Building an online science fiction magazine
- I’ve been submitting my science fiction stories for quite a while now, and I’ve become familiar with process.
- During the controversy among scifi people a couple of months ago over low-paying mags/sites (free/$5 a story) vs. pro-paying mags/sites (5 cents/word) I realized that there are less than two dozen professional-paying science fiction short story magazines/sites recognized by the Science Fiction (and Fantasy) Writers of America (there are more and more one-time anthologies, however).
- Some of the sites/mags only publish one story a month and some publish flash fiction.
- In addition to submitting a lot, I listen to a lot of sf stories while I workout and have started acquiring a lot of anthologies and have tried to become familiar with the short science fiction field.
- I decided, at my gal’s encouragement, to set up a website magazine that would pay a professional rate and publish every other month.
- I bought http://www.redstonesciencefiction.com for $10/year & $5/month.
- I setup a twitter feed: http://twitter.com/RedstoneSF and a facebook page.
- When I told my friend P.C. about it he said he’d join in and we’d publish a story every month & split expenses.
- We decided on a 4000-word story at 5 cents/word.
- I set up Wordpress, which I’ve done a couple of times, and went through hundreds of layouts & arrived at a simple, clean one.
- I set up a gmail mail server and we can have 50 different gmail accounts at our domain like submissions@redstonesciencefiction.com and mikeray@redstonesciencefiction.com
- I sent out an invite on facebook to my vast geek network to submit stories.
- I’ve gotten the site listed at the top online submission tracker: Duotrope’s Digest
- P.C. has established us as a business, established accounts & is setting up a paypal, and we’ll soon be an LLC – Redstone Publishing. (We even have an ‘in-house’ accountant).
- We have a contract template and I have posted guidelines – http://redstonesciencefiction.com/guidelines/
- We are also going to interview scientists, both biological & space (we know NASA people & medical experts), and scifi people.
- Tobermory has cranked out graphics and is doing more.
- We’ll do reviews on fringe movies and older scifi
- We’vw set up a CafePress store: http://www.cafepress.com/redstonesf
- We’ll probably publish some much older public domain stuff as well.
- We are considering reprints and flash fiction as well.
- We will probably do some reviews or discussions of scifi stuff we like.
- Also, I plan on doing an audio version of the stories we publish as well.
- We’ve talked to a well-known internet artist about doing some covers.
- We’ve had contact with a couple of professional writers as well.
- We start taking submissions a week from Monday and plan to put up the first story June 1.
- We may actually be building a little momentum.
Here and There
Written by M.E. Ray on February 20th, 2010Wrote 500 words on Wednesday.
This week while exercising I read This Year You Write Your Novel by Walter Mosley. Standard Advice, but strangely encouraging.
Spent a lot of time working on the website for Redstone Science Fiction.
Surprised I haven’t seen The Lester Dent Pulp Paper Master Fiction Plot before.
More useful than Mosley’s Book: Ten rules for writing fiction in the Guardian referencing Elmore Leonard and several others, including Michael Moorcock.
The 50th post on The Blog at GateTree. Cool.
Brainstorm
Written by M.E. Ray on February 14th, 2010I have gathered so many ideas and factors to include in my story that it may be too much. Should I stick to a story? Should I make this a longer piece? Am I actually going to make it happen?
I get so distracted at my computer, I’m beginning to think I would do better to write by hand. I broke my glasses a couple of weeks ago & finally got in to optometrist this week. While stuck in exam rooms, I lifted pen and paper and was able to crank out several ideas. It may be that home is simply too distracting. We’ve got rooms filled with storage that I think I’m going to have to clean out to try and create a separate space.
Nearly all my stories are submitted. I may actually have a chance with a couple.
Things are moving along with Redstone Science Fiction. I’m going to try out using Wordpress first. I’ve downloaded several templates and I’m going to set it up at first with some pre-1923 public domain stories so I can go ahead and set up links and pages.
School is going fine, I may be a little behind, but that’s normal and AP Economics is much improved this time through. Exercise is going great, I feel much better, but the constant alternation of rain & bitter cold can end at any time..
Plugging away
Written by M.E. Ray on January 29th, 2010I have resubmitted all my stories, except ‘Detention’. I’ve considered rewriting it, but I may just stick with it as is. I think the website/podcast will be interesting to do. I’m researching the best way to get quality submissions. I’m hoping the higher payrate will help, but you have to get teh word out there somehow. I have the general course of my next story and the basic protagonist. I need to work out the specific conflicts.
I have been exercising regularly and strenuously after school. I’ve also made sure to eat better and take my vitamins. I’m getting better about sleep. the problem is setting aside the time to write. I think the time to write has got to be carved out between 7pm and 9pm. After the dog walk & supper and before I run out of steam. I have to work it around time I spend with my wife watching TV and time I spend on the internet. Systematizing my daily activities & chores around the morning & evening dog walks has gone quite well. I just need to extend that a little farther to include writing time.
A Magazine of My Own?
Written by M.E. Ray on January 14th, 2010I’ve finally decided to take a swing at my own online science fiction magazine, now that I’ve got a little experience with the conventions of the field.
I’ve made a list of things that I need to do:
1) Choose an appealing name
2) Make sure I can get the domain name (I can’t believe that sciencefiction.com and fantasy.com are ‘parked’ on by squatters and no one has bought them.)
3) Determine what needs to be done for taxes and business license.
4) Set up a high-quality professional website, probably with Wordpress, even if I have a to buy a good theme.
5) Set up a couple of website specific gmail addresses for communication and business.
6) Find a standard contract to use.
7) Pay a high rate for stories, above the minimum for Science Fiction Writers of America, probably 10 cents a word to try to get better submissions and quicker recognition.
8) Make provisions to create a podcast of the stories.
9) Determine the best way to eventually incorporate ads.
10) Start with a very slow publication schedule – like one story every other month.
11) Possibly add other content, reviews, flash fiction, etc.
12) Set-up and keep up with facebook & twitter pages.
13) Expect to start by mid-year, not right away.
14) Do not expect it to be profitable or even pay for itself.
Follow up 1/16/10:
1) Redstone Science Fiction
2) got it – http://redstonesciencefiction.com
5) mail accounts are set up
6) found the template I want
12) facebook page still private; http://twitter.com/redstonesf