Comments on: Guest Post: The Watcher and the Weird http://www.sfwa.org/2011/05/guest-post-the-watcher-and-the-weird/ Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Sun, 19 May 2013 20:02:58 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: phil rhein http://www.sfwa.org/2011/05/guest-post-the-watcher-and-the-weird/#comment-63962 phil rhein Thu, 02 Jun 2011 14:02:15 +0000 http://www.sfwa.org/?p=14308#comment-63962 Is there any way to take these 1,000 submissions a month and put together an old, pulp-style digest collection that could be made available at a low cost for e-book or online readers? People have been decrying the dwindling number of periodicals that publish short fiction for decades and this would seem to be an excellent opportunity to showcase new and emerging talents while also offering established authors a chance to put out new or even back catalog short stories. While this wouldn’t be cost-neutral [someone, or perhaps a small team of someones, would still need to evaluate and perhaps edit the selections each month] there would be no shipping or printing costs and a great deal of advertising could be generated through on-line word-of-mouth. The opportunity to use e-book publication and some form of modest micro-payments through PayPal or credit cards could keep the cost to consumers in the same “painless” range as cell phone apps or single-song downloads.

It’s possible this idea has already been considered and discarded as unworkable for some reason, but I’d be curious to know what those reasons are – it seems like there will always be a certain portion of the population that likes to read and does so voraciously. If you’re receiving 1,000 submissions a month, then it also seems like there are more than enough people creating the content those readers crave – it would be a shame if no one managed to find a way to put the audience and the entertainer together.

]]> By: May 26, 2011 Links and Plugs : Hobbies and Rides http://www.sfwa.org/2011/05/guest-post-the-watcher-and-the-weird/#comment-63775 May 26, 2011 Links and Plugs : Hobbies and Rides Thu, 26 May 2011 15:43:37 +0000 http://www.sfwa.org/?p=14308#comment-63775 [...] SFWA (Ann VanderMeer) on The Watcher and the Weird. [...]

]]>