Magazine Subscriptions

Most readers probably know that I subscribe to Black Gate and On Spec fairly regularly but there are other magazines I have subscriptions for (or have had subscriptions for). I allocate a budget for magazine subscriptions and every year I choose *different* magazines to subscribe in. Even if I find a magazine I like, I try to spread the ‘subscription money’ around each year, to sample the largest number of magazines that I can. I do this primarily to get a feel for what kinds of fiction the different magazines publish but also to get exposure to other writers that I might not have if I stuck to the same magazines year in, year old.

The only real rule I have is that one of the subscriptions must be for a ‘pro’ market. That has been Analog — when that subscription runs out I’ll switch over to Asimov’s.
Other magazines that I have subscribed to in the past:

• Tales of the Talisman
• Murky Depths
• Fiddlehead
• Transversions (now gone)
• Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
• Amazing Stories
• Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine

This of course doesn’t count the numerous magazines that I’ve just picked up at the bookstore or online, odd copies of Not One of Us, Neo-Opsis and so on.