Diary of a Mad Editor

Archive for September 18th, 2007

If the Ship is Sinking, It’s a Good Idea to Know How to Swim

The failure of small press publications is nothing new. Happens every day. Internet literary magazines seem to have an even shorter lifespan. I, myself, am finding it difficult to keep Asterius Press going after more than a decade. In recent months, countless publications have called it quits for one reason or another, although the main reason always boils down to money. These publications don’t make money but they do cost money to produce. Sooner or later the well just runs dry.

It’s hard to know where exactly to put the blame. Oftentimes it is the fault of the publishers. Rarely though, do publishers accept responsibility for their failure though. For instance, when an ezine calling itself The Deepening closed down, the publisher laid the blame on her subscribers and the fact that people don’t care about reading short fiction anymore. It has not been my experience that people don’t care about reading quality short fiction anymore. There is definitely a readership for good short stories. The problem is that people won’t necessarily pay to read an online publication. Paid subscriptions for an Internet publication — especially when that subscription base is made-up primarily of the writers themselves — ain’t gonna happen folks. When an on-demand print journal called The Literary Bone recently collapsed after the publication of it’s first issue, the editor blamed an unnamed writer for the demise, referring to this person only as “the monster.” I have no clue what this one person could have done to cause this publication to shut down, but I doubt the blame lies solely with this unnamed person. When a publication folds shortly after the first issue, it’s usually a sign that the publisher was in way over his head to begin with.

In my case (although, Asterius Press is not dead yet) the problem is that I am a one-man operation. From day one I have done everything myself — including paying for everything out of pocket. As long as I was physically able and had the money to do it, Asterius Press could exist. Now, after a solid couple of years of bad fortune, including unemployment, financial ruin and life-threatening illness, I am at the point where keeping the press going may be out of my hands.

And it’s sad, because at the risk of seeming immodest, Asterius Press has been a positive influence on both the small press and burgeoning Internet literary scene. I’d hate to give it up. Although I can’t take the blame for my personal misfortune — that’s just something that happened and couldn’t be helped — I do accept responsibility for the things I did wrong as far as the Press goes. There were certain jobs I could have done better I’m sure. One thing I cannot fault is the writers who I’ve published. Their work made my publications worth reading and one can never regret a good reading experience.

So okay . . . the ship is sinking. The ship might run aground and survive a little longer. Patch’er up make her sea-worthy again. And maybe it’s time to swim for shore. If so, it’s not so terrible. Not the end of the world. I’m a pretty good swimmer.