In July, I surveyed readers of this blog to find out what people were looking for in an online magazine. At that point, I was secretly considering moving Clarkesworld to a weekly format that spread an issue out over a few weeks. I changed my mind when only 15% of those surveyed wanted something more frequent than monthly. (Monthly took nearly 30% of the votes.) Two other categories in this poll probably skewed those numbers: “Doesn’t matter, I’ll read on my own schedule” and “Give me RSS and I’ll read as posted”.
End result: Clarkesworld will stay a monthly publication and now has an RSS feed.
The next question was about content. No big surprise that the overwhelming majority of people wanted new fiction. Interviews and reviews ran neck in neck with nearly 2/3rds of the responders expressing interest in these. Commentary came in next with 42% of the vote. All the other categories interested less than one third.
End result: Clarkesworld is expanding beyond its two pieces of fiction. The first part of that expansion is online now. We’ve added interviews and commentary. This month:
Making Science Fictionistas by Chris Garcia
All non-fiction columns will allow for reader response in a typical blog-like fashion. I’m still tweaking this, so feedback is welcome. I haven’t decided whether or not to do this with the fiction. Opinions?
I’ve also made a few cosmetic changes to the site. Now that we have a year’s worth of content on the site, the navigation needed to be tweaked a bit. I’ve also added a cover art gallery since people seem to really get a kick out of the pieces we’ve selected.
And that’s just the beginning…
jtglover
The changes to the site look good and useful, and my RSS reader and I are both happy. Having story comments visible on the same page as the stories itself strikes me as a little… awkward? Maybe that’s just because I haven’t seen it done before. I don’t know if you want to go the forum route, given how many different fora are out there, but perhaps a linked area where comments could reside, like an entry on the blog for each story? Hmm.
wyrmadmin
The current setup is very much like reading a single post on a blog. I’m not entirely thrilled with the model myself and I am working on some possible alternatives. The plus to this format is the discussion is right up front and you can’t miss it. The downside is the page can get unruly.
I’ll definitely be tweaking this aspect of the site.
jtglover
BTW, I think comments on-page for nonfiction is (somehow) different from comments on-page about nonfiction, and not a problem. Probably some sort of latent awe for godlike creators.