Support the Infrastructure

I was lecturing the other day (I can't remember if it was in a class, online, or to some strangers in the Starbucks restroom) about supporting the system that sustains us.

How many writers have submitted stories to magazines they've never even read, let alone subscribe to?

You write books, but how many books do you buy?

You've got a new book out, or maybe a few, yet you come back from writing conferences empty-handed because you haven't bought a thing.

Yeah, I know books and mags are expensive, especially on a poverty level budget. But how can we truly expect to become part of the publishing industry if we don't support it with our dollars?

Well, here's a chance. Apex Science Fiction and Horror, a digest size journal available by subscription and at newsstands everywhere, is in trouble. They're one of the premeire markets for fantastic literature, but the editor of the mag (Jason Sizemore) got hit with a large printing bill and no way to pay it. How large? Two grand.

Now two grand isn't a lot of money. But most magazines are a labor of love that don't show a profit for the first few years, and Jason has been pumping a lot of his own money into this magazine since the very beginning. He has no more money to pump.

That's where you come in. Visit the Apex blog at http://apexdigest.livejournal.com/ and read about the uber-cool raffle that is being held to save the magazine. Lots of incredible merchandise is for sale for only a few dollars. One of the raffle prizes is a three chapter critique from a literary agent.

After you spend five or ten bucks on raffle tickets, go buy a subscription or a few back issues.

This isn't charity. You're getting somthing for your money. Besides the merchandise, you're keeping alive one more potential source for your writing. And with the sad state the short story market is in, we need all the potential sources we can get.