Literature: Making a Difference
Jul. 9th, 2021 06:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nyykiThere's some philosophical debate as to how much difference one person can make, but I submit to you the short fiction magazines in support of the positive interpretation case.
Think about it. Where are the medical short story magazines, or short military tales? Other than an anthology after the author has already made a name, there's no market for short length romance outside of anthologies. (We can point to this particular collapse of the magazines to one publisher) All of these things were common up into the 50's, but a mixture of changing tastes and publishing costs doomed these ventures. Three have survived, Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror, Detective/Crime/mystery, and Western. I haven't done much of an investigation about how True West and Cowboys & Indians have managed to hold on, but in the other two cases they've not only held on they've reached heights the other genres only dream of.
First, let's deal with SF/F/H.
Remember the part I wrote about one person making a difference? That person in this genre was John W. Campbell. As the editor for Astounding (later renamed to Analog) he cultivated some of the biggest names in the genre. He was the one who gave us Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and a host of other great names. But here's the key -- he was so good at it, and so opinionated about what he'd publish, (humans always had to be better and smarter than any aliens, for example, something he didn't follow in his own writing) he created a drive for others to compete with him. And fans wrote in, created fanzines to discuss their favorite genre, and started writing things themselves. Also, they started meeting in person, creating conventions, and yes, sometimes factions within those conventions. Folks sometimes point to Star Trek as the big driver of science fiction conventions, but they were going on long before. More to the point, those conventions also spawned a major award, while the writers, publishers, and editors created the other pivotal award. The combination of a market in which to get paid with multiple venues to find the right fit and recognition created a culture where the genre is viable to this day, with three major professional magazines (Analog, Asimov's, and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction), several on the next tier like Uncanny, Clark's World, and Tor.com, along with a host of semi-pro magazines and a daily email feed, Daily SF. There are also a host of publishers, both major ones and small press, providing venues to print anthologies and also the novels (and more so now, novellas) the writers create as they start moving to longer forms.
What about the second cluster of styles? Well, that again comes to one man, one magazine, Fredick Dannay, the editor of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and one of the two creators (along with Manfred Lee) of the titular detective. Pretty much by himself Fred Dannay created what we think of as modern detective, crime, and mystery fiction. The genre evolved from "clue stories" that were in effect puzzles for the reader to figure out to the modern works we see today, both in shorter and long forms. His shift to stores that included the detectives and perpatrators as people with real motivations and feelings gave us the breakthrough TV and radio series Dragnet, for example. And the list of those he published reads like a who's who, because he also published works considered old like Poe, Christie, and Gardner. Unlike the SF/F/H industry where excellence and opinionatedness created impetus for others to compete, Fred Dannay did such a great job of getting innovative and multi-faceted works to the page he managed to weather the downturn and keep the genre alive. And again, EQMM is still published today. (I also read every issue, cover to cover, though there are a couple of authors I listen to with trepidation) And again, there are conventions. There are awards. And like the science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror subgroups, there are grandmasters who can demonstrate what the genre considers to be significant output. (It seems the term is gender neutral, as I've never heard any of the female authors described as a grandmistress)
Of course there were other great editors. For SF/F/H there was Frederick Pohl, along with Horace Gold. And Hugo Gernsback always deserves a mention as the written genre's primary founder, at least from the magazine standpoint.
Alfred Hichcock's Mystery Magazine (AHMM) has a long history too, and for a while there Black Mask handled hard boiled crime and detective fiction so well EQMM uses it as a designator when they publish something in that style. But these two men created the nexus point that helped their genres survive postwar publishing difficulties and kept the readership engaged. And folks writing in other genres who look to these two fandoms and wonder why they're so dynamic and have such strong short fiction length support would be advised to look for someone in their area of interest to try to do the same. And for anyone attempting a short romantic fiction venue, I've got some things I want to send you for consideration, because that's the primary venue I have nowhere to sell to.
Nyyki (she/her/Miss)
Think about it. Where are the medical short story magazines, or short military tales? Other than an anthology after the author has already made a name, there's no market for short length romance outside of anthologies. (We can point to this particular collapse of the magazines to one publisher) All of these things were common up into the 50's, but a mixture of changing tastes and publishing costs doomed these ventures. Three have survived, Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror, Detective/Crime/mystery, and Western. I haven't done much of an investigation about how True West and Cowboys & Indians have managed to hold on, but in the other two cases they've not only held on they've reached heights the other genres only dream of.
First, let's deal with SF/F/H.
Remember the part I wrote about one person making a difference? That person in this genre was John W. Campbell. As the editor for Astounding (later renamed to Analog) he cultivated some of the biggest names in the genre. He was the one who gave us Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and a host of other great names. But here's the key -- he was so good at it, and so opinionated about what he'd publish, (humans always had to be better and smarter than any aliens, for example, something he didn't follow in his own writing) he created a drive for others to compete with him. And fans wrote in, created fanzines to discuss their favorite genre, and started writing things themselves. Also, they started meeting in person, creating conventions, and yes, sometimes factions within those conventions. Folks sometimes point to Star Trek as the big driver of science fiction conventions, but they were going on long before. More to the point, those conventions also spawned a major award, while the writers, publishers, and editors created the other pivotal award. The combination of a market in which to get paid with multiple venues to find the right fit and recognition created a culture where the genre is viable to this day, with three major professional magazines (Analog, Asimov's, and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction), several on the next tier like Uncanny, Clark's World, and Tor.com, along with a host of semi-pro magazines and a daily email feed, Daily SF. There are also a host of publishers, both major ones and small press, providing venues to print anthologies and also the novels (and more so now, novellas) the writers create as they start moving to longer forms.
What about the second cluster of styles? Well, that again comes to one man, one magazine, Fredick Dannay, the editor of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and one of the two creators (along with Manfred Lee) of the titular detective. Pretty much by himself Fred Dannay created what we think of as modern detective, crime, and mystery fiction. The genre evolved from "clue stories" that were in effect puzzles for the reader to figure out to the modern works we see today, both in shorter and long forms. His shift to stores that included the detectives and perpatrators as people with real motivations and feelings gave us the breakthrough TV and radio series Dragnet, for example. And the list of those he published reads like a who's who, because he also published works considered old like Poe, Christie, and Gardner. Unlike the SF/F/H industry where excellence and opinionatedness created impetus for others to compete, Fred Dannay did such a great job of getting innovative and multi-faceted works to the page he managed to weather the downturn and keep the genre alive. And again, EQMM is still published today. (I also read every issue, cover to cover, though there are a couple of authors I listen to with trepidation) And again, there are conventions. There are awards. And like the science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror subgroups, there are grandmasters who can demonstrate what the genre considers to be significant output. (It seems the term is gender neutral, as I've never heard any of the female authors described as a grandmistress)
Of course there were other great editors. For SF/F/H there was Frederick Pohl, along with Horace Gold. And Hugo Gernsback always deserves a mention as the written genre's primary founder, at least from the magazine standpoint.
Alfred Hichcock's Mystery Magazine (AHMM) has a long history too, and for a while there Black Mask handled hard boiled crime and detective fiction so well EQMM uses it as a designator when they publish something in that style. But these two men created the nexus point that helped their genres survive postwar publishing difficulties and kept the readership engaged. And folks writing in other genres who look to these two fandoms and wonder why they're so dynamic and have such strong short fiction length support would be advised to look for someone in their area of interest to try to do the same. And for anyone attempting a short romantic fiction venue, I've got some things I want to send you for consideration, because that's the primary venue I have nowhere to sell to.
Nyyki (she/her/Miss)
