Magazines: More Than The Sum Of Their Stories

This post adapted from my Twitter thread, here.

I often urge readers to read entire issues of magazines. Even better, to read the same magazine on the regular. A thread about reading, popularity, and curation. Also about how you how awesome The Deadlands is, but we'll get to that.

An overwhelming bias in publishing is: popularity begets popularity. The easiest way to have something noticed, is for it to be by someone people are already paying attention to.
Broadly speaking, this is a great thing. Popular stuff is popular for a reason. And having your favorites, and following them, is the number one way to read great stuff that you enjoy.

But.

There's an insularity to it. If the barriers to getting published are high, then the barriers to being buzzy, to semi-virality, to being The Thing You Keep Hearing About, are phenomenal. And there's a lot of randomness to them (except inasmuch as marketing $$$ is involved).

Consider how this bias influences what you read in oh-so-many ways:
A solid story by a favorite vs. something amazing by someone unknown.
A quick read vs. a long one.
A piece with a great elevator pitch vs. something quiet, unexpectedly poignant.
A showstopper vs. a charming oddity.

Well, all right, you might be thinking to yourself. But how can you read things you haven't heard about?
One way — probably the easiest way — is by trusting a curator.

An editor crafting an issue, or an anthology, isn't trying to hook you on each story individually. They're building something that works as a whole. They're giving you a tour, weaving to and fro, pointing you at big exhibits and curious niches alike.
There's fantastic value and power in having different stories bundled together, large and small. It's one way to make sure that you're never limited merely to what's already on your radar. You are always, always trying something new.
(And while any one curator certainly brings in biases and preferences of their own, those are very different than the biases of "stuff I already like" and "stuff I hear about organically.")

To me, that's part of the amazing value of a magazine.
Will I like every single story?
Probably not.
But I'll be trying new stories, new authors, new styles, all the time.
And if it's an editor whose taste I like, I'm going to like a whole lot of those.

Now, if you want to see this difference between a story and a magazine, if you want to feel it in your bones, may I direct your attention to The Deadlands.
"a journal of ends and beginnings."

An issue of The Deadlands is an entirely different experience than simply "sitting down and reading a story."

The art, the poetry, the columns on undertaking and burial customs. And a dazzling range of stories; the macabre from angle after fascinating, unexpected angle.

Without the context of a magazine, I would not be reading most of those.
Honestly, I would probably not be reading *any* of those. Not even my absolute favorites. How would I get to them?

The magazine bundles them together. It promises me, not "one good story (and some other stuff)", but a crafted, tailored visit that's full of new and unusual vibes, and so strong on variety and verisimilitude.
It's a magazine with so much voice, with a specific, dedicated vision. It's a magazine that does one unique, beautiful thing. Does it marvelously well. Shows that the one thing, the topic, the focus, the style, is bigger on the inside.

(This is no surprise, since Shimmer, also helmed by E. Catherine Tobler, had such a distinct, magnificent feel to it. In slush comments, I still sometime make a note saying, "this feels like a Shimmer story," and that says almost everything.)

In our current state, with a vast, untameable ocean of wonderful fiction, it's so important to have these venues that promise its readers something specific, distinct, thrilling. It's what lets us sail far from the shore.

I think all magazines do this,
if you read your favorite cover to cover,
if you trust your editor enough to try at least a taste of each thing.

But in The Deadlands, that element is so clear, so visible, so distinct. It's got my admiration, and I've learned a lot from it.

I wrote this as the magazine was crowdfunding for Year 3. They’ve made their goal, but whenever you read this, consider checking them and and considering giving them a little support.

More than that, I hope you'll actually read the magazine, because it's something really special.