Tag Archives: webzine

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New low-cost webzine – Alternative Coordinates

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Via James at Big Dumb Object comes news of a new science fiction webzine, Alternative Coordinates:

Issue one of new SF magazine Alternative Coordinates is online. The web site looks nice, which has got to be a priority for new webzines. You can read a preview of each story, but full access to the issue costs $2, which I think has to be applauded. The price is low enough to be trivial to many people, yet with volume it means the magazine could make money, probably more than advertising?

Alternative Coordinates - science fiction webzine

James is right, it certainly looks good. The low-price electronic ‘zine model has been tried before, of course, but the economic and techno-cultural landscapes are changing so fast that previous successes and failures are no certain guide to future performance… and if the team behind Alternative Coordinates have made as much of an effort with the magazine itself as they have with the presentation of the website, then US$2 seems a pretty reasonable price to place on six short stories for which the writers have been paid.

If you take the plunge and buy an issue, do pop back and let us know what you think of it!

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Donate to Strange Horizons – support quality free genre fiction on the web

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Hey, y’know how we publish a free piece of fiction every month? Well, Strange Horizons has been publishing a free piece of genre fiction every week. Plus poetry, and non-fiction, and reviews. All of which they pay professional rates for. None of which makes them a profit, or pays the volunteer staff and editors in anything but kudos.

And they’ve been doing it for eight years.

When I sat down to think about how to make enough money to pay for Futurismic‘s fiction, I considered but rejected the idea of having a public funding drive – the main reason being that Strange Horizons already uses that model, and I didn’t want to divert any of the spare money in the genre fiction scene away from them.

So here on Futurismic you get ads, but Strange Horizons has no ads at all. Eight years of archived professional material, completely and utterly free to read and free of distracting commercial messages. It’s a genre fiction resource to which nothing compares, which has broken many great new writers into the scene, and we’re very lucky it exists.

Which is why I suggest you may want to consider popping over to Strange Horizons and donating a few dollars, especially if you’ve ever read anything on the site. And if you’ve never read anything there, now would be a great time to start.

And if you’ve got a blog, give them a little plug, just like this one. It doesn’t cost you anything, but it’ll mean a lot to them. There are even prizes and  incentives … but personally, I’m just doing this for the love. Strange Horizons is an inspiration to web publishers everywhere; long may she sail.