Acclaimed sci-fi/fantasy publisher John Joseph Adams has announced the return of Fantasy Magazine, after being shuttered for nearly a decade. Here's the official history, according to the press release:

Fantasy Magazine was originally launched in 2005, published by Sean Wallace and edited by a team of Wallace and Paul Tremblay. It started as a print magazine before shifting to digital-only publication in 2007. That shift coincided with an editorial change: Paul Tremblay stepped down and was replaced by Cat Rambo, with Wallace continuing to serve as publisher and co-editor. Rambo and Wallace remained as joint editors of Fantasy until March 2011 when they both stepped down as editors and were replaced by John Joseph Adams. Adams edited Fantasy for the rest of 2011. Beginning in January 2012, Adams took over as publisher of Fantasy and its sister-magazine, Lightspeed (which he was also already editor of), and merged the two magazines together under the single title of Lightspeed. At that time, Fantasy, as an ongoing publication, went on indefinite hiatus, though it reappeared for single special issues in 2014, 2015, and 2016. The November 2020 issue will be the first new Fantasy issue in four years.

Lightspeed and Nightmare will continue to operate as usual; Lightspeed will still also publish fantasy fiction as well as SF at the same schedule it does currently, and likewise Nightmare will still publish dark fantasy as well as horror.

This new iteration of Fantasy will be edited by Arley Sorg and Christie Yant, with Adams serving as publisher for the entire line, which will now be known as Adamant Press line (not to be confused with Adam and the Ants). Read the rest

Colin Kaepernick is joining Medium's board of directors. He'll also develop editorial content for Medium's Level magazine for black and brown men and their new anti-racism blog Momentum. According to Medium founder/CEO Ev Williams, the company has been in talks with Kaepernick for several months. From Ev's statement at Medium:

I met Colin a couple years ago and have been wanting to work with him ever since. When he launched Kaepernick Publishing in February, we started a conversation and quickly realized how closely our ideals and sensibilities align. I know he will bring valuable insights and leadership to Medium, especially in this moment when the world is finally catching up to his vision on racial justice.

Kaepernick Publishing’s mission is to uplift and elevate voices for Black and Brown communities, something that has been desperately needed in the publishing space. Through this partnership, Colin will be publishing across Medium’s platform, including a collaboration with Medium’s editorial team leading Level and Momentum. He will be sharing his thoughts on anti-Black racism in our society, and Medium and Kaepernick Publishing will co-publish thought-provoking feature stories from diverse writers of color.

Disclosure: I hold shares in Medium from working there years ago.

image: Erik Drost (CC BY 2.0)

Read the rest

Copyright law being behind the times is why we can't have nice things. Read the rest

A few months ago, my son bought a cute mini-zine from the Zine Machine vending machine at The Bindery in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury. What we noticed right away is that the 8-page zine was ingeniously folded from just a single sheet of paper. In the above video, Austin Kleon, author of the wonderful Steal Like An Artist, explains how it's done. And Umami Design posted a layout template here.

In the video clip, Austin recommends this book by Esther Watson and Mark Todd that looks like fun: Whatcha Mean, What's A Zine? The Art of Making Zines and Mini-Comics. Read the rest

Diamond Comics is the exclusive shipping and distribution source for all weekly comic books. Marvel, DC, Image, Dark Horse, Boom! — they all send their single-issues to comic book stores through Diamond.

Due to coronavirus concerns, however, the company has halted all shipments for the foreseeable future.

Comic book stores can still sell other merchandise, as well as some graphic novels, trade paperbacks, collected editions, and other bound book-style publications. Single-issues will also continue to be available digitally through Comixology, as most publishers have already announced their solicitations for new comics through at least June.

But what this means for the future of the comic book industry remains to be seen. While graphic novels and trade paperbacks of single issues have continued to increase in popularity, those single weekly issues remain the backbone of the industry, just as they've been for the last 50+ years. The entire serialized structure of the medium depends on it. Even if you prefer to pick up the collected editions of SAGA (also known as "waiting for the trade"), the comic still benefits from the 6 months of promotion that it gets every time a new single issue is released. Each single issue sells around 40,000 copies, compared to 1-2,000 copies per graphic novel (although the first trade paperback continues to sell more than 1,000 copies per month on average, based on a quick glance through Diamond's sales charts). Self-contained graphic novels — those that are created and released as a single, cohesive entity, instead of as a collection of single issues — rarely sell as well as collected trade paperbacks. Read the rest

Thank you for reading -- After eight years on Boing Boing, the John Wilcock story will conclude next week! -- From John Wilcock, New York Years, by Ethan Persoff and Scott Marshall -- (See all Boing Boing installments) Read the rest

"American Dirt is #1 on the New York Times bestseller list," writes Angeline Rodriguez, concerning the novel whose celebrity endorsements and success was brute-forced by a marketing campaign and completely immune to the backlash it received as a white fantasy of latino life. "It was never going to be anything less."

The massive institutional support behind the book essentially guarantees it. From the moment the novel sold for a much-touted seven figures in a nine-way auction, the hit-making machinery was set into motion. A large advance by itself won’t ensure a blockbuster, but it often catalyzes the kind of relentless promotional campaign that can secure accolades from publishing juggernauts like Stephen King and Don Winslow, a movie deal with Clint Eastwood’s production company and nonstop coverage in virtually every major outlet.

Even when that high-profile coverage is negative, it proves that for a book of American Dirt’s profile, there’s no such thing as bad press. Parul Sehgal’s unequivocal pan of the novel and its “mauling of the English language” is just one of nearly a dozen separate hits in the paper of record, but it certainly didn’t prevent Cummins from landing the holy grail of book endorsements, an Oprah’s Book Club pick, shortly thereafter.

pic.twitter.com/6W8suWpCUD

— Myriam Chingona Gurba de Serrano (@lesbrains) January 22, 2020

Read the rest

After Antiplagiat, a private plagiarism detection company, accused Russia's scientific and scholarly journals of being rife with plagiarism, self-plagiarism, duplication and other misconduct, the Russian Academy of Sciences chartered a committee to investigate the problem: their report confirmed the accusations, finding more instances of plagiarism/self-plagiarism, as well as instances in which the same paper was published in different journals under different authors' names. Read the rest

Ken Liu went from university to a software engineering job at Microsoft, then to some startups, then to Harvard Law, where he got a JD and went into practice as a litigation consultant on tech cases -- all the while, writing and selling sf stories. Read the rest

Perfect topic, perfect name:

ASSET magazine is a professional quality, full-color publication which compliments, promotes, and presents the Miniature Donkey in a favorable light and gives them credibility as an alternative livestock.

The National Miniature Donkey Association is a nonprofit organization founded in 1989. The Association's goals are to protect and promote the Miniature Donkey breed, and to provide an educational forum for owners and breeders on donkey care and management.

Super excited to have received my first magazine from https://t.co/qHtzp37c0Y

The “in-house, members-only publication of the National Miniature Donkey Association (NMDA).” pic.twitter.com/pS7Yc3mQl9

— Moxie Marlinspike (@moxie) November 22, 2019

The National Miniature Donkey Association also maintains a guide to breeding miniature donkeys, where I learned that "The Miniature Donkey is a compact, well-proportioned animal with a sweet, sociable disposition." Read the rest

"Vital: The Future of Healthcare" is a crowdfunded anthology of short science fiction stories about the future of health care, with contributions from top writers like James Patrick Kelly, Seanan McGuire, Annalee Newitz, Paolo Bacigalupi and Caroline M. Yoachim (they're also open to submissions!). Read the rest

Josh O'Neill writes, "We're doing a box set edition of Dracula in which we reconstitute the novel into the primary source documents from which it's drawn: Mina's diary, Lucy's letters, Dailygraph newspaper clippings, even an actual phonograph record from Dr. Seward. It comes in a suitcase. Or a wooden casket or stone crypt, depending on the edition." Read the rest

Elly Blue has kickstarted a series of successful feminist bicycle science fiction anthologies; her latest is Dragon Bike: Fantastical feminist bicycle stories, for which she is seeking $6,000 ($10 gets you an ebook, $13 gets you a printed book, $15 gets you a book and a poster). Read the rest

For many years, we've brought you the delightful arts and crafts of Anthony "Tonky" Clune: beautiful felt housewares, giant wall-stickers, a short film about thrifting, cool reflective cycling safety badges and more. Read the rest

Sara from MIT Sloan Management Review writes, "The entire site is free today through Thursday. To help you make progress on the problems you’re facing right now, they’ve unlocked their site for 72 hours. Every article, research report, and webinar is free to access." Read the rest

Just look at it.

(Thanks Robbo!) Read the rest

Aestetix writes, "On Tuesday, October 8th, for the very first time ever, the new issue of 2600 will be released digitally in non-DRM PDF format. We know there are many of you who have been unable to secure copies of 2600 in recent years. With high distribution costs and a declining bookstore landscape, it's become much harder to publish a paper magazine and get it to all the places our readers are. This digital version can help solve that problem once and for all - and help restore the funding we need to survive." Read the rest