Genre magazine readerships are on the rise year-over-year.
Today, the number of science fiction and fantasy magazine titles is higher than at any other point in history. That’s more than 25 pro-level magazines, according to a count from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, amid a larger pool of “70 magazines, 14 audio sites, and nine critical magazines,” according to Locus Magazine.
It’s a bit of a golden age for fans, in other words. Many publishers, however, aren’t earning enough in revenue to be self-sustaining without plenty of effort from volunteers.
This news comes from an in-depth report compiled by science fiction author Jason Sanford, who interviewed editors, publishers, and staffers at nine different genre magazines to unpack the secrets of operating a genre magazine in 2020.
First, the good news from Sanford’s report: Not only are there more genre magazines than ever, but their readership is strong overall, and on the rise.
“[T]he readership for most genre magazines increased in 2018 over the year before,” Sanford explained in his full report. “Analog’s total circulation was up 9.9% while Asimov’s was up 10.6% and F&SF’s up 1.5%. Newer genre magazines also saw their circulations increase in 2018 over the year before, with Clarkesworld seeing a nearly 8% increase in paid digital subscriptions while their website had 2,000 more unique visitors each month and podcast listeners went from 2,000 to 14,000 in a single year.”
The bad news? Many magazines owe their success to unpaid volunteers, and their financial futures are shaky unless they can grow revenues as well as their audiences.
I reached out to Sanford for more background about his report, and he highlighted a caveat here: The need to boost revenues is a bigger concern for the newer generation of genre magazines. The pre-internet-era magazines that are still going — Asimov's Science Fiction, Analog: Science Fiction and Fact, and Fantasy & Science Fiction — have built up their digital brands, earning thousands of online readers and “solid financials.”
“For example,” Sanford tells me, “Asimov's and Analog are published by Penny Publications and utilize paid editorial staff and traditional business models, relying on subscriptions, sales and ads to support their publications. The issue with revenues and the use of volunteer time arises with the newer magazines like Clarkesworld, Uncanny, and FIYAH! The Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction. While these magazines have strong readerships, they also couldn't exist without significant unpaid work by their editors and other staff members.”
The editor-in-chief and publisher of the award-winning Beneath Ceaseless Skies Scott H. Andrews, Sanford says, volunteers an estimated 30 hours a week to keep the magazine operating.
If genre fiction is so popular, why aren’t newer magazines making more? The answer may be that the internet has gotten consumers used to reading plenty of short nonfiction articles online, from news to reviews, and these consumers feel entitled to short fiction stories for free as well. The audience base is strong, but won’t pay. Mur Lafferty, of the science fiction podcast magazine Escape Pod, estimates just 1% of their listeners donate to support their efforts, a number that Sanford says is representative of the industry.
The path forward is unclear, and likely different for each publication, but growing the number of readers willing to directly financially support the magazines they read is probably the best option. If the percentage of paying subscribers or donating members of each publication were to double, Sanford sums up, “many of the pressures faced by genre magazines would lessen significantly.”
Sanford has surveyed genre readers to learn more about the best ways magazines might be able to boost their revenues, and will be releasing more information in the future.
Let’s hope genre fiction magazines everywhere can continue strong for decades to come — their benefits to readers and writers can be easy to overlook. Sanford says even he didn’t realize just how involved in their communities the magazines are until putting together his report.
“Scott H. Andrews says across 11 years he has written over 25,000 personalized rejections to writers — think of how many writers have benefited from that feedback on their stories,” Sanford says. “And Troy L. Wiggins, the publisher of FIYAH!, has described how their magazine has given black SF/F writers a new pathway to success. Many of the writers being publishing right now in genre magazines will in the future create bestselling novels, beloved video games, and ground-breaking films and TV shows.
“Genre magazines are still the place where people can read tomorrow's SF/F dreams today.”
