The very same questions apply to markets that hope people pay for the work as well. Magazines with purchase prices on them run out of money as well, go under as well, and disappear as well.

Personally speaking I am supremely unworried if the sites hosting my stories go down, since I own the copyrights to my work. I’ll just sell them again. That said, Macmillin has a lot of money; I expect Tor.Com will be around for a bit.

MM: I love short stories too, and hope to read yours RSN. (Too much work right now don’cha’know).

A question arises about the business model for freebies which is–who pays? ultimately. Will they continue to pay to keep the freebies up and available? Or will the $$$ run out and sites be taken down? Then what?

At least with the print mags (and books too), there is something tangible there on your shelf, on the shelves at some libraries, used bookstores, and so forth, for when the original source site vanishes into the aether.

Just a thought.

MM

It’s not that I don’t read them for philosophical reasons, it’s that I subscribe to them for philosophical reasons despite the fact that I currently don’t have time to read them.

I am a very loyal subscriber to S&SF and Asimov’s. I wouldn’t stop subscribing unless the editors gave me a very good reason (say, for example, publishing hate-filled screeds against civil rights for whole segments of the population?). I like short fiction, and I can afford the rates, and I don’t want to see the market die out. I read short fiction in libraries and by borrowing copies for years, and always vowed that when I could afford it I’d subscribe.

That said, F&SF comes to my house consistently, abundantly, interminably!!! The issues pile up. They sit on the shelf. They sit in the kitchen. I think there is at least one issue in every room of my house! But my to-read pile would stretch across the house if I laid the books and magazines end to end, maybe across the yard! So…I think I’ve read, on average, 2 stories per F&SF delivered to my door in the last year. I mean, at some point I’ll be traveling or hospitalized and I’ll probably catch up. Someday.

My only point is, not all of those sold magazines equate to a read story, either. I can’t be the only person who subscribes to magazines she doesn’t always read for philosophical reasons.

(Boy do I know how to make a short story long).

Thanks for the quick answer.

I disagree that you’re comparing eyeballs to eyeballs. You’re comparing hits to circulation numbers. And the fact that one is free and the other is paid seems to me to be relevant.

But I certainly take your point that posting your story on Tor’s site has gotten it a good audience in a short period of time. Good on you and on Tor, sez I. I particularly salute Tor for recognizing the virtues of the approach that Subterranean and Clarkesworld use for publishing short fiction.

I wish we could discuss this subject at Denvention, but I have to skip Worldcon this year. Do me a favor and check over JJA at the cocktail party before the Hugos. Let him know if he has toilet paper stuck to the heel of his shoe.

—Gordon V.G.

JAB

//JJ

I love that line so much!