First off, I confess to being one of the worst culprits when it comes to putting the BF Quarterly behind schedule. Sorry, can't help it, I'm always revising my stories, even after they're supposed to be set and ready for the editor to code. The flip side is I think the final product actually is significantly better than if it would have stayed a straight reprint.
In the current issue, Haunted Pond, being 12,600 or so words long, is necessarily the bulkiest item and has to be in place before the rest of the magazine can be effectively organized. I knew that from the start, was determined to get a final version in early, and exactly the opposite happened, it was overdue and then overdue a second time for some last minute rewriting. I'm confident the story is much better than it would otherwise have been, but annoyed at myself for the inconvenience all of this heaped onto Wade. He deserves better treatment.
So, the old noggin started going, lit the stove and as smoke wafted from my ears I began wondering if there weren't a better way of doing this, especially as Wade, admirably, is doing the job alone.
Why not make Better Fiction Magazine a Semi-annual publication instead of quarterly?
I'd suggest increasing the size by 50%, charging 200% it's current price, using the overage to cover later BFF projects, like an eventual contest, or contests, the money being used to help set up a book publication, similar to what we were talking about not too long ago.
As a semi-annual, a firm cutoff date could be set, say 30 days before publication date, giving Wade a full month to set it all up. And allowing the publication to appear at a much more regular basis. Wade mentioned a reading group at some point, and one of the reasons they weren't invited to BFQ is the fluctuation in it's appearance date. Well, this would solve that problem and we'd be more likely to attract outside readers. Which is important, we're not likely to get much further if we're the only ones reading our own material.
Just some thoughts, thought I'd toss it out and particularly interested in hearing Wade's take on all of this.
