Post by Reporter John Tannen on Apr 16, 2008 4:33:28 GMT -5
How To Get Published In "Asimov's Science Fiction"
Story By Reporter John Tannen
Who is the brains, or should we say the machine, behind Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine? We know that the magazine is named after legendary author Isaac Asimov who earned acclaim for his functional dialogue, transparent style and alien sex. Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine has won 44 Hugos and 24 Nebula Awards for depicting the most groundbreaking alien sex stories in history, along with 18 Hugo Awards for Best Editor. (The criteria for choosing Best Editor Of The Year? Allegedly, the Academy considers well-worded rejection slips and stories with no comma errors as competitive entries)
Many of the aspiring sci-fi writers out there may be confused as to how to get published in Asimov Magazine. The process is very difficult; though Star Wars and Star Trek writers make all the money, it is generally believed that the smartest readers in the world read Asimov's Magazine for a low annual subscription price.
When our reporters asked Asimov for their subscription guidelines, the editors replied that Asimov looks for "character-oriented stories with "generous amounts of non-explicit alien sex." The editors went on to state that "alien characters, rather than the size of their genitalia, provide the main focus for the reader's interest."
At first this reporter didn't believe Asimov's bizarre submission guidelines, something less commercially accessible than even Greg Egan's "Dark Integers." However, I researched some of Asimov's past controversies. In 2004, WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids, Michigan investigated Asimov's editorial team for marketing this alien sex magazine towards children. A mother had purchased a subscription for the magazine at a school fundraiser only to find out that most of the magazine had "overtly sexual" content involving aliens and humans of alternating genders. Following the controversy and an extended trial requiring Asimov publishers to read back to the jury explicit accounts of anal probing with scientific jargon, one distributor dropped the magazine entirely.
Magazine editors were aroused (in bad ways) to hear that their illustrious magazine had been portrayed as a "pornographic magazine" that was about "sex, drugs and molestation" from a scientific point of view. This reporter is not suggesting that it takes alien sex targeted towards children to be published in Asimov's Science Fiction. I merely concede that Asimov probably would be proud of the magazine's new direction, since he himself was once rejected by an editor because alien characters were portrayed as superior to humans and preferred the "on top" position.
This reporter is off to work on his science fiction piece starring Beulah Star-Striker, the alien queen with ten vaginas.
Story By Reporter John Tannen
Who is the brains, or should we say the machine, behind Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine? We know that the magazine is named after legendary author Isaac Asimov who earned acclaim for his functional dialogue, transparent style and alien sex. Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine has won 44 Hugos and 24 Nebula Awards for depicting the most groundbreaking alien sex stories in history, along with 18 Hugo Awards for Best Editor. (The criteria for choosing Best Editor Of The Year? Allegedly, the Academy considers well-worded rejection slips and stories with no comma errors as competitive entries)
Many of the aspiring sci-fi writers out there may be confused as to how to get published in Asimov Magazine. The process is very difficult; though Star Wars and Star Trek writers make all the money, it is generally believed that the smartest readers in the world read Asimov's Magazine for a low annual subscription price.
When our reporters asked Asimov for their subscription guidelines, the editors replied that Asimov looks for "character-oriented stories with "generous amounts of non-explicit alien sex." The editors went on to state that "alien characters, rather than the size of their genitalia, provide the main focus for the reader's interest."
At first this reporter didn't believe Asimov's bizarre submission guidelines, something less commercially accessible than even Greg Egan's "Dark Integers." However, I researched some of Asimov's past controversies. In 2004, WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids, Michigan investigated Asimov's editorial team for marketing this alien sex magazine towards children. A mother had purchased a subscription for the magazine at a school fundraiser only to find out that most of the magazine had "overtly sexual" content involving aliens and humans of alternating genders. Following the controversy and an extended trial requiring Asimov publishers to read back to the jury explicit accounts of anal probing with scientific jargon, one distributor dropped the magazine entirely.
Magazine editors were aroused (in bad ways) to hear that their illustrious magazine had been portrayed as a "pornographic magazine" that was about "sex, drugs and molestation" from a scientific point of view. This reporter is not suggesting that it takes alien sex targeted towards children to be published in Asimov's Science Fiction. I merely concede that Asimov probably would be proud of the magazine's new direction, since he himself was once rejected by an editor because alien characters were portrayed as superior to humans and preferred the "on top" position.
This reporter is off to work on his science fiction piece starring Beulah Star-Striker, the alien queen with ten vaginas.