TransVersions II

Editorial - TransVersions 7

In a recent issue of Speculations, Mike Resnick took a shot at small press magazines -- trying to persuade people that publishing their original work in markets that pay less than professional rates is something that should be avoided. He doesn't believe there's anything to be gained by selling first rights of one's work to the small press, and wants everyone to know that this is something he would never do. Apparently he thinks anyone who does is a fool.

Tell that to Gemma Files, whose story "Hidebound" was discovered in TransVersions by the producer of the new Showtime tv series, The Hunger. It's in production as this issue comes out. Pleased with the talent they'd mined in the pages of this little magazine, they asked to see more of her work, and went on to select another of her stories for the series.

Tell it to the writers who received honourable mentions in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror for their work in TransVersions: David Nickle, Nancy Bennett, Catherine Mintz, Kurt Newton, Steve Carper, Eileen Kernaghan, D.F. Lewis, Sandra Kasturi, Niall McGrath, Michael Coney & Karen Blicker. Jeff Kuipers and TransVersions editor Dale Sproule have both received Aurora nominations for their artwork in the magazine. TransVersions itself has been an Aurora finalist every year since we began publishing. Four stories published in our pages -- by Sean Stewart, Charles Saplak (2) and Stepan Chapman -- have received Nebula nominations from respected members of SFWA (later disallowed because we are not an American market). Our thanks go out to those who respect and value the offerings a small press can make.

And believe it or not, Mr. Resnick, with all the acclaim we've been getting, we honestly can't afford to pay more than a penny a word (Canadian, yet)! Hell, strictly speaking, we can't afford to pay that much, but we believe that all our contributors should receive payment of some tangible kind for their work. Maybe all they will be able to do with it is go for dinner -- hamburgers and beer or occasionally steak and some pleasant estate wine. Rick LeBlanc says he bought a plank with his payment. Hmmm. We do what we can. And we try to do it well. We succeed, most of the time. Now, let's come back to Earth after the bragfest. Here are some mistakes we'd like to apologize for:

Last issue, we inadvertently changed a word in the opening line of Carolyn Clink's excellent poem, "Cenotaphs", which should have read "It's a mystery that anything rises up" rather than "It's a mistake...". This mistake was ours, and it altered the meaning of Carolyn's poem, which makes this the gravest one we're aware of making. We also have to accept a big lump of coal for missed italics in Robert J. Sawyer's Aurora-nominated story "Lost in the Mail" from TransVersions 3. We spelled Jeff VanderMeer's name with a lower case 'M' on the cover of issue 5, then repeated the error in a full page ad in Tangent #17. We accidentally credited Sean Stewart with a book called Nowhere Man (which we had just been watching on TV) rather than Nobody's Son (which is the real title of his multiple award nominated after-the-fairy-tale fantasy). There are undoubtedly other errors we haven't heard about, but we hope you agree, after reading this issue, that TransVersions is still a good place to get published.

Now, did we mention the positive notice we've received from Ellen Datlow, and from Gardner Dozois (The Year's Best Science Fiction)? And how about the recent review of issue #6 that said "TransVersions, out of the Great White North, continues in its track record as one of the most original and challenging small magazines on the market." (Carroll Brown, Tangent #18)

The fact is, people do read and enjoy the many and varied "small" magazines which, with often heart- or wallet-breaking effort, present some of the finest short fiction, poetry and art to be found anywhere. Small press editors can be as demanding and knowledgeable as those working in the higher-paying markets, and can be more flexible and daring in what they choose to publish. There simply isn't enough room in the issues of better-known magazines and anthologies to print all the work that should be published... very often the only venue for a fine story is in the small press. Should it instead languish in a drawer, because it might be beneath a writer's dignity to appear in a market that pays only a penny a word? We urge Mr. Resnick to look again at the magazines that fill a valuable niche in the ecology of publishing. Not a high-paying one, to be sure, but one that serves as a proving ground and showcase for new, and established, authors.

And now, on to the current crop of stories and poems! We hope you enjoy, and will come back for more.

Mike Resnick's Response