HUGO AWARD-WINNING SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY MAGAZINE
Editor's Desk:
The Little Things
I turn fifty this month. Normally I don’t make much of a fuss about my birthdays, but this year I’m letting my family throw a party. It’s not that I expect fifty to be any different than forty-nine, but it is a milestone year and since the heart attack, those milestones actually mean something to me. Little victories are important too.
As I mentioned in an editorial a few months ago, one of the presents I expected to have received by now was to be free of my day job so I could focus entirely on Clarkesworld and my other editing projects. Unfortunately, what appeared to be a solid job prospect for Lisa suddenly evaporated after some staff changes at that company. That set her back to square one and has left me in an increasingly frustrating position of being stuck where I am. I know she’ll find something, but it appears the little losses mean a lot to me now too.
I recently blogged about having impostor syndrome. It’s that terrible little voice in your head that tells you that success was just luck, a fluke, and it will all evaporate when people figure out the truth. If you aren’t careful, the little losses in life can be magnified by this beast. Far too many of us in this field seem to feel like impostors and I’ve been at war with my personal monster for too long now. Lately though, I think I might be winning.
I’m a big advocate of magazines starting small and growing. In my eagerness to see the magazine expand, I’ve allowed impostor syndrome to convince me that the value of my work was the enjoyment I received from it, so I took a smaller financial reward. Oddly enough, this is counter to the advice I give authors: make sure you get paid. I also told myself that reinvesting in the magazine would pay out in the long run. My vision demanded the magazine be “complete” before I could be justified drawing a proper wage.
There was a lot of theory in my madness. Fortunately, enough of it was correct and our revenue steadily increased over the years. Where I failed, however, was in identifying the relationship between readership and supporting readership. Over the last three years, our readership has increased, but the percentage of readers supporting us has steadily declined. This year, it dropped below seven percent for the first time. So much for little losses. That’s a real problem.
Optimally, I would like to be at ten percent. Think about that for a second—one in ten people would be paying for our work. Insane, right? Yet, that’s the business model most online magazines are working towards. Each of us have some ridiculously low percentage as a goal. It’s no wonder that people have been trying to convince me to reconsider our approach to free content.
I know the market is oversaturated and that’s probably a contributing factor, but I’ve been watching with interest as individual authors with similar social media footprints launch Patreon pages and related projects. I’ve seen them rapidly shoot past what we make in a month while offering considerably less than we do in return. Clearly this is more of a passionate show of support for their work than it is about getting something. Sadly, you don’t see this happening with magazines, so one has to ask, has the short fiction community lost its passion for magazines? And before you say anything, those “we’re going to close if . . . ” Kickstarters tend to work only by deliberately manipulating their supporters. It is not quite the same. I don’t see authors saying “I’ll never publish again unless . . . ”
So where’s this newly-minted cranky fifty-year-old man headed with all this? I’m not sure. I know we have to continue to grow the size of our audience, but this trend seems to indicate that it will only grow increasingly difficult to bring in supporting readers. We need to start thinking about what we can do about that ninety-three and change percent that don’t support our efforts. I have no doubt that some of you are reading this, so I’d love to hear from you and find out why you think things are the way they are.
And hey, if anyone feels like giving me a fiftieth birthday present, subscribe at any of our vendors or make a pledge over at Patreon. Every step back towards seven percent—or dare I dream ten percent?—provides one of those positive little milestones I’ve learned to appreciate. Maybe we can even do this before our tenth anniversary this October!
P.S. I didn’t want the six plus percent of you supporting us to think I’d forgotten you. You’re my favorite readers and listeners. Without you, none of this would be possible.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Neil Clarke is the editor of Clarkesworld Magazine and Forever Magazine; owner of Wyrm Publishing; and a eight-time Hugo Award Nominee for Best Editor (short form). His anthologies include Upgraded, Galactic Empires, More Human Than Human, Touchable Unreality, The Final Frontier, Not One of Us, The Eagle has Landed, and the Best Science Fiction of the Years series. His most recent anthology, The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume 5, was published in October by Night Shade Books. He currently lives in NJ with his wife and two sons.
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Mike wrote on August 3rd, 2016 at 5:51 pm:
Clarkesworld is a really great magazine. The problem is that most people simply prefer as much free stuff in life as they can get. I'm sorry to admit this, but when my financial situation was better than it currently is (and when I was regularly buying issues of fiction magazines), I never felt compelled to support online magazines. I suppose it's human nature.
Neil Clarke wrote on August 3rd, 2016 at 6:04 pm:
I'd hate to see that behavior result in the end of (free) online magazines, but it very well could.
Cameron wrote on August 4th, 2016 at 6:24 pm:
I'm sorry to hear about the delay; I wish you and your wife luck with the job transitions.
I supported Clarkesworld on Patreon earlier this year for a few months ($5/month for Clarkesworld & Forever), but cancelled my Patreon pledge when I fell behind reading the magazines. As I have been a full-time volunteer this year, I didn't really have money to "waste" on magazines I wasn't reading. I read a lot, but I have an extensive "To Read" list, so I don't really have time to stay up to date with short fiction magazines, however much I value and enjoy them.
I'll be starting a "real" job next month, and although the pay won't be much, I think I'll sign up to support you again on Patreon. Sure, I may not get around to reading everything, but I can at least throw you $1 per issue, right?
I find myself pondering two questions: 1) How many people (like me) don't support you because it would be a "waste" to buy a magazine we don't get around to reading in full, and 2) Might there be a good tactic to better "monitize" people like me?
Thanks for all your work, Clarkesworld team (:
Neil Clarke wrote on August 4th, 2016 at 6:49 pm:
Thanks. I appreciate the honest response and previous support. Yes, every dollar helps. With over 40K readers/listeners, a dollar can add up fast.
1. There are probably a lot of people who have trouble keeping up with magazines. Some people have shifted to our podcast to take advantage of commute time or the anthologies so they can read at a more leisurely pace. Others have to do like you did and reduce their reading material because, well, we're all busy and can't do everything we'd like to. That said, you've already done more than the majority have, so in that way, you're an unusual case.
2. I'd welcome suggestions on how to better monetize what we do. Given the state of things, I suspect it will require significantly more than one approach to set things on the right course.
Cameron wrote on August 7th, 2016 at 8:16 pm:
I've been hesitant to buy the Clarkesworld anthologies because I really enjoy your non-fiction and (as best as I can tell) the anthologies only include fiction. So perhaps consider adding the non-fiction features to the anthology or publishing a second yearly anthology featuring just the non-fiction features. I recognize that might be a lot more work, but I would happily throw you money for a big collection of "Another Word" essays.
I also have a hope/recommendation about Year's Best anthologies. I prefer ebooks to print books, but I won't buy any ebooks with DRM. Unfortunately, as best as I can tell, the Year's Best anthologies edited by yourself, John Joseph Adams, and Jonathan Strahan are all only sold with DRM. I know this may be an uphill battle, but if you can convince Night Shade to publish your Year's Best anthology without DRM, I will totally buy it.
Neil Clarke wrote on August 8th, 2016 at 10:55 am:
The non-fiction has been exclusive to the full issues, so currently the only way to get that in print is the individual print issues. Last time I looked into the possibility of a non-fiction book, there wasn't much interest. Sounds like I might have to look into that again.
I'll ask about the DRM.
Søren Kyale wrote on August 8th, 2016 at 6:10 pm:
Donation is the most cost effective means of funding digital media. It is especially ideal for journalism, the linchpin of democracy. It has a far greater cost to benefit ratio than advertisement. Advertisement, is not just an effective sales tax, it interferes with democracy and throws a wrench in the free market which relies on participants choosing the greatest benefit for least cost. Donations are better than exclusive subscription because we don't benefit by exclusion.
Unfortunately, when it comes to the decision to donate, most people don't.
One solution is to give every individual an annual account that can only be used for donation.
Sure, it would come from taxes or some equivalent. And there wold be endless issues with deciding how much money to set aside for donations. But as a society, we would benefit from funding more projects through donations. It goes to the heart of democracy and free speech.
For now, I will do my own part by supporting you on Patreon. I appreciate the diversity of stories that you offer through your podcasts without advertisement.
I hope you, and other people reading this, talk to others and their elected representatives about tax funding of individual donation accounts.
This way everyone will have some money that they can only use for donations. And everyone in our society will be richer for it.
Neil Clarke wrote on August 8th, 2016 at 6:35 pm:
First, thank you for supporting us. Welcome to the six percent.
In the ten years we've been doing this, there has been a lot of progress in making our type of operation sustainable. Innovations like Patreon provide the tools we need to collect regular/recurring pledges and that's been a godsend. The old way of taking single one-time gifts via PayPal never allowed us to do any sort of long-term, big picture planning. That's something I consider necessary to provide donors/supporters with the confidence that you'll put their money to good use and that you intend to stick around.
The next big hurdle is culture change and discovering the proper incentives that trigger that.
Michelle wrote on November 4th, 2016 at 5:12 am:
Happy birthday Neil!! I've been reading Clarkesworld on and off for a few years now. I came across it accidentally while I was looking for short fiction to read and started listening to Kate's wonderful narration while I walked. My reading/ listening has petered out a little over the last year because life gets in the way, but Clarkesworld is something I'd happily support for the great quality work you and the staff do. I've often looked at the subsciption page and the patreon page and thought I should do that... but as someone commented above, if something is free, most people will take the free option. However now I am finally going to subscribe because I really appreciate the amazing work you all put into this magazine and can't think of a better way to show that.