Work is proceeding on the first issue of Sorcery and the Far Frontier, and it is coming together nicely. I have picked out two longish pieces, one SF and one fantasy. I am looking at shorter pieces now to round out the issue. I think I will have somewhere from 4 to 6 shorter stories. I had hoped to include a non-fiction article along with the fiction, but so far no one has submitted any non-fiction. I will try to solicit a non-fiction piece, and I encourage anyone who is interested to submit a non-fiction article for publication. There will be no art in the first issue. There will be no ads in the first issue, but I will try to sell ads for subsequent issues. I hope this will eventually let me keep the page count high, the price low and to pay more for fiction.
I am still resolving various questions about how I will distribute the publication. I think at this point that I will put out a PDF version and a print version. I would like to add EPUB and possibly other formats as well, but I want to keep it simple at first. I have to create a PDF to produce a print version, so it makes sense to have that be the first e-format. I will probably distribute initially from an e-store at the SFF website, and I will look at getting onto Amazon, both print and Kindle, and other distribution channels later.
I received a number of messages from artists interested in submitting work for the journal. As I mentioned above, I have decided not to have art in the first issue -- so I can focus on the stories -- but that will change in the August issue. Once I get the April issue out, I'll be contacting some of the artists to solicit some art.
There are a couple of things I would like to say to those who are still submitting fiction, and to those who have submitted fiction before the deadline. I am deleting unread any submissions I am receiving now because the submission period ended at the end of February. There is no point in submitting fiction to the magazine at this time.
For those who submitted fiction during the submission period, I am aware that many of you are curious about the status of submitted stories. I try to respond to those queries but I probably have missed a few. There is a large volume of text to manage and it is quite time consuming to manage it. I am working on a system to help with managing it and sending automatic notifications, but for now the system is entirely manual. I apologize for the delays in letting you know the status of your submissions. I hope to improve this situation over time, but for now, please be patient. If there is interest, I might set up some kind of registration system where you submit your story and can look up its status.
I suppose I should say a word about the publication date as well. I am still trying to get the magazine distributed before the end of April, but there is a good chance that it will be in early May instead. I will still keep the nominal publication schedule as April, August, December rather than let it slip by a month. I think that as I get experience and develop a system I will be able to do a better job of keeping the publication on schedule.
Another question people might have is about the next submission period. I am pretty sure that I have enough material for the first two issues and most of the third as well. I may open the next submission period before October, but I will decide that later.
Thanks to all of you for your interest in Sorcery and the Far Frontier. I am very excited with the first issue so far, and am looking forward to releasing it in the next few weeks!
