I’ve been monitoring the rankings of online magazines in the Locus Poll for a few years now. For the reasons I mentioned in my previous entry, it’s statistically unsound for me to continue monitoring changes from year-to-year, but as a snapshot of single year data, it still has some use.
Online Magazines Represented in the Best Magazine Category
actual finishing place on left, unofficial place if only first place votes counted on right
#4 Subterranean Magazine (#8)
#9 Clarkesworld Magazine (#6)
#10 Strange Horizons (#9 – tie)
#12 SF Site (#9 – tie)
#13 Baen’s Universe (#13 – tie)
#14 Ansible (#9 – tie)
#19 Fantasy Magazine (#15)
#21 Internet Review of Science Fiction (#17)
#22 SFRevu (#16)
Interestingly, Tor.com did not make the list, despite having the #3 novelette and #2 and #19 short stories. Also missing is InterGalactic Medicine Show (which had the #19 novelette) and Abyss & Apex (which had the #25 short story.)
The most short stories from a single online market was two (Clarkesworld – #11, #15 and Tor.com – #2, #19). No single online market had more than one novelette on the list and there was no representation in the novella category. Several of the fiction that placed did not have a short story, novelette or novella place.
imago1
Unfortunately, it is very difficult to place a novelette or novella online due to word count restrictions.
wyrmadmin
Agreed. I think that will improve over time though.
imago1
I know there are probably money issues, etc. That will be a good day for everyone, however.
wyrmadmin
Reading longer works online is becoming less of an issue each year, so yes, most of the issue is budgeting, but there are always creative ways to handle that. One of the most straight-forward is buying print and electronic rights and selling a book edition of the novella. It’s worked for Subterranean a few times, but certainly isn’t for everyone.
safewrite
Yes I saw that and was surprised that Tor was not represented. You had a good showing. We made 25th place on the short story list, but at least we made the list.
wyrmadmin
Making the list is always good. It’s another year where I wish I had the raw data though. I suppose the data skews a bit based on how the short list for voting is created. That would explain why magazines that made the magazine list didn’t have representation in fiction categories and perhaps even vice versa.