Realms of Fantasy Magazine threatened by lack of subscribers

Douglas sez, "Realms of Fantasy is a pro magazine that publishes some of the best material out there when it comes to fantasy literature in the shorter form. It is bimonthly with gloss and color illustrations, and it has been an important part of the speculative community for almost sixteen years. Its future is currently threatened by a lack of subscriptions. We're letting the speculative community know about our situation, so that if they'd like to see the magazine stick around, they can choose to do something about it."

• [dghenke]

  It’s a good magazine. Not every story or article is to my taste (which is okay; that’s what you get in a publication that knows how and why to take risks). A goodly fraction are pure gold (which I’d argue you *never* get in non-risk-taking mainstream fishwrap).

  If you have the slightest interest in the subject matter, I encourage you to subscribe. If nothing else, it’s a great way to get short fiction under your eyeballs that you wouldn’t otherwise find, and some subset of which you’ll quite enjoy.

  However:

  I’ve been a subscriber for enough years that I don’t remember how long I’ve been a subscriber.

  I really don’t appreciate the scolding tone of the “You people said you wanted this, Tir Na Nog rescued it from certain doom, and now not enough people are subscribing. The fans have betrayed us!” letter I just got.

  I was going to renew before I got the letter. I’m still going to renew in spite of it.

  Warren, I understand your frustration. But I’m not the cause of it, nor are any of the current subscribers to whom that letter was sent.

  And I’d venture to suggest that approaching the set of folks who said “We beg you to save RoF!” then failed to buy it with that same pitch is not the best way to win them as paying customers.

• [Paul Turnbull]

  Definitely in favour of some kind of electronic distribution. I’ll definitely check out the Kindle version.

  Not as interested in dead treen product distributions anymore.

• [Anonymous]

  Hey where’s the .torrent links so I can “share” the content. Maybe if it’s good enough, I’ll send them a dime.

• [Paul Turnbull]

  Now I’m wondering if there is a way with Kindle to have a subscription. I can guarantee that if I have to remember every two months to buy something i will forget.

• [Anonymous]

  Hi Everyone,

  I just wanted to mention the latest issue of RoF (June 2010) is now available through our website for $3.99 as a pdf:
  http://www.rofmag.com/subscribe/buy-kindle-or-pdf-realms-of-fantasy/

  This downloadable pdf can be read on a variety of major electronic reading devices, including the PC, Iphone, Ipad, Sony Ebook Reader, Nook, and other digital platforms. Going forward, we’re going to continue to explore additional options in electronic publishing to make our product available to an even wider audience.

  Thanks for your time and support.

  Douglas Cohen

  Editor

• [IWood]

  Well…better that than a horde of Visigoths, I suppose.

• [Daemon]

  I wouldn’t touch a kindle with a 10ft pole, and I’m going to a foreign country for a year fairly soon or I’d already have a subscription. It’s a good magazine, and could use the support.

• [Lynne]

  I hadn’t read a RoF mag for years, but I picked one up the other day. Some of the content I really enjoyed; most, however, I didn’t. That included most of the fiction, which wasn’t anything close to what I’m interested in for fantasy (which is just basic fantasy). I won’t be looking for any more.

  But that’s just the market. Years ago mags like these were often the only or almost only place to go to get fun stuff to read or connect with. But with the internet, there are scads upon scads of sources for all sorts of writing – including fantasy. And a good deal of it is now free, or cheap, or “try before you buy”. I’m just not sure what paper mags of any stripe will survive the net, in the long run.

• [querent]

  Thanks for the heads up.

• [redesigned]

  @Realms of Fantasy – If you read this…

  Short stories and articles are PERFECT for media devices such as the iPad and Kindle. Any chance of reinventing your distribution to take advantage to the shifting marketplace dynamics instead of being hurt by them?

  best of luck.

  • [Cryptic]

    At the link it says “Warren has also made the magazine available for purchase through the Kindle and we’re currently exploring other avenues to make RoF available to an even wider audience.”

    • [redesigned]

      missed that, thanks, it is a good start for sure.

      Just to add another opinion into the mix:
      i’d like to see the entire back library of short stories available on a per story basis, so one can pick and choose less expensive micro-purchases to add short stories to their library. short stories are great for reading on a public transit commute, waiting in the doctors office, on the can, etc.