DargonZine
Volume 19, Number 2 |
Distributed: 2/18/2006
Circulation: 659 |
 |
DargonZine is the publication vehicle of The
Dargon Project, Inc., a collaborative group of aspiring fantasy writers on the
Internet. We welcome new readers and writers interested in joining the
project. Please address all correspondence to
<dargon@dargonzine.org>
or visit us on the World Wide Web at http://www.dargonzine.org/, or our FTP site at
ftp://ftp.dargonzine.org/.
Issues and public discussion are posted to newsgroup
rec.mag.dargon.
DargonZine 19-2, ISSN 1080-9910, (C) Copyright February, 2006
by The Dargon Project, Inc. Editor: Ornoth D.A. Liscomb
<ornoth@rcn.com>,
Assistant Editor: Liam Donahue
<bdonahue@fuse.net>.
DargonZine is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs-NonCommercial
License. This license allows you to make and distribute
unaltered copies of DargonZine, complete with the original attributions
of authorship, so long as it is not used for commercial purposes.
Reproduction of issues or any portions thereof for profit is forbidden.
To view a detailed copy of this license, please visit
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/1.0 or send a letter to
Creative Commons, 559 Nathan Abbott Way, Stanford CA, 94305 USA.
|
Editorial
ublishing a magazine containing fiction written solely by unpaid
volunteer authors provides some interesting challenges.
In a volunteer organization like the Dargon Project, where people
write at their own pace, it's often difficult to predict from month to
month how much material there'll be to print. Sometimes we have enough
stories to fill half a dozen issues, but there have been times when
we've gone six months or more without anything to print.
Recent history provides a good example of this. In 2004 we printed
three issues, then ran out of submissions. Everyone was busily working
on their Black Idol stories, but none were ready to print yet. Nine
months passed before we were able to send out another issue; that was
the longest publishing hiatus we've had in our 22-year history.
On the other hand, things changed dramatically once our authors
started completing those Black Idol stories. Over the past half year, we
produced an issue every month, and there's another six months' worth of
stories just waiting to be printed!
Of course, sending all those stories out at once would be a
problem. In general, people expect a magazine to come out on a fairly
regular, predictable schedule, and our readers wouldn't like it if we
didn't produce an issue for an entire year, then put out three issues in
a single month, then waited another nine months for the next.
So that's my big challenge as editor: to gaze into the future and
predict how many stories will be ready to print, then figure out how
often we should send out issues. Sometimes, when there's nothing to
print, I have to ask our writers to hurry their stories along.
Alternately, when there's plenty of material, sometimes it makes sense
to send issues out gradually, so that we don't run out of material and
have long gaps between issues.
We're fortunate that our writers have been very productive over the
past year or two. Right now, we have enough stories to last through the
end of 2006 and into next year, too. However, having too many stories
raises another problem for the humble editor: writing interesting
editorials!
When submissions trickle in slowly, there'll be enough time between
issues for plenty of events worth discussing to happen. But if several
issues come out one right after another, as we've had recently,
sometimes there's nothing new to report. And if you're an astute reader,
you may have already figured out that this is one of those times.
It's ironic that sometimes I have to nag my writers to finish their
stories, but when there's a lot to print, I'm the one who has to hurry
my writing. Of course, I could point out that each of our writers only
has to produce a story every couple years, whereas DargonZine needs a
new editorial nearly every month. And I've written nearly 150
editorials, when very few of our writers have printed more than a couple
dozen stories ...
Still, the magazine's not about my missives; it's about the
stories, and this month we have two excellent contributions to our
ongoing Black Idol story arc. If you're new to DargonZine, I'd heartily
suggest you go back and start reading with DargonZine 18-1, when the
first story in the Black Idol series appeared. It's by far the biggest
and most successful collaborative storyline we've ever done.
And you can look forward to another new issue next month, which
will feature more Black Idol stories, and an editorial that will
hopefully will have a little more interesting news to share!
Return to Table of Contents
