.com>, Charles Stross <antipope.org/Charlie>, John Barnes <en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/John_Barnes_(author)>, Elizabeth Bear <elizabethbear.com>, and Gene Wolfe <mysite.verizon. net/~vze2tmhh/wolfe.html>, to name but a few. And it’s not surprising that top talent flocked to Jim Baen’s Universe, since it’s the highest paying market in the genre, with rates several times the lofty sum we make here at Asimov’s. But in order to read these folks, you’re going to have to fork over thirty dollars for six issues a year. Each is promised to have a huge dollop of over a hundred and fifty thousand downloadable words. Will readers pay for online fiction? Will the experiment succeed? It’s clearly too soon to tell, and pros-pects have gotten slightly murky with the untimely death of Jim Baen shortly after the launch in June of 2006. (Another—briefer—digression: Jim Baen bought my first story. Our paths diverged thereafter, but if he hadn’t fished me out of the slush, someone else would be writing this column today. I’ve thanked him several times over the years both in public and private, but here’s a last one with feeling. Thanks, Jim!) But Jim Baen’s Universe is in the capable hands of Eric Flint <ericflint.net>, himself an old hand at digital publishing from his work as editor of The Baen Free Library <baen. com/library>. For my money, this is the site to watch in the coming year, both for the quality of the fiction and the success of the business model.
Helix <helixsf.com> bills itself as a speculative fiction quarterly. Just one issue has come out since its launch in July of 2006, but it clearly is well designed and well thought out. It is the brainchild of William Sanders <sff.net/people/sanders>, who bills himself as Senior Editor and Mean Old Bastard Emeritus, and Lawrence Watt-Evans <watt-evans.com>, self-styled Managing Editor and Freelance Pedant; they are supported by a good sized staff for a quarterly webzine. Editors Watt-Evans and Sanders are attempting to produce Helix as a “labor of love” and support it through donations. Their webzine pays professional rates and is free to read. One of their goals is to publish stories which are edgy and controversial. The first issue has good stories by Beth Bernobich <sff.net/people/beth-bernobich>, Adam Troy-Castro <sff.net/people/adam-troy> and Richard Bowes <rickbowes.com>, among others, along with columns on alternate history and Mars in science fiction.
exit
I gave Eileen Gunn and Ellen Datlow a peek at the first section of this column and Ellen wrote back to say that I should consider advertising as a potential business model. It’s certainly clear that ads are what have made Google <google.com> the juggernaut that it is today. Has anyone figured out how to make ads pay for quality science fiction? Not yet, but ad revenue has been steadily migrating from broadcast and print media to the net ever since the turn of the century. If SF webzines can make the case that they can deliver motivated eyes to online ads, there may soon be a fourth leg to support online publishing (except I really, really hate this whole leg metaphor now and I’m sorry I brought it up in the first place).
Eileen wrote to say that, although, after the first few years, the Infinite Matrix was forced to cut payment rates, which had originally been competitive with Sci Fiction, she found that authors were actually interested in more than just the paycheck. The chance to publish edgy work without censorship, to have the work available to a large potential audience, and to see their work in a venue with other significant content, meant almost as much to them as money.
I take her point about this career choice, especially when the writer gets to work with editors like Ellen Datlow and Eileen Gunn.
