The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction

It's well and truly legit, being one of the 'big 3' SF short story markets. As far as circulation, I have Gardner Dozois's 2008 market report here: circulation ~16,000. Smaller than Analog or Asimov's, but still respectable.

I haven't read it much (only a few issues) but they publish a diversity of fantasy, SF and slipstream stories, I think it has a wider focus than the other two big magazines which are solely science fiction. Now I've got my new credit card I'm considering subscribing to one of them, either F&SF or Asimov's. I might pick up one or two at the newsagent and see which I prefer.

Another plus for the magazine is their quick turn around time on replying to submissions. No waiting months for a rejection.

Highly prestigious market. Sell to them and people will notice. Very difficult market to break into, their rejection forms have a code all of their own.

cethklein said:

. . . Has anyone had dealings with this publication?. . .

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Only as a subscriber to The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (its correct name, often shortened to just F&SF among the cognoscenti) since approximately 1962 (not continuously, though).

Good luck breaking into that one.

--Ken

F&SF is legit. And one of the top payers. Although like all publications, the current economy has affected them (they went from monthly to every other month, but increased their size). They've been around for as long as I can remember. Maybe back to the 50s? (wiki says 1949)

Shadow_Ferret said:

F&SF is legit. And one of the top payers. Although like all publications, the current economy has affected them (they went from monthly to every other month, but increased their size). They've been around for as long as I can remember. Maybe back to the 50s? (wiki says 1949)

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Yep, 1949. That was a time of an explosion in science fiction magazines: If, Galaxy, F&SF, Astounding (founded in the 1920s, I believe, and later became Analog, which it remains), Fantastic, Amazing, and a few others, plus paperback anthology series (Star Science Fiction, if I recall right, being one) and various annual bests, and pulp SF novels galore (including the distinctive Ace "double novels," two short novels in one book, each with its own front cover -- turn the book over and you see the other novel). Circulation of some of the magazines was in the 100,000 range, I believe.

--Ken

Those were the days. I still have a few copies of old If, Galaxy, and Fantastic.

ResearchGuy said:

Yep, 1949. That was a time of an explosion in science fiction magazines: If, Galaxy, F&SF, Astounding (founded in the 1920s, I believe, and later became Analog, which it remains)

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Astounding was founded in 1930, and became Analog in the early 60s. I have a batch from about 1938 to 1943. Most are pulp size (about the dimensions of a modern comic book), but for a short period they were bedsheet size (about like Life Magazine or the Saturday Evening Post) before going to digest size after WWII. I've got slews of the digests.

I have, IIRC, the third issue of F&SF, and a couple of healthy stacks from the 50s and 60s. I may still have the issue in which Flowers for Algernon appeared. Stephen King's first Gunslinger yarn appeared in the late 70s or early 80s.

The early 50s was a great time for the digest SF mags, but there was an implosion by the end of the decade that killed off dozens of them. Beyond Fantasy Fiction (companion to Galaxy), Infinity (companion to F&SF), Imagination, Imaginative Tales, Satellite, Fantastic Universe, lots of other great mags bit the dust by about 1962. Amazing and Fantastic staggered on through the 70s, the best of those years edited by Ted White. Galaxy lasted until the mid-80s.

All told, I've got over a hundred pulps of all kinds, and several good sized boxes of digest SF and fantasy mags. My wife complains about all the space they take up (along with the 10,000 books and several thousand comics), but I can't seem to part with them. They're like old friends I like to revisit every so often.

SirOtter said:

Astounding was founded in 1930. . . .

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Ah, right. It was Amazing Stories that launched in 1926.

--Ken

Are there any stores that carry this magazine? Or can you only order it online?

I've seen it at B&N.

Yeah, I've seen them at B&N and Borders, even in a few local stores.

I've been reading F&SF since about 1970. I'd love to sell to them. I've submitted one story, and got a nice rejection letter. Wish I'd kept all my old issues; whenever I come across one from the '60s or '70s I buy it. They not only had great stories by the top writers in both fantasy and science fiction, they had great science articles by Isaac Asimov (and cartoons by Gahan Wilson!).

cethklein said:

http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/index.html

Has anyone had dealings with this publication? I tried searching for info on AW but due to the generic name of the magazine, I get far too many posts that don't pertain to hat I'm looknig for. It seems legit and appears to have been in existence for quite some time. But my question is, do they have a decent readership and has anyone read through any issues of this publication before?

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Stephen King recently had a story in F&SF, as well as many other popular writers. It's prestigous in terms of Spec markets, and has quite a readership.

Stories from F&SF frequently appear in Year's Best anthologies and in award nominations.

May I suggest that if you personally haven't read through several issues of any magazine you're considering submitting to that you may have some unpleasant surprises waiting in your future.

Thanks for the answers, JulieB, amergina, and BenPanced! Heading to B&N after class. And if that fails---Borders this weekend! Digital copies are easy but I like physical copies of things.

<3

James D. Macdonald said:

Stories from F&SF frequently appear in Year's Best anthologies and in award nominations.

May I suggest that if you personally haven't read through several issues of any magazine you're considering submitting to that you may have some unpleasant surprises waiting in your future.

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Not quite as unpleasant as in former days, since Crank! isn't currently taking submissions.

Still: if someone doesn't know enough about the genre to recognize F&SF as a significant periodical, how are they going to write the stuff?

I've subscribed off and on for years. Haven't been accepted, haven't much submitted to them yet. But Charles de Lint gave a great review of my book in the March/April 2010 issue. Gordon Van Gelder e-mailed me the pdf file a few weeks ago AND sent me a copy of the magazine it appears in right away. First rate folk there.

Does anyone have any info on Stephen Mazur. Just looking for any particular tastes he might have.

HapiSofi said:

...Still: if someone doesn't know enough about the genre to recognize F&SF as a significant periodical, how are they going to write the stuff?

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His profile says he's only 21, and the "pulp" magazines aren't anything close to the heavyweights they were when I was that age. There was a time when most big SF writers started out in such publications. Not any more.

I'd cut him a little slack.

tbrosz said:

His profile says he's only 21, and the "pulp" magazines aren't anything close to the heavyweights they were when I was that age. There was a time when most big SF writers started out in such publications. Not any more.

I'd cut him a little slack.

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Agreed. Plus, everyone has to start somewhere, right?

I grew up in a small town, rarely made it up to the big city to visit a Barnes and Noble, but I loved sci-fi. The neighborhood grocery store carried Analog and Isaac Asimov's magazine, but didn't carry F&SF. It was some years before I became aware of the magazine's existence.