Welcome!
This page will explain what we are calling “the Committed” program, that is designed to bring Amazing Stories magazine back into regular publication.
If that is something you would like to see happen, you’ve come to the right place.
Summary
Returning the magazine to regular publication requires a minimum number of sales of an issue in order to sustain publication.
We have calculated that number to be a minimum of 4,000 individual orders (factoring in attrition as well).
Both the electronic edition and the print edition will be discounted below the final retail cost for those who sign on to this program.
We are striving to make that price competitive with other print science fiction magazines.
We are looking for ways to involve members in shaping each issue – suggesting themes, or authors, etc.
We are hoping to include bonus materials in the edition made available to members of the program – items not included in the general availabity edition.
We will commit to paying a minimum of 10 cents per word for fiction (25% above the minimum professional rate).
We will commit to budgeting $10,000.00 to produce the issue.
Contents will be solicited from authors and artists after we have attained a minimum of 4,000 members in the program.
We expect to be able to produce and ship the issue between 4 and 12 weeks after soliciting the contents.
Joining the program requires no up-front payment: members will be offered the issue at the discounted price once the issue is completed.
Details
The issue will consist of between 8 and 11 stories – a total of about 80,000 words – plus artwork.
It will be printed in a “slick” magazine sized format.
It may or may not have a “theme” (such as “space opera” or “near future” or “the robots did take over”…
The cost to each member has not been settled yet. However, the goal is to bring in an issue at a member cost-per-issue at or below those of other print and electronic science fiction magazines in the field. Additionally, a Member’s offered price will always be lower than the same issue being offered to non-member customers.
As of 12/6/2024, those numbers are looking to be:
Approximately $4.00 for the electronic edition and approximately $6.99 for the print edition.
We may or may not offer a “bundle” – both versions for one price.
(At those numbers, some mix of electronic and print “Commitments” will allow us to recover our initial investment and repeat the process for the next issue.)
THOSE NUMBERS ARE NOT SET IN STONE. THEY ARE SUBJECT TO FURTHER RESEARCH, AS WELL AS CHANGES IN THE MARKETPLACE. MEMBERS WILL BE REGULARLY UPDATED IF/WHEN COSTS CHANGE.
More
Are you an author of science Fiction? If so, think about this program this way: we’re paying ten cents per word, or $750.00 for a short story at max short story length. If you sign on to this program, you’d be committed to spending seven bucks, on a chance to create another market, from which you could make 100 times that amount back. No guarantees of course – your story would need to be read, accepted, edited and then published in that issue…and you might not sell a story to the next issue (but then again, you’ve got enough to buy 99 more before you’re out of pocket…).
This program was developed following much debate, key points of which are –
If we can’t find 4,000 people enthusiastic enough to sign on to this no risk program – there really is no market for the magazine, is there? We’ll go back to concentrating on our Amazing Selects books, where we are already experiencing some success.
(By way of example, one popular SF novel has sold 133,756 copies to date, which suggests that there are at least that many science fiction readers who might be interested. We are looking for a mere 3% of that – a number just a bit more than half of the responses one can expect from mass mail order solicitations. Or look at it this way: last year the Glasgow Worldcon saw total attendance of over 10,000. We need 1 out of every two and a half Worldcon attending fans to sign on. And if you really want to get an idea of how pitifully small the number we need is, it comes to .0000005 percent of world population – one person out of every million on the globe.)
Futhermore – we’re not asking anyone to pony up one single thin dime in advance. True, we’re not laying anything out in advance either, which means we’re not risking a good chunk of cash that we might need for other publishing efforts. But we are committing to spending a decent amount and to paying a good rate.
Why aren’t we doing this as a Crowdfunder? Believe it or not, crowdfunding increases initial expenses and requires skill sets that we don’t have in house. We’ve done them before, successfully and unsuccessfully and we don’t think its a model that fits well with our operation or our audience.
Why aren’t we just putting those dollars to an issue and then selling it? Because we need to put the magazine on a sustainable footing, if we are going to commit to getting back into regular publication. That means publishing an issue, distributing an issue and hoping that it will sell well enough to refill the coffers quickly enough to begin work on the next issue – and that just hasn’t happened for us in the past.
Another way to think of this program is this: it’s a pre-order, without risk. When the “quantity” of pre-orders is large enough, we can do a run.
What Can You Do?
Sign on – IF you Commit to purchasing either the print or the electronic edition of the issue, at the “Group Member” rate (estimated to be $6.99 and $4.00, respectively – though NOT guaranteed to be the final price). Other than providing us with a good email address (one which we will verify), you only need do one other thing: Let everyone know, somewhere on line, that you have signed on to the program.
Other things you can do:
Join the Facebook group for The Committed.
Let other readers of science fiction know about the program.
Wax enthusiastic about the magazine’s possible return to publication.
Incentives:
Anyone who gets ten other people to sign on to the program (with verified email addresses) will be sent an Amazing Stories lapel pin – once we reach the 4,000 recruits level.
Anyone who gets 5 other people to sign on will receive an Amazing Stories mini-poster of their choice:
Anyone who gets 25 other people to sign on – we’ll send you a Convention Wear t-shirt of your choice of design.
Anyone who gets 50 other people to sign on – we’ll send you a lapel pin AND a Rocket Juice mug of your choice.
Anyone who gets 100 other people to sign on — we’ll send you a lapel pin, a Rocket Juice mug AND a Convention Wear shirt of your choice of design.
Finally – let people know you are willing to pay to read good quality fiction and want Amazing Stories back!
*By registering with your email address, you are consenting to receiving email notifications regarding the progress of this program, as distributed through Amazing Stories newsletter, Fan Scene. You may unsubscribe at any time, but will no longer receive any possible future benefits.
If you no longer wish to receive those communications, please send us an email informing us of this change and we will remove your email address from the distribution list.
Registering with The Committed program does not obligate you to make purchases either now or in the future. You are only consenting to allow us to send you email notifications via our newsletter.
Amazing Stories does not share or sell its user information with third parties, does not utilize tracking software and does not sell meta data to data miners.