June 2012 Editorial: The Big and Bigger News

I am pleased to say that although the mailing labels sent to
our printer for the last issue got caught in their spam filter and
the issue delayed by 8 or 9 days, it is out. But that is the “normal”
in “snafu.” The big news we have is that we have begun to
master the technology of conversion to e-book formats, so that
in the future we will be able to offer that electronic alternative
to the pdfs we have been able to supply for the last few years to
electronic subscribers. More about this in a moment. Even better
(but also more expensive for those who choose the option),
we think we have found a relatively reasonable way to provide
bi-monthly hard copy issues in POD Format—essentially six
48-page issues per year.

The bigger news is that we can also set about converting
back issues to electronic and POD formats. But don’t anticipate
wide availability of individual back issues any time soon. We
hope to have the last year available soon, and work back from
there, back into the dim reaches of primitive technologies by
which we produced our earlier issues, and try to make copies that
can be converted from old PageMaker files, and finally back to
those issues where we have only hard copies. It has been nearly
24 years now, and we have had some losses, made some mistakes.

down from two full rooms of cartons), and we would rather sell
them cheap than throw them away. We have been getting a few
takers each month, but we need more of you to order from our
special offer of 40 copies for $20, 80 for $40, and 120 for $60,
our choice, but we’ll let you specify only issues before number
220, or 200, or 160, as long as we have sufficient latitude to
send from our uneven back issue piles. That pile of cartons, what
remains in several months, is going to recycling progressively,
issue by issue, as we complete production files of electronic back
issues. We’ll probably have copies of most issues for sale for a
longer time, but not all, and at full price for small numbers of
issues. So get the bargain price now. Please.

In the happy event that you get your copy of this issue
before the Hugo voting deadline, do remember that we and
four other worthy magazines are nominated for the Hugo in
the Semiprozine category. Please do not neglect to vote in that
category—the Semiprozine is a vital tradition in our community
and deserves our respect and attention.

—David G. Hartwell & the editors

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A PDF copy of the NYRSF issue in which this article first appeared is available for purchase at Weightless Books.