Supporting Canadian publishers

I am pleased to be an editor and reviewer at OnSpec Magazine, a quarterly journal of Fantastika fiction, featuring Canadian and International authors. The journal consistently wins genre literary awards, pays professional rates, and generally is a high-quality publication. Like many publications, periodically cash flow becomes difficult, not through mismanagement, but because of rising costs of production and distribution. It’s always a struggle. Yet despite that, OnSpec continues to hold to very high standards. At…

22

Mar 2024

By Lorina StephensNewsletterComments Off

New Associations

It’s about time Only took me until my 69th year to gather the wherewithal to apply and be accepted to two professional publishing-related associations. But as they say, better late than never. The Writers’ Union of Canada The first is an association with which I’ve long wanted to be part of, and never could justify the cost of membership until now, The Writers’ Union of Canada. It was, for me, mostly a question of economics….

01

Feb 2024

By Lorina StephensNewsletterComments Off

Writers’ Craft 12: Agent, publisher or indie?

How to bring your work to market In the past 20 years the reasonable choices available to a writer have expanded considerably, and the delicacy around some of those choices has diminished. Was a time if you wished to publish your work, you were left with some very stark avenues. You could choose to publish through an established publishing house, and used to be you didn’t require an agent to be read by any of…

06

Jan 2021

By Lorina StephenswritingComments Off

Pandemic, publishers and writers

And another one bites the dust I learned this week, with regret, the closure of another excellent small publisher, Bundoran Press. Headed by Hayden Trenholm, Elizabeth Westbrook-Trenholm, and Mike Rimar, Bundoran had a good run in the SF genre, giving voice to Canadian SF authors, and producing work which received literary acclaim. Speaking on behalf of the Bundoran team, Hayden Trenholm said: “While we still love the press and our artists, we no longer have…

16

Jul 2020

By Lorina StephensPublishingComments Off

On being a small publisher

First the shock wave In the past few weeks there has been a bit of a tremour run through the small press world in Canada, particularly in the SF&F community. First it started with discussion of lack of payment and royalty statements from one Alberta publisher, along with complaints of unfulfilled contracts, lack of communication, dismissive attitude. Then the bomb hit about an Ontario small press publisher which specialized in horror and dark fiction with…

19

Nov 2019

By Lorina StephensNewsletterComments Off