Kindle versions of BFS journal and other publications

[cavscott]

I'd love there to be more ebook specials - both fiction and non-fiction.

One great series of ebooks could be The Beginners Guide to Fantasy / Horror / Weird fiction etc for people new to the genres.

The other thing I'd love to see the BFS produce / host is fantasy comic anthologies and webcomics.

[Peter Coleborn]

I thought the treasurer post had been resolved... Lee?

I big NO from me for a web-based BFS. I wouldn't pay money for it.

Yes to a print-based society, but I accept extra eBook publications even though I'm not a fan of the Kindle, et al. I might even be prepared to pay extra for these additional magazines if made available via Lulu  or similar -- and selling these extras outside the BFS could raise revenue.

Paying for fiction? If we do, then we have to pay for articles, illustrations, editors, etc, as mentioned above. This is something I raised a few years ago but was told that, at that time, the BFS couldn't afford to pay for contributions. One good thing about paying people to typeset, edit, design, etc, is that they enter a contract to do the job -- if they don't do it they don't get paid and they get sacked.
 

[Stephen Theaker]

I'd love there to be more ebook specials - both fiction and non-fiction.

One great series of ebooks could be The Beginners Guide to Fantasy / Horror / Weird fiction etc for people new to the genres.

The other thing I'd love to see the BFS produce / host is fantasy comic anthologies and webcomics.

I love all those ideas! I remember Stephen Volk suggested something similar, of asking BFS members to contribute short pieces on their favourite fantasy authors, to create a BFS members' guide to fantasy.

One other possibility would be for anyone who feels the BFS is neglecting horror or heroic fantasy to start an ezine devoted to the particular area they love.

An idea I had a while back (or it might have been Guy's idea originally) for a cheap and easy special publication was for a small press sampler, collecting extracts and stories from current small press titles - that would work brilliantly as an ezine, with links to buy the full titles.

[cavscott]

One good thing about paying people to typeset, edit, design, etc, is that they enter a contract to do the job -- if they don't do it they don't get paid and they get sacked.
 

I'll happily be contracted and paid for designing the journal. My day rates are quite pricey mind ;-)

[cavscott]

One other possibility would be for anyone who feels the BFS is neglecting horror or heroic fantasy to start an ezine devoted to the particular area they love.
.

Of course, if they think the BFS is neglecting these genres I'd rather see them contributing to the journal first and foremost, before starting up regular satellite zines. After all, it is the main publication, is sent out to publishers etc etc.

[Peter Coleborn]

One other possibility would be for anyone who feels the BFS is neglecting horror or heroic fantasy to start an ezine devoted to the particular area they love.
.

Of course, if they think the BFS is neglecting these genres I'd rather see them contributing to the journal first and foremost, before starting up regular satellite zines. After all, it is the main publication, is sent out to publishers etc etc.

Quite right

By the way, I was slightly tongue-in-cheek in my comments about payments -- my rates would be well above minimum salary, too
 

[Stephen Theaker]

Of course, if they think the BFS is neglecting these genres I'd rather see them contributing to the journal first and foremost, before starting up regular satellite zines. After all, it is the main publication, is sent out to publishers etc etc.

Fair point, but, to give one example of where a useful niche might be carved out, in my experience - and Peter's too, from what I remember him saying - the number of heroic fantasy stories submitted to Dark Horizons and then the BFS Journal has generally been very, very low. A dedicated heroic/epic fantasy publication might stand a better chance of consistently attracting more, better subs - and then there's the fact that because of the long lead times the BFS Journal can't carry topical material.

The Journal is the BFS's flagship, but it moves slowly and trawls with a big net - I think there's definitely room for a few seagulls; publications that are rather more tightly focused. I'm not saying such publications are essential or anything, just that I can see how they might find a place and I'd love to see members inspired to produce them.

[cavscott]

The Journal is developing at the moment so I think it would be good to concentrate on that and then perhaps push out on more niche titles.

However, in the long run I could see Journal special editions, perhaps as ebooks, focusing on key subjects a bit like the SFX specials.

But I agree, getting heroic / epic fantasy in the Journal has been problematic of late - perhaps due to the high levels of horror in the society. However, I think that is gradually shifting and we'll see more and more fantasy content, both from the fiction and non-fiction sides of things.

[Stephen Theaker]

I'm certainly not suggesting that you, or anyone on the committee, should do anything other than concentrate on the journal (and the other essential jobs that need doing).

If you are looking for subs to the journal, it might be good to get some submission guidelines up on the website, or in the forums - it feels a bit invite-only at the moment.

[Stephen Theaker]

One thing that might help you out is that Duotrope have started to list non-fiction markets - wish they'd had that when I was doing Dark Horizons! I really had to scrabble for non-fiction in those days... In fact, the BFS Journal isn't on there at all at the moment, not even for fiction, and that was where nearly all of my subs to Dark Horizons came from.

Edited to add: I couldn't add the Journal to Duotrope yet because you have to be able to link to publicly available guidelines, but if you get some up you can add the BFS Journal here (if the editors want to - it can lead to getting deluged!): http://duotrope.com/contact_newlisting.aspx

[cavscott]

I'm certainly not suggesting that you, or anyone on the committee, should do anything other than concentrate on the journal (and the other essential jobs that need doing).

If you are looking for subs to the journal, it might be good to get some submission guidelines up on the website, or in the forums - it feels a bit invite-only at the moment.

Yup, they're coming. Just need to finalise them and they'll be up.

Cheers,

Cav

[David Brzeski]

One good use for ebook specials could be if/when the Journal gets more good submissions than it has space for.

[jared]

eBook versions look great - well done!

I'm still not sure why we're not making these widely available - either for free or with a price tag on 'em. They're the best advertisement for the BFS I've seen. We all have our special super duper print editions. So why not open it up so a few more people can read our work?

[Stephen Theaker]

Yeah, it would be good to get them up on the Kindle store.

[cavscott]

eBook versions look great - well done!

I'm still not sure why we're not making these widely available - either for free or with a price tag on 'em. They're the best advertisement for the BFS I've seen. We all have our special super duper print editions. So why not open it up so a few more people can read our work?

Hi Jared,

I'll look into it. From what I understand there have been two objections to this in the past:

1. Members have complained at the thought of non-members getting the content without paying for it.

2. Some contributors weren't happy with the BFS selling their work and making a profit from it without sharing. They were happy to work for a non-profit making mag but not something on sale.

However, I am looking at ways we can expand the reach of the content. For example, we could publish articles on the website a month or so after the print edition has gone out, not all of them but a selection to show people what they're missing, drive conversation on the forum and find a wider reach.

Then there could be ebook collections of themed articles, such as the Masterclasses.

There are a few other ideas flying around but more on those later...