posted
I just read that Realms of Fantasy is closing down (not to long after The magazine of fantasy and science fiction announced a change to a bimonthly schedule). Of course IGMS has the advantage of not having to deal with postage, or fighting for shelf space (and it is already less frequent than the now bimonthly magazine of fantasy and science fiction). Though with the other problems with the scifi magazines I was wondering if IGMS was doing ok.
Posts: 1901 | Registered: May 2004
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posted
Well, they just accepted my short story The End of the World Pool, so I hope they're doing all right...
Posts: 14554 | Registered: Dec 1999
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If anything it could do well out of the current economic climate. It's a cheaper alternative to the abovementioned publications, so if people are looking to cut back the right advertisement campaign could work wonders for OSC.
Posts: 1138 | Registered: Nov 2005
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posted
It would be bad for all writers if any magazine tried to gain audience at the expense of other magazines. I doubt the magazines really even want to compete with each other. Variety is really important for the consumer in this business and we've lost a lot of magazines over the years.
That said, I think we'll see almost all periodicals move to electronic format at some time, most especially with e-readers on their way to becoming like i-pods. The only reason they haven't taken off yet is there isn't yet one on the market that's as simple to operate as a book.
Posts: 3495 | Registered: Feb 2000
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posted
Speaking of E-books, wouldn't it be fairly easy for OSC to sell the magazine as an Kindle e-book? I'm not sure what that would do to his revenue (ie how much of a cut does amazon take) but it would make it nice and portable for those of us who have Kindles. I'd be willing to pay a slightly higher price to have the option to put it on my kindle.
Ok on second review after checking with Amazon I find that the author only gets 35% of the set sales price. This would mean to net $2.50 the mag would have to be sold for over $7. I'm not sure that is such a great deal
But perhaps just making it available to those who purchase the web version in a various e-book formats would work. As it is we are trusted not to create PDF versions of the stories and e-mail them about.
quote: wouldn't it be fairly easy for OSC to sell the magazine as an Kindle e-book?
I'd love to see the magazine printed as an e-book. I'm not in love with the Kindle, though. Give it a couple more years of development; when they are able to make a reader that's capable of full color display, that's less than $200, and that can page more efficiently, then I might be on this market.
I don't know that printing it as an ebook would necessarily be helpful to sales; it wouldn't (I don't think) add much to the site's cost, so it might not hurt, either.
Posts: 14554 | Registered: Dec 1999
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quote:Originally posted by Scott R: Give it a couple more years of development; when they are able to make a reader that's capable of full color display, that's less than $200, and that can page more efficiently, then I might be on this market.
Do you only read books that are printed in color?
Posts: 5462 | Registered: Apr 2005
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quote:Are comics really that available as ebooks? Seems like that would totally ruin them.
Why would it ruin them?
A few years ago, Marvel put up the first thirty issues of their Ultimates line (Spider-man, X-men, Ultimates) online; it worked really well.
Posts: 14554 | Registered: Dec 1999
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quote:Originally posted by Scott R: Oh, look...Eviction Notice gave someone nightmares.
You're that Scott R? Wowwee!
Great story. That was the first IGMS story I ever read.
I'm glad you liked it, Sean. My short story, The End of the World Pool will be published in IGMS some time this spring; it's better, IMO, than Eviction Notice, but not nearly as dark.
Posts: 14554 | Registered: Dec 1999
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quote:Are comics really that available as ebooks? Seems like that would totally ruin them.
Why would it ruin them?
A few years ago, Marvel put up the first thirty issues of their Ultimates line (Spider-man, X-men, Ultimates) online; it worked really well.
Online is different -- everything is already in color online. My understanding is that most ebook readers are b&w by design (that being MUCH easier on the eyes than color).
And the kindle is specifically designed so that, not only is it b&w but there's no backlighting from the screen, which lets you read it like a book without the eyestrain you get from reading off of a backlit screen.
Posts: 5462 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
Reading the kindle really is like reading on paper.
In many ways it can actually be easier. The only thing that really bothers me is it is not as easy to flip through sections if you want to read a specific part again. Though it does have a search feature, so you can use that, but it isn't the same as flipping through a bunch of pages quickly. Because of that, I don't think it would work as well for textbooks. Some of the features that the kindle has such as bookmarks, table of contents with hyperlinks, and the ability to jump forward over many pages at once would make it usable for textbooks...but not ideal.
However, as a device for reading fiction, the kindle has exceeded my expectations.
Posts: 1901 | Registered: May 2004
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I would buy a Kindle to read fiction on it if each book were no more expensive than $5. I see no reason why the elimination of the actual cost of the physical product should not be translated to direct consumer savings.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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posted
I agree that the price of the book it more than it should be, however it is cheaper than if you buy the print version...and much cheaper than if you were to buy the print version in a brick and mortar store (at least for hardbacks...paper backs still have a savings, but it is not as much).
Also, I enjoy reading classics, and you can download them for free. You can download books from project gutenberg and put them on your kindle. I have probably read more books from gutenberg than I do from amazon.
Posts: 1901 | Registered: May 2004
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I'd love a Kindle but I buy most of my books for $2 or $3 on half.com (sometimes even hardbacks at that price). OK, with shipping add $3 a book, but it's still usually cheaper than going to a bookstore.
How much of a hardback book sale is usually royalty, and how much is profit to the publisher? Combined, that's the price I'd feel OK about paying for a new release book on Kindle. For an older release of course I'd want to pay something similar to the margin on paperbacks. Posts: 4287 | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
For some reason, paying S&H on books through online retailers just kills me. You know how there are some things a given person is willing to pay and other things they aren't? S&H on a used book falls into that category for me for some strange reason. I guess it really bugs me that there doesn't seem to be any volume break.
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
Some news on IGMS, from the IGMS auto-mailer:
quote:1) Effective immediately, IGMS will be released on a bi-monthly basis, publishing in January, March, May, July, September, and November.
2) The number of stories published in each issue will be reduced from 7 to 5; however, the total number of stories published each year will increase from 28 to 30.
3) Instead of writing a new story for each issue (which he was having a hard time keeping up with), from now on Orson Scott Card will record a story as an audio file for each issue. If you bought issue 9 or 10 with the expectation that there would be a new Orson Scott Card story in it, fear not; that commitment will still be met (and hopefully soon, now that the latest screenplay for the Ender’s Game movie has been completed). However, having an audio file takes advantage of things a print magazine cannot do, and also allows Orson to stay active in the magazine on a more timely basis, with a commitment that takes a few hours of his time instead of a few weeks. The audio story he records might be one of his own previously published stories; it might be a story by another author published in IGMS; or it might be something from a novel-in-progress, as will be the case with Issue 11 when he reads an early chapter from The Lost Gate (to be published in the future by Del Rey). The story/chapter is titled “The Man in the Tree,” and the audio presentation will be accompanied by the full text.
4) There will still be an author interview in every issue, and the monthly columns will still be free. Each story will still come with its own custom illustration.
I'm psyched for the bi-monthly publication schedule.
Posts: 14554 | Registered: Dec 1999
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posted
I think it's a pretty gross miscalculation to assume that people who purchase the issues for new EG stories (which, I'm guessing, is the majority of the readership [or at least a sizeable minority if not]) are going to satisfied with an audio file of OSC reading someone else's work.
That's like me offering new tires to a hungry man. Yeah, great, except that's not what he's looking for.
Posts: 5462 | Registered: Apr 2005
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quote:I think it's a pretty gross miscalculation to assume that people who purchase the issues for new EG stories (which, I'm guessing, is the majority of the readership [or at least a sizeable minority if not]) are going to satisfied with an audio file of OSC reading someone else's work.
From the bit I quoted:
quote:If you bought issue 9 or 10 with the expectation that there would be a new Orson Scott Card story in it, fear not; that commitment will still be met (and hopefully soon, now that the latest screenplay for the Ender’s Game movie has been completed).
So IGMS is apparently planning on meeting the expectation they set.
Additionally, on the Table of Contents for each issue, the OSC tale is clearly labeled as either being present or 'Coming Soon.' Those people who only want to read OSC's stuff are informed if that material exists in the issue; there's no subterfuge involved.
I'm not sure how much of the audience was coming to IGMS strictly on the promise of EG stories. I know that a couple people who reviewed the anthology said that they bought it solely for the Enderverse stories, and were pleasantly surprised by the value of the non-EG content.
I hope that IGMS will increasingly become a valued market in its own right, independent of whether there's an EG story in it or not.
Posts: 14554 | Registered: Dec 1999
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quote:Originally posted by Scott R: I hope that IGMS will increasingly become a valued market in its own right, independent of whether there's an EG story in it or not.
quote:I think it's a pretty gross miscalculation to assume that people who purchase the issues for new EG stories (which, I'm guessing, is the majority of the readership [or at least a sizeable minority if not]) are going to satisfied with an audio file of OSC reading someone else's work.
From the bit I quoted:
quote:If you bought issue 9 or 10 with the expectation that there would be a new Orson Scott Card story in it, fear not; that commitment will still be met (and hopefully soon, now that the latest screenplay for the Ender’s Game movie has been completed).
So IGMS is apparently planning on meeting the expectation they set.
Additionally, on the Table of Contents for each issue, the OSC tale is clearly labeled as either being present or 'Coming Soon.' Those people who only want to read OSC's stuff are informed if that material exists in the issue; there's no subterfuge involved.
Show me where I said or implied otherwise.
quote:I'm not sure how much of the audience was coming to IGMS strictly on the promise of EG stories. I know that a couple people who reviewed the anthology said that they bought it solely for the Enderverse stories, and were pleasantly surprised by the value of the non-EG content.
I hope that IGMS will increasingly become a valued market in its own right, independent of whether there's an EG story in it or not.
I hope so, too. But I will not be in that audience. And my guess is circulation will take a sizable drop.
Posts: 5462 | Registered: Apr 2005
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JT, have you actually read/listened to any of the other stories in IGMS? I just downloaded it from Audible a few days ago and have listened to quite a number of the stories. Like You I purchsed it in the anticipation of the continuation of the EG universe, and have not been disappointed. However to look only for the EG stories misses some of the best and most gripping stories in the IGMS series!
Kudos to Scott R for his "Eviction Notice" Story! I thoroughly enjoyed it! And I have yet to really hear anything in it that I dislike at all, I am glad more than ever that I purchased it!
On a side note, I sincerely hope that OSC will also have the EG short stories available for individual download like "Mazer in Prison" was on itunes. I can add all the stories to one large playlist and listen to everyting in order.
Posts: 9 | Registered: Jan 2009
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quote:originally posted by JT Is that directed at me, or is that just a general observation?
Because that statement has absolutely no bearing on my post.
Sorry for not being clear. I meant that if OSC can't write EG stories anymore then they aren't going to just appear out of thin air. Whatever he's doing as an alternative is just going to have to replace them.
Posts: 399 | Registered: Dec 2008
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quote:Originally posted by Scott R: General questions: What would it take to get you to buy an issue of IGMS?
Is OSC's literary presence between the pages enough? Without him, is the magazine without you?
What are you looking for in your short fiction fix?
Without an Enderverse story in IGMS? It would probably take some very compelling other stories. I've found them to be hit or miss. And more miss than hit for me so far.
But then, I don't read a lot of short fiction and I find it uncomfortable to read long text passages on my computer monitor (ironic, I know).
Posts: 5462 | Registered: Apr 2005
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quote:Turns out that IGMS will be available on Kindle. We've had numerous requests for it to be available there, and at first it looked like it wasn't going to work out. But where there's a will, there's a way, and our web designer has begun converting each issue for Kindle, starting with issue one (which should be available shortly). Between his (the designer's) wide variety of other projects, he will work through the back issues as time permits until each issue is ready and done. We'll then add the new issues as they are published. The main differences between the online version of the magazine and the Kindle version is that the cover art will be in black and white instead of color, and the audio stories will not be available (Kindle doesn't support that yet). Certain other bonuses will not be there (like the serialization of "Hotsleep" that we did in issue one, or the comic versions we've done of a few of OSC's stories), but all of the short stories, any interviews, etc. will be in the Kindle version for the same $2.50 we charge for the online version.
posted
I've enjoyed the majority of the IGMS stories, althuogh with two kids I don't read as much as I used to.
I notice that the new publication schedule will produce a greater quantity of issues, but each issue will be shorter. Given the per-issue price will stay the same, that's more money for less content.
Posts: 187 | Registered: Jul 2003
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