The Future Fire does excellent work and has done for a decade. In genre short fiction that’s very nearly a geological age and a success that deserves to be heralded. Djibril al-Ayad, Valeria Vitale and the rest of the staff have turned it into one of the most interesting, vibrant genre fiction outlets on the planet.
Now, to celebrate their tenth anniversary, they’re looking to crowdfund an anthology. The campaign is running through IndieGoGo right now and here’s Djibril’s description from the site:
The Future Fire, a magazine of social-political speculative fiction, has been publishing feminist SF, queer SF, eco-SF, postcolonial SF, cyberpunk and horror since 2005. To celebrate our tenth birthday this year, we plan to publish an anthology containing a mixture of reprints, enhanced stories, and new material, including sequels and other spin-offs, new artwork and satirical or speculative pseudo-fiction. The anthology will be edited by Djibril al-Ayad (editor-in-chief of TFF magazine since 2005 and owner of Futurefire.net Publishing), Cécile Matthey (in-house illustrator at TFF magazine since 2006, and assistant editor since 2014), and Valeria Vitale (copyeditor and assistant editor of TFF magazine since 2012).
We are raising money via pre-orders on this fundraiser to pay authors and artists for the use of their work; any further income made from sales will be paid as royalties or pushed back into the magazine to pay more authors in the future. If we reach the initial goal of $2,000, we will be able to pay an average of $50 per story, and a fair amount for microfiction and art, with the rest going on IGG fees and honoring rewards for backers. Any further funds we receive above this will go into increasing the fees further, or raising the pay rate for authors and artists of TFF magazine or one of our other publications. The TFF press budget, which is funded by the editor-in-chief, will also be used to contribute to these costs.
Stretch goals:
- $3000: Increased pay rate for Fae Visions of the Mediterranean horror anthology, to approx €30 (in Euro) per story, artwork or poem (150% of current rate).
- $4000: Increase pay rate for TFFX anthology to an average of $75 per story (150% of current rate).
- $5000: Increase pay rate for TFF magazine to $30/story for the next 12 months (150% of current rate).
- $6000: Increase pay rate for TFF magazine to $0.01/word (average of $50 a story) for the next 12 months.
- $10,000: Semi-pro pay rate for TFF magazine, i.e. $0.03/word (average of $150 a story) for the next 12 months.
- $16,000: Pro pay rate for TFF magazine! $0.06/word (average of $300 a story) for the next 12 months.
There’s no goal more laudable or vital than ensuring artists of all kinds are paid for their work. TFF has done amazing work for a huge amount of time and I’m delighted to see them not only mark that work and time but mark it in a way that will ensure they can do even better in the future. The campaign is running until the end of the month, can be found here and includes some great rewards. Personally, I’m going for this:
$20 USD
5 e-book bundle Change Perk
Great value! Get TFFX and our other anthologies (Outlaw Bodies, We See a Different Frontier, Accessing the Future, and Fae Visions of the Mediterranean) as DRM-free e-books, in your choice of Epub or Mobi.
So go, take a look and if you can, pledge. You’ll be helping celebrate a remarkable achievement by a remarkable team of people. Even better, you’ll be investing in their future and that of every writer who they buy from.