Alas, Poor Realms of Fantasy

Originally published at Michael M. Jones Says..... You can comment here or there.

I’m afraid I have some sad news where Realms of Fantasy is concerned. Yet again, the magazine is closing, as the current publishers can no longer afford to keep it going properly. This makes the third closure for Realms in under five years, and even I, the ever-optimistic one, can’t exactly hope for yet another miracle. In this economy, in this time of marketplace change and technological evolution, print genre magazines have been a dying breed for years. That’s the sad, simple truth. I can’t hope for yet another idealistic publisher with deep pockets and a Quixotic dream to come along. It would be nice, and it would be beautiful, but I’m prepared to accept that this is most likely the end. Sigh.

That said, my five-and-change years with Realms of Fantasy have been nothing short of awesome. I’ve worked with some spectacular people, met untold numbers of excellent authors, and been part of something magnificent. I’ve been able to indulge in something I love, month after month, and expose a much larger audience to all sorts of books. I can’t complain about that. I can definitely hold my head up high. Special thanks go to Shawna McCarthy for being the spirit of the magazine for all these years, and Doug Cohen, who’s been one of the best editors ever. Should the magazine somehow revive again, they’d better be on the new publisher’s speed dial.

This isn’t completely bad news. You can’t keep a good book reviewer down. I’ll still be covering YA books for whatever venues I can find. Some might go to SF Site or the Green Man Review or my own website. Also, I’ll be contributing reviews to Tor.com. I’ll have more details on that soon, but you will definitely see my YA book reviews on Tor.com in the near future. So keep those review copies, ARCs, and queries coming. And if anyone else is willing to give me a review platform, I’m open to negotiations!

So let’s raise our drinks to Realms of Fantasy.