Realms of Fantasy – 2.0

I received a copy of the August 2009 issue of Realms of Fantasy:? I probably signed up for some free offer (vague memory says that I did and that I’m supposed to offer some blog commentary in exchange for the favor) but don’t really remember.? So, just to cover the bases, here’s some commentary on the free issue.

But first:? I never read the magazine during the non-Lapine years.? I’m not a big fantasy fan and what with print magazines going for the same price as a paperback these days, the budgetary decision is an easy one:? buy the book by the known author in my preferred genre or the magazine with unfamilair names in a not-so-preferred genre?

Second – I’ve not yet read any of the stories in this issue (offerings by Tanith Lee (whom I am familiar with) Dennis Danvers, Ian Creasey and Bruce Holland Rogers (who’s name is also familiar).? I’ve got way too much in the pipeline of promised reviews that reading these stories will have to wait a bit.

What I have done is take a look a the physical construction, the layout, some of the non-fiction pieces (departments), the artwork and the advertisements.

First impressions?? It strongly reminds me of some of the gaming magazines of my youth in layout, color selection, font choices and advertising to content ratio.

In fact, just like those long-forgotten mags, this one even comes with a centerfold – though it isn’t a gameboard, rules and pieces to cut out.? It’s one of those foil scent packs for products that are touted as ‘enhancing my mind, body and spirit’.? Sadly (foolishly) the advertiser does not include a web address or even their company name on the foil pack – and I’m not going to open it until and unless I know what is in there.? It has the appearance of some new agey bs thing (aroma therapy?) and I stay away from that stuff as much as I can.

My issue came with one of those shipping wraps that partially reproduces the real cover in B&W – another reason for the gaming mag reminisce, since all of my gaming mags arrived with similar protectors.? Nice touch, but an unnecessary one with a wasted opportunity:? the inside pages of the wrap are blank – and good envelopes would serve better.

The real cover features full-color art by Dominic Harman;? it depicts a nipple-less birdwoman wearing a starfish.? Not bad art as such things go, a piece that certainly conveys the sense of ‘fantasy’, but not overly inspiring either.? In other words, I’m not all a-twitter wondering which story the illo goes with.

There then follows a double-truck ad layout for IWOFA – apparently some kind of fantasy-writer’s book-selling collective website (one which I checked out and found a bit off-putting.? The pronouncements against e-piracy smackdab in the middle of the page immediately makes me think of Doctorow’s pronouncements of not punishing your audience… you can see it yourself at www.iwofa.net).? One I’d never heard of previously, populated by a group of authors I am (mostly) equally unfamilair with.? Some have had works published in ROF, but as I said earlier, this is my first dip into these waters.

The TOC again reminds me of gaming mags, and other ‘genre’ magazines that fill out the fiction offerings with columns on this, that and the other media that they hope will make things appealing to a wider audience.

Fortunately for me, Matt Staggs, the freelance bookmarketer and blogging friend from Enter The Octopus, does double duty as a game reviewer and book reviewer in this issue.? Good work there.

Those departments are joined by non-fiction pieces including an editorial by Ms McCarthy (who I only know by reputation, but it is a good one) though I found the subject somewhat boring:? she thanks the readers for their support in keeping the magazine alive.? I’d have stuck boxed text in the middle of the regular editorial, where tradition holds that the editor informs us of the contents of the issue and the theme (if any) being presented.

Warren Lapine, the new publisher, writes a sidebar where he tells us why we’re getting our free copies and gives some hints about where he wants to take the publication.

Both, strangely enough, are buried at the back of the magazine, rather than immediately following the TOC.? I’m not accustomed to wading through the contents and having it described to me after I’ve done so.

Now on to the critique (lol).

I’m still floored by a $6.99 price for an 86 page, bi-monthly magazine (86 pages including covers) – particularly when a quarter of it is given over to advertising.? That’s about 11 cents per page (for content).? If the doorstop fantasy novels we’re seeing on the shelves were priced proportionally, a thousand-pager would run you $110 in paperback.

My understanding is that ROF has a very good subscription base (better than any of the ‘big three’, according to Lapine) and decent newstand sales.

I also know that shipping costs are a bitch these days, that ROF has a decent-sized staff and is paying a minimum of 5 cents a word – but -

I used to get two-hundred some odd page issues of Omni for $3.99, and if ever there was a magazine with too much overhead, Omni was it.

True, subscription rates can bring the cost down to $2.95 per copy (way more reasonable) – but

if these are the hoops through which a print magazine is forced to jump in order to remain viable (at least in the genre fiction world) (and they must be – F&SF recently dropped to bi-monthly itself) then I can see the end in site.

Though I am intrigued a bit by a comparison with Tales of Moreauvia quarterly (Creative Guy Publishing, sold out).? 68 pages, 3 pages of advertising (therefore, a tad more, but about the same actual content as ROF), $9.50 cover price, a shared-worlds/steampunk mag.? All fiction, with the exception of a short interview with the lead author (Gary Wolf – Roger Rabbit).

I don’t know the word rate TOM pays, though I do know that it is offered by subscription only (no newstand, no distributor cut, no returns).? TOM illustrates a case in which everything that can be cut has been, offers more fiction content, probably pays a word rate close to ROF’s.? It doesn’t have the overhead – nor the advertising income.? Both magazines, side by side, illustrate two strategies for dealing with the print mag issue – and neither of them approaches what we used to have ‘back in the day’.

You can do so much more with an on-line mag – issue size is potentially infinite, advertising space is potentially infinite , there’s almost no contest.? And I’m saying that despite my personal preference for things print.

I’ll come back to the fiction in the relatively near future and close with this: if you do want to see genre fiction remain in physical print, ROF is probably one of your best bets for putting money where your mouth is, though I know saying so is faint praise.