Clarkesworld #52

~ Cheryl

Happy New Year holiday reading, people, the January issue of Clarkesworld is online.

Our lead story this month is “Ghostweight” by Yoon Ha Lee which, as usual, can also be found in audio, read by Kate Baker.

The second story is “Tying Knots” by Ken Liu. That one will be available in audio in a couple of weeks time.

Jeremy’s interview victim subject this month is Walter John Williams. In it Walter talks about how SF gives him the freedom to write about anything he wants (so much for being constrained by genre).

In my department we welcome back movie expert Dan Kimmel who wants you to “Fly Me to the Moon” so that he can explain how much romance there is in SF movies.

Neil also contributes a short column asking for votes in our annual Reader Poll. Please do let us know (there, not here) which were your favorite stories, articles, interviews and covers from 2010.

Finally this month’s cover is a distinctly fishy affair: “Beckoning Ancient Depths” by Alejandro MGNZ.

The ebook editions of Clarkesworld #52 are already available in the Wizard’s Tower bookstore. We’ve also added issue #21 and issue #22 to the list of available back issues. And we also have Realms (Volume 1 and Volume 2), the annual Clarkesworld anthology.

Sales of Clarkesworld and Realms are vital to our ability to keep paying for top quality material.

And because we like being nice to our friends as well, we’ve also got the January issue of Lightspeed available.

8 thoughts on “Clarkesworld #52”

  1. I guess it should be #52 in the title, shouldn’t it?

    And one question. What’s the difference between buying Clarkesworld from Wizard’s Tower and from Wyrm Publishing (the store linked from clarkesworldmagazine.com)? Same question but with Lightspeed and their ebook store.

    Thanks and happy new year.

    1. Yes, thank you. Obviously too much New Year cheer around here. Fixed now.

      As to your question, buying Clarkesworld and Lightspeed direct from the publishers will probably give them a bit more money, because they pay me a small commission for selling the magazines. But also there’s the currency issue to take into account. I’m currently forced to sell in GBP only. They sell in USD only. You, I suspect, have your money in EUR. So there may be some benefit to you, or the publisher, in choosing which store to use, because of the current exchange rates.

  2. Thank you very much for the clarification.

    I think the difference between buying in GBP or in USD is, as of today, minimal. Something like 0.09€.

    What strikes as odd is that there is no “subscription” (maybe with a small discount of a free issue) available for neither Clarkesworld nor Lightspeed. I’d surely go for it if it existed. Do you know if there is any plan to implement something like that?

    Thanks once again

    1. I think that the issue is that ecommerce packages tend not to support such things. Typically what you get is the ability to sell an item at a price, plus systems for handling shipping, discounts and so on. But subscriptions require the ability for the customer to pay for one product, and then come back at a later date and download a different product.

      The store software I’m using is more sophisticated than most, but it doesn’t have that ability at the level I’m currently using it. The next level up may have that ability, but it isn’t clear from the documentation. I shall make inquiries.

    1. I can see what Jason is doing. Locus is doing something very similar. Obviously he’s not doing that entirely through shop software. There’s manual intervention and hosting the downloads involved. As far as my store is concerned, I won’t be doing that because I’d end up being responsible for the security of the download process and I know I don’t have the skills to do that. I’d be less concerned if it was just my own books, but as I’m selling other people’s books as well I have to ensure a professional service.

  5. Yes, Locus has begun doing something similar.

    And I see your point about security.

    Anyway, could you convey a suggestion to the Clarkesworld editorial board to do something similar to that of Apex magazine from their website? Or maybe thow in a one year subscription to the digital files with one of the “citizenship” options. It could be offered instead of (or on top of) the Realms books they are offering now.

    Thank you very much once again.

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