Weird Tales Magazine

This is a very sad example of how an idiot with a lot of money can completely ruin something that was pretty awesome before he got his grubby paws on it.

This self-published piece of racist crap he has been defending isn't even well-written. Complete drivel that was never meant to see publication, and the fact that he thinks it's amazing shows how ill-prepared he is for being an owner or editor of a major, respected magazine.

Damn shame. Getting a WT acceptance has been on my bucket list for a long time. I guess I've got to reconsider.

What a mess.

Haggis said:

Damn shame. Getting a WT acceptance has been on my bucket list for a long time. I guess I've got to reconsider.

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WT isn't the same since Mary Robinette Kowal and Ann VanderMeer stopped steering it when the new owners took over.

I'd take a look at Shimmer instead--now paying pro rates.

Medievalist said:

WT isn't the same since Mary Robinette Kowal and Ann VanderMeer stopped steering it when the new owners took over.

I'd take a look at Shimmer instead--now paying pro rates.

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I haven't looked at it lately--actually since I heard Ann VanderMeer left--but she certainly did a wonderful job bringing it back. I guess we'll have to see what happens from here on.

But, yeah, there are lots of 'zines out there, many of which pay pro rates.

I'd love to hear from the new Weird Tales folks. I'm curious as to how they plan to bring credibility back to the magazine after this. Do they have any idea how incredibly disappointing this all is to so many people who have followed that publication for years and years?

Doesn't sound like it. Getting rid of the people who won the magazine the Hugo doesn't sound like the act of a management team with much perspective.

Guys, if you're going to talk about that book, we have threads where people are talking about the book.

This thread is about Weird Tales.

Posts about The-Book-At-Amazon have gone here: http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=250845&page=14

The company that owns the publishing rights/reprint rights to the stories is said to own the catalog.

Unimportant said:

Weird Tales is currently closed to fiction submissions.

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Along with just about everybody else, according to my recent searches.

caw

They sent me a nice bland email yesterday after I pulled my submission. I'd only said I was pulling 'for revision' and didn't mention the Foyt fracas. Ann was still at the magazine when I pulled my story and I wanted to keep doors open. They wished me best of luck, and asked me to check back in a few months.

Guess not.

Ka-Ching! There's the Hollywood connection.

What's the latest scoop on Weird Tales?

I just noticed that Weird Tales is no longer listed at Ralan.com as a paying market (or listed at all, for that matter). Is this a response to the "Save the Pearls" fiasco that happened a while ago? Despite the growing unpopularity of the magazine as a result of that issue, I still wish to publish there some day because, while I did like VanDerMeer's version of WT, the new editor seems to be bringing it back to its roots, which I personally find to be a more preferable direction for that market in particular.

I'm just wondering if Weird Tales is even a legit publication anymore, or if it's been completely smeared by the incident. Would this be comparable to Writers of the Future's association with scientology? I heard certain contest winners there become ineligible for awards like the Hugo or the Stoker, but I haven't been able to confirm that.

Is WT really that messed up (rep-wise, I mean), or is this just Ralan being personally offended by it?

(P.S. Sorry! I realize that there used to be a thread about Weird Tales on here already, but I could not find it. Feel free to merge this with the other thread if you deem it necessary.)

They're listed on Duotrope as being temporarily closed to fiction and poetry subs, but still open to nonfiction. From what I see over there, it definitely looks to be alive and kicking (just taking a submission break).

Hope this helps!

Julio Weigend said:

Would this be comparable to Writers of the Future's association with scientology? I heard certain contest winners there become illegible for awards like the Hugo or the Stoker, but I haven't been able to confirm that.

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I don't mean to derail, but where did you hear that? I know some people are wary of WOTF's association with Scientology, but I've never heard anything like that.

Several WOTF winners have gone on to be nominated for or win Hugo awards, including James Alan Gardner, Dave Wolverton, Jay Lake, Jim C. Hines, Robert Reed, and probably many more. And Bruce Holland Rogers won a Stoker, I believe.

Julio Weigend said:

I just noticed that Weird Tales is no longer listed at Ralan.com as a paying market (or listed at all, for that matter). Is this a response to the "Save the Pearls" fiasco that happened a while ago? Despite the growing unpopularity of the magazine as a result of that issue, I still wish to publish there some day because, while I did like VanDerMeer's version of WT, the new editor seems to be bringing it back to its roots, which I personally find to be a more preferable direction for that market in particular.

I'm just wondering if Weird Tales is even a legit publication anymore, or if it's been completely smeared by the incident. Would this be comparable to Writers of the Future's association with scientology? I heard certain contest winners there become illegible for awards like the Hugo or the Stoker, but I haven't been able to confirm that.

Is WT really that messed up (rep-wise, I mean), or is this just Ralan being personally offended by it?

(P.S. Sorry! I realize that there used to be a thread about Weird Tales on here already, but I could not find it. Feel free to merge this with the other thread if you deem it necessary.)

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They opened to fiction subs for about a month a while back, got swamped and closed again. Since then, there's been no word at all.

The fact that they're not on Ralan any more is probably just a mistake on Ralan's part.

I don't mean to derail, but where did you hear that? I know some people are wary of WOTF's association with Scientology, but I've never heard anything like that.

Several WOTF winners have gone on to be nominated for or win Hugo awards, including James Alan Gardner, Dave Wolverton, Jay Lake, Jim C. Hines, Robert Reed, and probably many more. And Bruce Holland Rogers won a Stoker, I believe.

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I honestly don't remember. This was at least two years ago, and I remember having gotten the gist that it had been an isolated incident (which had sparked some measure of debate in the site I found it at, I believe, about the moral issues surrounding people's judgment/perceptions of WOTF). It may not have even been the Stoker--could have been some other prestigious award. It also could have been a load of crap.

Julio Weigend said:

I honestly don't remember. This was at least two years ago, and I remember having gotten the gist that it had been an isolated incident (which had sparked some measure of debate in the site I found it at, I believe, about the moral issues surrounding people's judgment/perceptions of WOTF). It may not have even been the Stoker--could have been some other prestigious award. It also could have been a load of crap.

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As a recent WotF winner who researched the contest extensively before I entered, I vote load of crap.

But, that's a derail. I do not know the current status of Weird Tales. Besides the "Pearls" strangeness there was also an issue with writers requesting their work be pulled and the publisher agreeing only to later send edits as though the writer had not withdrawn. It could have been a record keeping snafu, but whatever the reason came across as very unprofessional.

A little update after one of the contributing editors at Weird Tales called me a whiner for for pointing out their erratic submission windows. It seems a few months ago the editors were dumping previously accepted stories to "make room" for a new round of submissions.

"My own latest shock came in an email from Marvin Kaye earlier this month in which he welshed on his acceptance of the two stories he was going to run in his magazine."

Source: http://adventuresfantastic.blogspot.ca/2013/07/further-thoughts-on-marvin-kaye-and.html

According to the editor mentioned above, seven stories were treated in this fashion (The post in question is here).

This strikes me as an...unorthodox practice.

As well, apologies if this has been mentioned before. I searched the site and found nothing.

Taran said:

This strikes me as an...unorthodox practice.

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That's a pretty good description of Weird Tales since the changeover. It's had a number of odd decisions, that smack of general lack of professionalism. It's not that they had one mistake, everything else has been roses, and people are just being mean by backing away. I imagine if they have been delisted anywhere, it was due to sending back accepted stories to reopen to subs, as that directly impacts writers looking to submit.

Even if they've gone beyond the Pearls debacle, that acceptance situation would make me think twice about submitting. I want stability from a publisher, especially in a short fiction market.

The best comment in the (soon deleted) Pearls comment thread at WT was to the effect of "Next time you have a mid-life crisis you should buy a Porsche and wreck that instead."