I’ve always been a little irritated by the attitude that on-line magazines are somehow inherently inferior to printed publications. Granted, there’s a lot of crap out there, but there are also some web publications with high standards and rigorous editorial processes - and these publications are redefining what it means to be a “professional” Science Fiction writer. It’s not all about cents-per-word anymore, it’s about readership.

It’s no longer possible to earn a decent wage writing short stories for traditional magazines, as it was for writers like Philip K Dick. Those days are gone and it’s a sad fact that as our audience finds other things to spend their money and attention on, printed Science Fiction magazines are seeing a steady decline in subscriptions. Frankly, in the UK it’s a lot easier for curious readers to Google an online SF magazine than it is for them to find a printed copy of one at their local newsagent.

Personally, I desperately hope the printed SF magazine market continues to survive in some form, but at the same time I also realise that if the next generation of prospective readers aren’t coming to us, it’s up to us to reach out to them. Without them, the genre will grow old and die. We have to set our stall where young and old alike can see and engage with it and if that means giving some of our work away on-line, then so be it. You only have to look at Google, Facebook, YouTube, Amazon and iTunes to realise the Internet’s fundamentally changing the way we communicate, the way we shop and the way we share information and interact with one another. As Science Fiction writers, we should be at the forefront of that revolution and if the printed magazines want to survive, they’re going to have to do something to attract that global audience.

As an example, I like the approach the publishers of ‘Interzone’ are using. They’re still publishing the print magazine but they’re also offering it for sale as an electronic download on ‘Fictionwise’, and releasing free podcast readings of the best stories on their website in order to get their content out to the widest possible audience in a convenient choice of formats.

(Reprinted from an interview with SF Crowsnest. Read the full thing here.)

Rudy Rucker joins the likes of Cory Doctrow, Charles Stross and Jason Stoddard, by making the entire text of his latest novel Postsingular available online as a free download.

Cory Doctrow argues the case for releasing free downloads of books in order to drive print sales:

“Many of us have assumed, a priori, that electronic books substitute for print books. While I don’t have controlled, quantitative data to refute the proposition, I do have plenty of experience with this stuff, and all that experience leads me to believe that giving away my books is selling the hell out of them.”

Jason Stoddard has made the entire text to his 80,000 word novel “Winning Mars” available online, for free. I recommend you give it a try.

And if you like reading books online, check out Accelerando by Charles Stross, also available for free download.