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Aeon Speculative Fiction
01/05/2005 . Source: Rod MacDonald 
e-mag download. $ 5.00 (US). check out: www.aeonmagazine.com
There's a new quarterly magazine available on-line. It's called 'Aeon Speculative Fiction' which is available as a $5 download and for this you'll get approximately 100,000 words of fiction, reviews and articles. The usual stuff. Edited by Marti McKenna and Bridget McKenna, it originates in Seattle, USA, and like that other products from this city they intend, 'Aeon' to fly all over the world, at least in cyberspace.
Not only this, they pay for published material. This is unusual in itself for an electronic publication but before you start sending stories to Seattle, you should know that it's only three cents per word which is hardly enough to pay for your printing ink. Worse still, the three cents are difficult to earn!
They have an entourage or inner circle of writers from which they probably choose most work. The names are familiar to some people with knowledge of Science Fiction writing. Unsolicited manuscripts and I imagine there's a big pile of 'em, make up a relatively small percentage of the magazine's format. I think they say that the percentage of accepted stories from the slush pile is about 1% but given the fact that this is issue 2 and the next two issues are already composed and closed for submissions, I would estimate that the acceptance rate is only a tiny fraction of this.
Further, apart from the inner circle, all submissions must be forwarded as hard copy - on paper if you like. Email submissions are not considered. While this regulation may be there to stop the editorial office from being swamped by unsolicited emails, I think it's a bit unfair. Having your cake and eating it, so to speak! If they are extolling the virtues of electronic publishing they should accept email submissions. OK, while editing may be easier by sifting through paper stories rather than reading from a screen, remember that this is what they're asking you to do with their magazine.
For the highly speculative 3 cents per word you may receive if a story was eventually accepted and published, the reality is that your chances of a financial return are much more likely if you didn't bother in the first place and took the postage money (return postage as well) and placed it on a horse. This is the sad fact of sending submissions to a magazine.
Speculative or Science Fiction and Fantasy magazines come and go with regular frequency. Remember the recent 3SF magazine? Only a few die-hards survive. Electronic magazines are even more insecure and to last more than a year is a feat of some significance. Regardless of how much effort and money the editors put into the creation of an electronic publication as in 'Future Orbits' a few years ago, survival is exceptionally difficult.
Why should 'Aeon' be any different from the others? What makes this magazine stand out from the competition and what will enable it to last through time, as the name implies? I examined issue 2. Sad to say, although it was a good enough magazine with plenty of interesting topics, I don't think it is sufficiently unique to give it an identity which will ensure survival.
Issue 2 is all about god, gods and/or religion. Science Fiction readers would probably not get overly excited about the content. There was a story from Howard V. Hendrix who 'Took a look at post-humanity from a great height in 'The Self-Healing Sky'.' Didn't like it much... boring I'd say.
There was an interesting piece by Bruce Holland Rogers called 'Vocabulary Items' which was in effect a multiple choice question series with a little story attached to each one. I thought this was innovative and highly entertaining. Witty, too.
Pat McEwan and PRA Stillman produced more godly fiction and of the rest the only piece worth mentioning, if only because it was irritating, was Gary W. Shockley's 'Dali, At Age 26, Believing Himself To Be Heavyweight Champion Of The World'. No, this issue wasn't for me.
Speculative fiction? What is it? After reading issue 2 I haven't yet made up my mind but I'll be reviewing the next issue so hopefully by then the message will be clear. I don't know if 'Aeon' has sufficient punch to make its mark in the electronic magazine world. In fact, I'll be surprised if it is still here in twelve months. This has nothing to do with the quality of the magazine which is relatively good - it's the difficult and uncertain world of publishing on the Net which is to blame.
Rod MacDonald
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