SF, Fantasy and Horror in Pulps, E-Zines and E-Books When I was young and first started reading Science Fiction, most genre fiction was published in what were known as pulp magazines with titles such as Amazing Stories, Thrilling Wonder, Astonishing, Fantastic, Planet, Terror Tales and Unknown to name but a small sample. They had garish brightly-colored covers, usually featuring a scantily dressed woman in some sort of peril by a Bug-Eyed-Monster or a robot with a spaceship in the background. They were printed on 8 ½ by 11 blotting paper and were about an inch thick. The interiors were filled with marvelous stories written by such legends as Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, H.P. Lovecraft, Robert Heinlein, and Arthur C. Clarke to name but a tiny fraction of authors whose careers started with the pulps. In addition to the stories, they contained art by Earl Bergey, Virgil Finley and Chesley Bonestell and many other great illustrators. They had fact articles and massive letter columns where the fans argued about everything faintly associated with their favorite genre. Although they paid their contributors little in the way of cash, they were a great place for a genre author or artist to get published. If they were very good and lived long enough for the paperback explosion, many graduated into the world of published books where the real money was. But sometime in the nineteen fifties, the pulps disappeared to be replaced by paperback books and smaller slicker magazines such as Analog. But these medium were more expensive to print. As a result, their editors were less likely to take a chance on new authors. In order for a genre author to get published, he or she had to be known from the pulps or be exceptionally gifted. Hence, from the late fifties to the nineteen nineties it became more and more difficult for a new author or artist to break into the publishing world. In the nineteen nineties, a new method of publishing came into being due to the Internet and the prevalence of computers in peoples homes. It was Electronic or E publishing. As it turned out, the electronic magazines or E-Zines returned to the days of the pulps. Although they paid even less (many pay nothing) than the pulps in terms of todays dollar, a new author, if he or she was any good at all, could finally get a break and get his or her stories published. The same holds true of the E-Book publishers. Most of print publishing is done by a few major publishers who are mostly interested in publishing books by celebrities and well-known authors. Most will not even accept a manuscript from an unknown unless it arrives through an agent. Ah, but since publishing E-books and print-on-demand is a cheaper process, budding authors have a much better chance of getting published. Again, because quantities sold are much less than printed books, royalties are minuscule. Nonetheless, small paychecks are better than none, and the author has the satisfaction of knowing that his work is being read by someone. Who knows. Perhaps the E-Book authors of today will become as famous as Stephen King. I sure hope so.
Posted on: Wed, 22 Oct 2014 13:23:53 +0000