Just a little adjustment

[mrissa]

 

I haven't seen the copies of my new story in Analog (Nov/Dec 2025), but apparently other people have, so: "And Every Galatea Shaped Anew" is out in the world, ready to read if you can find it. It's the story of a technological boost--or is it a detriment?--to our most personal relationships....

Analog has been purchased by Must Read Magazines, and while some of us are managing to wrestle their contracts into shapes we're willing to sign, it's a new fight every time. I have another story with an acceptance letter from them, but at the moment I'm not submitting more. That makes me sad; I have liked working with Trevor Quachri since he became editor, and I liked working with Stan Schmidt before him. Analog was one of my BIG SHINY CAREER MILESTONES: that I could sell to one of the big print mags! And then that I could do it AGAIN! It's been literally over 20 years of working together, and now this. Trevor was not in charge of contracts at Dell Magazines, and he's not in charge of contracts at MRM. This is not his fault. I would like to keep being able to work with him and with Analog. (And with Sheila at Asimov's, and with Sheree at F&SF! Not their fault either! These are all editors I like and value, and one of the things that upsets me here is that they're in the middle of all this.) But the more MRM gets author feedback about best practices and refuses to take it on board, the less I feel like it's a good idea for me as an established writer to give the new writers the idea that this is an acceptable state of things.

So yeah, having this story come out is bittersweet, and I'm having a hard time enthusing about it the way I did about my previous publications in Analog--or my other previous publication this week. Maybe go read that, I'm really proud of it--and I feel good about the idea that newer writers will see my name in BCS and think it's a good place for authors to be, too. There are lots of magazines in this field that treat their authors with basic professional decency as a default, not as something you have to fight them for. I have kept hoping that MRM will rejoin them. There's still time.

Comments

[asakiyume]

Weirdly, I've been hearing about this contract situation not from other SFF writers but from my husband--because he's online reading Bluesky much more than I am. I had been wondering about the editors; yeah, that's terrible for them -_-

But also: more terrible for the writers. Ugh.

[swan_tower]

I have a poem that was accepted over two years ago (the second one I sold, actually) for which I still haven't been sent a contract. At this point, the only question for me is whether I withdraw it now, or wait until I get sent their bad contract and tell the new owner to his face that it's unacceptable for him to be making every single author argue ab initio for basic, industry-standard terms. I don't see a scenario in which I actually want to follow through on this deal, not under the current management.

[mrissa]

I just wrote to Trevor withdrawing a story that he'd accepted in September but not sent me contracts for.

In tears. But I just can't.

[swan_tower]

I am so sorry, for you and everyone else (Trevor included) who is being put into this untenable position by an asshole with money and no sense.