Science Fiction Age, which I edited for its entire eight-year run from 1992 to 2000, won Nebula Awards for two of my writers, earned me four Hugo Award nominations, and taught me what I’ve come to refer to as Edelman’s Second Rule of Publishing.
Science Fiction Age was the first magazine published by Sovereign Media, the company that later also launched Realms of Fantasy and Sci-Fi Entertainment. Carl Gnam and Mark Hintz, the geniuses behind Sovereign, orchestrated a direct marketing campaign so successful that we had 25,000 subscribers before the first issue was even published.
The magazine’s first bimonthly issue was dated November 1992, but was launched at MagiCon, the 50th World Science Fiction Convention, over Labor Day of that year. Between that issue and the last, dated May 2000, I had the privilege of publishing short fiction by some of my favorite writers—including SF icons such as Jack Williamson, Robert Silverberg, and Damon Knight—and seeing Martha Soukup and Mary Turzillo win Nebula Awards for their stories.
Oh—and Edelman’s Second Rule of Publishing, which I mentioned above? It’s to make sure you retain the rights to your magazine. At the time it was phased out, Science Fiction Age was still profitable, only not profitable enough for Sovereign. If I’d held the rights to the title, I might have considered continuing with it on my own. (Even though that would have broken Edelman’s First Rule of Publishing, which is “Use somebody else’s money.”)
Who knows? Maybe in some alternate universe, it’s being published still.