Crossed Genres, one of the best speculative, short fiction magazines out there, has announced that they will be shutting down after their December issue, citing a mix of health and financial issues.
The magazine, which will run for a total of 36 issues, has been a powerful voice in the science fiction / fantasy short fiction field by promoting diverse and new authors. Some of the many authors that they published are Daniel José Older, Wendy Wagner, Cat Rambo, Sandra McDonald, Athena Andreadis, Ryan Britt and other.
Two primary factors led to this decision. First, one of Crossed Genres’ co-publishers, Kay Holt, has been dealing with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) for more than two years. It’s made it extremely difficult for her to help with the running of CG, leaving the lion’s share of responsibilities on the other co-publisher, Bart Leib, who’s also working a day job. Magazine co-editor Kelly Jennings, ebook coordinator Casey Seda, and our team of first readers have all been heroic in their volunteer efforts, but we’ve still been unable to keep from falling behind.
The second factor is simply that the magazine has run out of funds to continue. In April 2014 we ran a successful Kickstarter to keep CG Magazine going, but once another year had passed, roughly 90 percent of those who’d pledged to the Kickstarter chose not to renew their memberships. New memberships have been no more than a trickle since. We just don’t have the time, resources, or energy to continuously run fundraisers every year, especially when we also have to fundraise any other projects. Running a fundraiser is an entire project in and of itself – it’s an exhausting and overwhelming process, and we have too few hands to accomplish everything even for the actual publishing projects we have.
It’s a shame to see this publication go, but it does highlight the difficulty in managing a short fiction outlet that pays out at professional rates (CG was a SFWA-Qualified Market). It also highlights the importance of paying subscribers: these types of publications often operate on thin margins, and retaining a subscriber pool is often a difficult proposition.
While the magazine is folding, Crossed Genres Publications, its parent company, will not, according to a tweet: