Received an email from Bridget McKenna that Aeon is ceasing publication. It’s a great shame, as I’ve found their fiction offerings to be pretty consistently superb. And on a personal front, they have a story of mine, “Black Swan, White Swan,” which was slated for publication in their next issue.
But at least there’s a silver lining there. The Aeon editors plan to publish a print anthology in 2009, End of an Aeon, which will feature the unpublished stories they currently have in inventory.
This is the second sale for me this year that has been nixed (although, certainly, having “Black Swan, White Swan” appearing in an anthology isn’t technically a “nix”) due to a market folding or a previously green-lit project being given the axe.
I seem to remember hearing that the publishing industry, along with the film biz, has traditionally been considered (relatively) recession proof—the argument being that even when finances are tight, people still need entertainment. But I’ve been hearing through the grapevine, directly and indirectly—as well as being impacted personally—of publishers feeling the pinch of the deteriorating economy: that it’s making them pull back on their lines, limit the number of new titles and new authors being taken on, and other worrying behavior. So it seems pretty clear to me that the current economic straits are being felt by the publishing industry, undoubtedly more so by the small/independent press/magazine folks, but also by the major players.
Very depressing it is.
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