Short Fiction Follow-Up Thoughts

Since I've already jumped into a boiling pot of water this week (see prior posts), I might as well add a few additional comments, something I was planning on doing anyway. (I'm fairly sure I'm not burnt out on short fiction, since when I find something great, I still get as excited as a kid, so take it in that context...)(1) There's been a lot of talk about falling subscriber bases and circulations for magazines like Asimov's SF Magazine and F&SF, and a lot of speculation as to why. People are just reading less short fiction. People are reading less genre fiction. The magazines are doing something wrong. Not enough women. Not enough this, not enough that. Regardless, what would the field look like without these magazines? In other words, if you're one of the people criticizing them, and I have been at times, are you willing to live in a world without them? I'm not. I might be immune to F&SF's charms for the most part, but I think the field would be poorer without it and the others like it. When I have money again, I plan to subscribe to them. Others should too, and keep submitting to them. (It is possible to support in a broad sense and offer constructive criticism in a specific sense.) Unless, again, you think you can live with them gone. It's one thing to complain about them, it's another to envision them no longer there.(2) For those who think a magazine isn't publishing more of what you want to see, start your own publication (making sure you do it up right). Starting with Jabberwocky back in the 1980s and then Leviathan, that's what I did, to provide a home for what I thought I wasn't seeing in the magazines. Then, with the rise of Small Beer Press (Trampoline being an excellent antho from them) and a ton of others, that didn't seem as important any more, because the entire paradigm had changed. Now it does, once again, seem important because the genre, to my mind, is getting somewhat conservative again. (Nothing wrong with that--just means unconventional stuff needs more support.) But, if you do start up a publication, you're now going to have to go against the LCRW model in terms of design and approach because there are a lot of mags doing that right now. (And, wearily he says, do not interpret this as a dig at LCRW.)(3) See my post about closed versus open anthologies. Jeff Ford in a comments thread said anthologists should be able to invite whoever they want to their anthologies. This, of course, is true, but I hope new editors entering the field think carefully about the implications of how they operate, on writers and the field.(4) Support short fiction writers you love or think are interesting or need more attention on your blog (for example, my nascent Bookless interviews) and by buying their short story collections. This last is especially important and story collections tend to sell poorly.(5) Support the free online publications like Strange Horizons and Clarkesworld that consistently publish new writers and aren't afraid to publish a variety of traditional and non-traditional material. Also remember that publications like Weird Tales are extremely open to new writers and deserve support.You can do all of this, in essence engaging in a positive dialogue, while still being critical and wanting to change the paradigm. Changing the paradigm doesn't have to mean taking a blow torch to what's already out there. But the point is, too: no matter what you say somewhere, that doesn't mean nearly as much as doing something.Jeff