Shameless Self Promotion (how many hits can I get to this post?)

Posted by: Redhead on: March 28, 2017

• In: Apex Magazine | self-promotion
• 5 Comments

I’ve been involved with Apex Magazine since sometime in 2014. I met Jason Sizemore and Lesley Conner at a convention, we hit it off, I did some slush reading, and before I knew it I doing author interviews in the magazine every month.

Getting to read someone’s forthcoming story months ahead of time, researching the author, putting together engaging interview questions, writing an intro that hopefully gets your attention . . .  if you’re a nerd like me this is the best gig ever!  And it really is the best gig. I’ve gotten to interview authors such as Nisi Shawl, John Hornor Jacobs,  E. Catherine Tobler, A. Merc Rustad, Benjanun Sriduangkaew, Ursula Vernon, Chikodili Emelumadu, Brian Keene, Damien Angelica Walters, and Seth Dicksinson, just to name a few (and I realize I’ve just named a bunch of my favorite authors, as well. bonus!).

I know from the outside, it looks like Apex Magazine magically comes together every month, but it isn’t magic. It’s a lot of time, passion, and hard work from the people involved. And I’m just the smallest, tiniest part of how the sausage gets made.

Apex Magazine is currently in their 2017 subscription drive. What’s a subscription drive?  It’s where you can buy subscriptions (now only $17! Less than a $1.50 an issue! like, you can’t get a cup of decent coffee that cheap), you can buy stuff (artwork! signed books! handmade blankets and hats! critiques!), Lesley Conner will send you an awesome postcard! And there are stretch goals for more stuff.  Reaching $10K means the magazine can pay their authors more, buy more stories, hire another editor, and do all sorts of amazing things.

What’s in it for you, you ask?  When stretch goals are reached, EVERYONE gets to enjoy the rewards! including:

• more awesome fiction from Tade Thompson! You know, that guy who wrote Rosewater, one of the most unique alien invasion stories I’ve ever read?
• Jason and Lesley torturing and teasing each other about It Follows.
• Me having the opportunity to ask Jason all sorts of goofy and embarrassing questions over Skype.
• Apex donating convention memberships and badges to Con or Bust
• more fiction from Delilah Dawson, Cherie Priest, and Jacqueline Carey!

There’s about a bazillion more stretch goals, but those are the ones that will benefit YOU, as a magazine reader, the most.  Oh wait, you’re not a reader, you’re an author or an artist? Stretch goals for you include paying you more money.

the first stretch goal, has already been unlocked, so you better go vote in who is more adorable – Oz the dog or Pumpkin the cat.  I think I’m gonna have to snuggle with both of them for at least 3 days before I can come to a decision.

 

Some of you already read Apex Magazine, or other online magazines such as Lightspeed, Uncanny, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, or others.

 

But some of you aren’t onboard with electronic magazines, and that’s totally OK. You’re more the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and Asimov’s type.  Trust me, I get it. I’m all about teh dead trees.  And I have something just for you!

Apex SFFH: Issue Vol 0 – this is a gorgeous print issue, a sampler of 2016. It includes essays, short stories, novel excerpts and interviews, and can be yours for only $8! And oh yeah, I’m in it!   As a HUGE fan of dead tree magazines,  I am a cheerleader for the Print Issue. I don’t know how many Jason needs to sell for it to be worth it for him to print more volumes, but I want to get there. Getting Apex (hi Jason!) to do a dead-tree full length sampler once a year is a personal goal of mine.

Apex prints dead-tree versions of anthologies and novels too!   Imma make this super easy. Here are my top pics of Apex print copy goodies:    the just mentioned Apex SFFH: Issue Vol 0,  Rosewater by Tade Thompson,  Shine Your Light on Me by Lee Thompson, Stay Crazy by Erica Satifka, The Best of Apex Magazine, The Apex Book of World SF series, and For Exposure by Jason Sizemore.

tl;dr –

a year’s subscription for less than a cup of coffee per issue (and an interview by yours truly in every issue!)

kick-ass print full-length print sampler available for $8 (also, I’m in it)

there’s a stretch goal where I get to ask Jason a bunch of goofy and embarrassing questions

better pay for writers and artists in the magazine

if you don’t care about any of that stuff, go check out some sweet anthologies and novels printed by Apex.

 

ok, so what are you waiting for?  go forth and Apex!

 

Tags: Apex Magazine