The Last Editorial*

*of 2019.  Sorry.  Yeah that title was a tease.  I know.  For one brief moment there you were kinda hoping, weren’t ya?  Never have to listen to that guy opine anymore.  Thank goodness.  And why is he mentioning pine trees?

So here we are at the last editorial of 2018, on the cusp of a new year, which means, I suppose, that it is time to take a look back and catalog all of the things that have come to be.

Although I must say that at this moment, I’m conflicted over presentation.  Do I work through all of the minor stuff first, falsely holdng onto your attention before getting to the good stuff?  Or do I take pity, get the major accomplishments out of the way and hope that you’ll stick around for the also rans?

Coin toss.  Nah.  How about we alternate?  Big stuff – little stuff – Big stuff, like that?

What the heck….

I suppose one has to count as out biggest accomplishment this year the production, editing and distribution of not one but TWO print issues of Amazing Stories magazine.

All of that began, of course, with another big accomplishment, the successful funding of our Kickstarter campaign.  Which would not have succeeded without the intervention of St. Arlen, who donated a very large sum at the very last moment.

(Sometimes I can be petty.  I wish, in my pettiness, I could have witnessed the reaction of some of our detractors at the moment they realized that they’d not have a failed crowdfunding to hang around our necks.)

We’ve had our ups and downs – issues with art, issues with fiction, issues with production, but we’ve worked our way through them, benefitting from the support and encouragement of a field and an industry that, I have to say, is far more forgiving, accepting and understanding than most.

We’re in the midst of putting the Spring 2019 issue together, which will be followed in due course by the Summer 2019 issue and then then Fall 2019 issue.  One point of interest there:  as of the Summer 2019 issue, we will be able to apply to SFWA as a qualifying market.  We expect to meet all of the criteria and be approved for that status, which will feature in our 2019 year in review, no doubt.

What else?

The website went through a fair number of changes.  We’ve split the domain between the blog and the magazine:  www.amazingstories.com for the blog, www.amazingstoriesmag.com for the magazine:  store.amazingstories.com has been added (thanks for your orders) and we designed and released an anonymizing submission engine (submissions.amazingstoriesmag.com).  All of that is still in process with more changes coming this year.

Speaking of the blog, our registered membership has climbed to 41,975, just a week or two of registrations shy of 42,000.  (If all of you picked up a subscription – print or digital – we’d be the highest circulation magazine in the field, and about halfway towards realizing the kind of circulation the magazine had in its heyday.  If you’d like to help make that dream a reality, you can click right here and sign up.)

Not only that, but in 2018, the blog published some 1,188 posts (3.25 per day average).  Our archives now contain 8,258 articles, including 1,128 reviews and 286 interviews.  We continue to regularly publish in Spanish and the occasional language other than English. By sometime in early 2020, we’ll cross the ten thousand post threshold.

Milestones?  As of this very month, we’ll have been in operation for a full 6 years.

We attended Worldcon76 in a big way and a big THANK YOU to Kevin Roche and his team for an excellent event.

We learned a lot (bigger booth next time!) (and wish I still had my forklift).  Numerous conventions across the country are still handing out copies of our first issue, the shipping case is still in my living room and plans are afoot for the upcoming Boskone56.  (Want a copy?  See me.)

FuturesPastEditions continues to produce new issues of our annual Best of anthology series –

 

35TH Anniversary Special. Click for Amazon or VISIT OUR STORE for print and electronic editions.

The Best of 1926. Click for Amazon or VISIT OUR STORE for print and electronic editions.

The Best of 1927. Click for Amazon or VISIT OUR STORE for print and electronic editions.

The Best of 1928. Click for Amazon or VISIT OUR STORE for print and electronic editions.

The Best of 1929. Click for Amazon or VISIT OUR STORE for print and electronic editions.

NEW FOR 2018! The Best of 1930. Click for Amazon or VISIT OUR STORE for print and electronic editions.

The Best of 1940. Click for Amazon or VISIT OUR STORE for print and electronic editions.

NEW FOR 2018!The Best of 1943. Click for Amazon or VISIT OUR STORE for print and electronic editions.

Not to mention our facsimile reproductions and Classic Novels. Well, actually, to mention them, I’ve got to say, there’s a bad actor out there trying to trade off of our work. They’re publishing facsimiles of early issues and selling under the name of The Experimenter Publishing Co. NOTE: WE are The Experimenter Publishing Company, LLC. (Yes, we’re doing what we can about this.) OUR products identify themselves with “Licensed Edition” or “Official Licensed Edition” and will have both me (Steve Davidson) and J.M. Stine listed as authors.)

Amazing Stories Annual, 1927
Amazing Stories Annual 1927 Click for Amazon or VISIT OUR STORE for print and electronic editions.

Amazing Stories May 1944
Amazing Stories May 1944 Click for Amazon or VISIT OUR STORE for print and electronic editions.

Amazing Stories September 1944
Amazing Stories September 1944 Click for Amazon or VISIT OUR STORE for print and electronic editions.

Seeds of Life by John Taine
The Seeds of Life by John Taine Amazing Stories Classics Novel Click for Amazon or VISIT OUR STORE for print and electronic editions.

NEW FOR 2018! The Nth Man by Homer Eon Flint
NEW FOR 2018! The Nth Man by Homer Eon Flint Amazing Stories Classics Novel Click for Amazon or VISIT OUR STORE for print and electronic editions.

Publishing wise, not too shabby: 1,188 blog posts, two magazine issues and three books. I’d say we’re a going concern.

Thanks to everyone who helped, contributed and offered us encouragement.

What does 2019 hold in store for us? Ahhh, well. For that, you’re going to have to wait and see.

Please take a moment to support Amazing Stories with a one-time or recurring donation via Patreon. We rely on donations to keep the site going, and we need your financial support to continue quality coverage of the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres as well as supply free stories weekly for your reading pleasure. https://www.patreon.com/amazingstoriesmag

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