Mostly I look forward to Locus, though, for the interviews and news. I don't pay much attention to the con reports, even to conventions I attended, but I read and reread the in-depth interviews. This month they featured Peter S. Beagle and Paolo Bacigalupi. Paolo is a Colorado writer who've I've gotten to know over the last couple of years. Very cool.
The news keeps me at least semi-aware of what's happening in the publishing world. Their yearly summation of what's been published and trends in the industry are almost worth the price of the subscription themselves.
A new addition is Cory Doctorow as a columnist. Like him or not, he always has something interesting to add to the conversation.
I've heard complaints about Locus over the years (the one I hear most is that they hate Analog), but I've never felt a need to complain about their coverage of the field, and it's one of the handful of magazines I try to never let my subscription slip (the others are Analog, Asimov's, Talebones and Blackgate--if I had more time and a bigger budget, I'd also subscribe to F&SF and Realms of Fantasy). I do buy a lot of single issues of other magazines when I can get them, but Locus is one I wouldn't want to miss. I don't even toss them when I'm done reading. They go into my collection.
Who else subscribes, and why not?
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Comments
I subscribe to Locus, but I'm always aware that, although I enjoy reading it, it's a very preaching-to-the-crowd sort of magazine. Well done, but it's more a way to find out what's up with the rest of the community than anything else. I doubt anyone outside of the sf/f gang reads those reviews.
Am I wrong?
Yes, it's purely an insider's magazine. I don't know what anyone outside of publishing would get out of it. Only a very dedicated fan, I would imagine, would pay the fairly high subscription rate to read the reviews and interviews.
Locus is indispensable to me for keeping up with the genre. Yes, the information is online often but I prefer getting it all in one place.
Plus the interviews are great.
The reviews are usually good, too. There are so many of them, though, that I never read them all. They crank out a lot of content for that magazine every month, and my hat is off to them.
Love the magazine and I've subscribed for probably ten or fifteen years.
I must admit after reading your post I am rethinking my current status on Locus...maybe I will get a subscription and try it out long term. Though the Doctorow addition doesn't really sell me....but that's okay, too. I've lived with other elements of other magazines I didn't really like.
Talebones squaked onto the best magazine list at 26.