Slow Progress, Fast Times

From NYRSF ISSUE #245, January 2009

Well, the world rolls on, and not entirely downhill. Thanks to all of you who have recently renewed your subscriptions; and for those of you who have not, please do. We have decided to cut back our print run, after nearly a decade of unfounded optimism that the store market would perhaps recover and that our subscription level would increase. Instead, our subscription level has stayed rock steady at the same level and our increase in bookstore distribution totals three copies monthly. And so we have decided to stock fewer copies of our back issues.

And after working frankly too slowly on this for months, we are about to launch electronic subscriptions for our Canadian and overseas subscribers, who are being forced to pay a huge premium in postage for hard copies. If you live outside the US and want to participate in this new service, for which we will charge the same rate as a domestic US subscription, please email us and tell us so, at <[email protected]> and we will respond. We are particularly interested in updating our database of international email addresses, which is woefully incomplete.

Our plan is to fulfill current subscriptions with both physical copies and electronic at the current rate. After that, we will offer renewals and new subscribers either an electronic subscription, or a combined electronic and physical subscription at the higher rate to cover postage. If you are paying via SFRA or IAFA, we will figure out how to make a transition.

We are establishing a password-protected FTP site, on which we will place a PDF copy each month for a period of time. We will email the password to subscribers on the day of release and the issue will remain available at the site until the next issue is published. We are, admittedly, concerned that unlimited circulation of the PDF (either electronically or via multiple printed copies) will reduce our paid circulation, but we hope that will be balanced by the number of subscribers we will gain from making this lower-cost option available. If our subscription base drops significantly, we will fall below the break-even point and will be forced to reconsider the program. 

As a side benefit, we are establishing a PayPal account linked to the email address above, to receive electronic payments from all subscribers (electronic or paper). We hope it will be active by the time you read these words.

One benefit of these changes in the long run is that we will potentially be able to post back issues for free when we run through our supply of physical copies, probably within a year of publication. Sad to say, we lack electronic files for many of our early issues, and currently have insufficient volunteer time, equipment, and software to create such files. But maybe someday.

So as 2009 begins, there are hopeful signs of progress on our end. We wish you a year of happy reading.

—David G. Hartwell

& the editors