Well, the title could have been “ha ha, made you look”, but something tells me that most fans are inurred to that one, so I had to get a bit creative.
I’m mildly teasing, because for the remainder of this week and on through the month of March, everyone here at Amazing Stories is pretty much saying “please look at us”, without the ha ha.
We’re going to be pulling out all of the stops to try and get you all to participate in our Kickstarter Campaign if only by helping to spread the word.
It’s a strange position to be in as crowdsourcing is a current generation kind of thing, not a my generation kind of thing, and despite several years of experiencing this phenom, I’m still not used to it.
In fact, I didn’t even get comfortable with the idea until I realized that at its core, crowdsourcing is actually a very, very fannish thing. Think about it: from the very beginning of science fiction fandom, fans have been pooling their resources and supporting each other in order to accomplish goals and tasks beyond any individual’s ability: where would we be if Forry hadn’t ponied up Ray Bradbury’s bus fare to the first Worldcon?
Would we have had a successful paperback era if Donald Wollheim hadn’t been able to share a slan shack with other Futurians? Would there be a SFWA, or a Milford if Damon Knight hadn’t had somewhere to stay when he moved east?
Fanzines, clubs and conventions were all created and functioned using one form of crowdsourcing or another.
And look where that’s brought us. Hundreds of cons take place every year. Media conventions (an outgrowth of SF’s cons) earn buckeloads of money and help spread the word on an international basis. There are a good handful of regular periodicals, buying content and feeding fan’s heads. There’s a thriving small press industry and there are more fans and more fan activity than there ever has been before.
Fans figured it out decades ago and really, all we’re asking is that you help us continue the tradition, and that I can be comfortable with.
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