Individual Entry: Happy Birthday Locus Magazine
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April 11, 2008

Books : Happy Birthday Locus Magazine

Locus Magazine has been published for 40 years this month. That probably doesn’t mean a lot to most people – Locus is mostly an “insider’s” rag.

Locus is to Science Fiction (and Fantasy) Publishing what Variety magazine is to Movies – the trade magazine of the business. It covers what is going on behind the scenes with respect to SciFi books and magazines (and a bit on TV and movies; but not a lot). Every issue has:

- Interviews with writers
- Notices of awards that have been won
- Lists of books sold, resold, delivered, published, etc.
- News about key life events involving people in the industry, particularly…
- Obituaries
- Statistics on publishing (how many of what kind of books were sold by what publishers in what countries)
- News about authors, agents, publishers, editors, distributors, book sellers, etc.
- Reviews of novels and short stories

Reading Locus is THE way the SciFi publishing industry keeps track of itself. At one of the first WorldCon’s I attended I was given the advice that if I was serious about becoming a Science Fiction or Fantasy writer, I should start reading Locus to learn how the industry works. I have been reading Locus ever since and can see the value of that advice (even though the goal of getting published myself has been set on the side for the moment).

Posted by Steven at April 11, 2008 05:00 AM