Chaos is Order:
The Benefit of Refusing to Develop a Business Plan
by Michael Gallant

We at QM are proud to announce that, after three years of sketchy adherence to deadlines, decisions made in haste, drunken debates in the wee hours, editorials which directly attack our chosen genre and industry, and stories that nobody else would touch with a ten foot rejection letter but were fucking brilliant, we now stand hailed as one of Writers' Digest's top thirty sites for new writers. We are ranked as one of Yahoo's top ten most popular science fiction web sites.

Are we surprised? Thrilled? Confused? Maybe just a bit.

Mostly, we are smug and indifferent.

Why this attitude, instead of graciously thanking the Academy for the honor of the recognition, despite our obvious transgression?

Because we know that, basically, we rock.

Our success is because of, and not in spite of our hideous business practices.

We decided at its inception that QM would be about the writing and the writers. Nothing else. Ok, maybe the artwork and artist too. Sorry for the omission, it's hard to type with the DT's.

Anyway, we made it a point that we would not be influenced in any way by commercial concerns. If you have any doubts about that, ask our creditors. Yes, we do sell the occasional banner ad or copy of our anthology (not enough copies, though, you slackers) but we choose our stories and format based on our own skewed sense of their artistic merit. Many of our issues contain stories that appeal to only a few readers. Many of those we loved but didn't feel would impress anyone else were some of our most popular, thus proving that we haven't the foggiest idea what will really sell. Any mention of marketing or business strategy at a QM editors' meeting is met with open hostility.

That's why this works. Because we don't give a rat's ass whether it does or not.

We can take risks because we have no fear of failure. If nobody reads our next issue, we'll still laugh, get drunk and put one up the following month, probably with a bitter editorial about how none of our readers could sober up enough to remember our URL.

We can even insult our base of writers because, if the level of adherence to our guidelines is any indication, none of them actually read our zine beyond the pay rate anyway. They sure as hell don't read the part about how long they can expect to wait for payment. Or run in the same circles as our creditors for that matter or they'd know better than to ask where their money is.

We can take chances on new writers.

Ok, I know every zine, paper and electronic and probably those chiseled on slate who rejected the first three drafts of the Ten Commandments to make more room for the latest scandal with King David (Bathshebagate, if memory serves), makes this claim. I know you're all hearing how the check's in your mouth and I won't come in the mail, but we mean it.

Wait, wait! I have proof! It's here...Somewhere under this pile of hatemail and summonses...Ah! Here it is. An editor of a "Real" magazine engaged our editor Ray in a very polite discussion (Ray, unlike myself, can still have these) about the volume of new writers his and other large magazines published, and presented these statistics:

F&SF, 19 new writers
Asimov's, 10 new writers
Realms of Fantasy, 12 new writers
Analog, 17 new writers

Now, this list is of new authors published from 1997 on, and these are his data, not ours, mostly because I can't be bothered to do research, but if you look at it, in five years, all four of these have published 58 new authors. Not bad, you say?

Ok, in three years, QM has published an average of six new authors per month. Aside from D F Lewis, we didn't ever publish an established writer. We have repeated a few, and some who we published went on to other more lucrative projects (aside from food service or panhandling), but we remain essentially a market for the new, undiscovered but talented writer. So, we have printed triple the number of new authors that the big four have featured, and in sixty percent of the time.

I will pause while you absorb this. And to freshen my drink.

We aren't really trying to trash the other fiction markets. Oh, it's fun and all, but it's a pleasant diversion more than a mission. We do feel that all speculative fiction markets should be in this together. There's plenty of talent to go round, and not enough money to be worth fighting about.

Speaking of money, the same editor who chatted with Ray pointed out that the publisher is not responsible (I agreed until I realized he hadn't finished his statement) for the economic well being of the writer, but that of the publishing house. I disagree. The feeling of responsibility to the bottom line of the publishing house is what drives the current fantasy book market to skillion page Tolkien ripoffs, and the s/f market to StarTrek/Star Wars/Babylon 5 fan fiction churned out by the underpaid and purchased by the kilo. It's what drove the movie industry's fantasy division to produce the "Dungeons and Dragons" movie, about which the less said the better.

Basically, we feel that art and business should never touch. I think they were first melded by either Satan or Walt Disney, but I forget which. Or even if it matters.

We are not attempting to run this anything like a business. Although we do have better numbers than Enron or Worldcom, and they had marketing departments. Our goal is not money. Which is a damn good thing, considering how few of you cheap bastards bought our book.

What is the answer for the industry, if commercial concerns bow to artistic ones? How can publishers stay solvent? I hear you ask. Beats me. Maybe they could have Arthur Andersen do the books.

I do know the answer for the individual author. Write what you love, but don't quit your day job. I haven't.

For QM the answer is to keep doing what we feel is good, for the reader, the writer and the genre, without regard to financial concerns.

At least until we totally run out of cash or it's no fun anymore. Then I think we'll screw the ‘zine, build a still and start running moonshine. It's all basically the same. We just want to spread our own brand of happiness.

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