Locus Online News » Publishing

Strange Horizons Changes

LocusHQ — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:00:10 +0000

Susan Marie Groppi, longtime fiction editor at Strange Horizons, is stepping down. Groppi has been with the online magazine for over a decade, serving for a time as both editor-in-chief as well as a fiction editor, and will continue to work with the magazine in an advisory role.

Late last year fiction editor Karen Meisner stepped down as well. Senior fiction editor Jed Hartman remains on staff.

The magazine is currently looking for two volunteers to fill the vacant positions. For more information, see the announcement on the Strange Horizons website.

Zahir Folds

LocusHQ — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 00:33:11 +0000

Zahir, a quarterly journal of speculative fiction, is closing, effective immediately. Twenty issues of Zahir were published in print from 2003-2009, and a further eight were published after the magazine moved online, the most recent in October 2011.

Editor Sheryl Tempchin says the online archive will remain available indefinitely at www.zahirtales.com, and print back issues are still for sale.

James Gunn Launches New Publication

LocusHQ — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 21:31:22 +0000

James Gunn’s Ad Astra, an online resource site for authors and scholars published through Kansas University’s Center for the Study of Science Fiction, has issued a call for submissions for a new fiction publication of the same name. The first issue, whose theme, according to issue editor Isaac Bell, is “communication and information,” will be released in 2012 in conjunction with the Center’s Campbell Conference. Submissions of short fiction and poetry will be selected by a panel of editors, and some authors will also be invited to to conference for public readings of their work.

Lightspeed and Fantasy Merge

LocusHQ — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 20:18:18 +0000

New publisher John Joseph Adams announced today that he will merge Fantasy magazine into Lightspeed magazine. The number of fiction pieces from each magazine will remain the same, with four fantasy and four science fiction stories in each issue of the revamped Lightspeed. Because the number of fiction pieces is doubling, the price of the e-book will rise by one dollar to $3.99 per issue. There will also be exclusive content, in the form of a novella-length story, available in the e-book and not on the website. Adams will do away with related non-fiction articles, and will only include two feature interviews per issue.

For more information, see the December editorial of Lightspeed.

SFWA Lifts Night Shade Probation

LocusHQ — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:38:53 +0000

SFWA released a statement today announcing the term of probation for Night Shade Books has been lifted. The publisher was placed on probation as a qualifying market for the writers’ organization in July 2010, following “concerns about contractual issues with their authors.” Night Shade has since met a series of benchmarks set up by SFWA to “return to a solid standing.” Fiction contracted during the probationary period will qualify for SFWA membership. More details can be found at the SFWA website.

Silverberg Joins Amazing Stories Advisory Board

LocusHQ — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 17:50:21 +0000

Robert Silverberg is now a member of the Amazing Stories Project editorial advisory board, which plans to revive Amazing Stories magazine in 2012. He joins Barry Malzberg, Joe Wrzos, Patrick Price, and Ted White on the board. For more, see the Amazing Stories website.

Angry Robot Launches Strange Chemistry

LocusHQ — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 17:36:21 +0000

SF/F line Angry Robot announced plans to launch a sister imprint for YA fiction called Strange Chemistry. Starting in September 2012, the imprint will release five titles in its first year, then move to a one-book-per-month schedule. Like Angry Robot, Strange Chemistry will simultaneously publish in the US and the UK, and in paperback and e-book formats, whenever possible. Amanda Rutter, known for her genre review site Floor-to-Ceiling Books, will edit the line. More information can be found in an Angry Robot blog post.

John Joseph Adams Buys Lightspeed and Fantasy

LocusHQ — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 18:33:08 +0000

John Joseph Adams, editor of Fantasy and Lightspeed, has purchased both magazines from Prime books. Adams will become the official publisher in January 2012. He took over as editor for Fantasy magazine earlier this year, and has edited Lightspeed since its June 2010 debut. Fantasy magazine was established in 2005, and has been nominated for the Hugo Award; stories from both Fantasy and Lightspeed have been nominated for the Hugo, the Nebula Award, the World Fantasy Award, and the Theodore Sturgeon Award, among others.

Prime Books publisher Sean Wallace states that “with the continuing expansion and success of Prime Books, my attention and time is increasingly consumed by book publishing. With John already doing a terrific job as editor, it simply made sense for him to take over as publisher as well.” Adams, who has been nominated for both the Hugo and the World Fantasy Awards multiple times for his work as an anthology editor, says “It’s an exciting time to be involved in publishing. Models are changing and so is the readership, and online magazines have a better shot at sustainability than ever have before. I believe the possibilities for growth are tremendous, and I look forward to staying in the vanguard of this new frontier.”

Realms of Fantasy Folds (Again)

LocusHQ — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 16:55:14 +0000

For the third time in nearly three years, Realms of Fantasy has announced that it will cease publication. The current owners, William and Kim Gilchrist of Damnation Books LLC, have announced the October 2011 issue will be the last.

The Gilchrists explained in a statement that the magazine has been losing money, and that they will try to work with other magazines to pick up subscriptions — failing that, they will offer refunds. They ask that anyone interested in purchasing the magazine “should send an email to support [at] rofmag [dot] com.”

The Gilchrists purchased Realms of Fantasy just over a year ago from Warren Lapine, who bought the magazine from Sovereign Media in January 2009. For more information, see Fiction Editor Shawna McCarthy’s farewell editorial and Editor Douglas Cohen’s farewell editorial.

Neil Gaiman Presents

LocusHQ — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 16:11:20 +0000

Audible has launched a new curated imprint, Neil Gaiman Presents, as part of their ACX (Audiobook Creation Exchange) platform, which helps rightsholders find narrators and producers to create audiobooks.

Gaiman says, “I’ve picked books I loved and wanted more people to find, and worked as closely as I could with each author to find just the right narrator for each audiobook.” Gaiman also provides an introduction to each audiobook. Titles released as part of the launch include Land of Laughs by Jonathan Carroll, Keith Roberts’s Pavane, Light by M. John Harrison, and The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break by Steven Sherrill, among others, and there are many more titles forthcoming.