Welcome
back...”It’s been twenty-five years since I last penned this type of editorial. Twenty-five
years since those of you who are old enough to remember opened the pages of a fresh issue
of FEAR magazine. There have been many attempts in relaunchi during the intervening
years - including two well received
‘sampler’ issues two years ago which are still available free of charge from our website. But,
apart from those all other attempts at a relauch were doomed to fail due largely to a lack of
finance and distribution.
“What’s changed? Well, we can now take advantage of the latest online technology and
social media to distribute the magazine worldwide across the large digital platforms - including the Apple app store and GooglePlay. Though we have foresaken the Letters’ Page,
you can contact us and contribute to the magazine via our Facebook page and Twitter feed.
And, our new technology plaforms mean that, in the coming months, we will be able to
experiment with video streaming and even our own Youtube channel.
But, let’s for now concentrate on the present and what you’ll find in this relaunch issue. We
are launching at an austipicous time, when the fantasy and horror genres are again on the
rise, largely made possible by the advent of those onine technologies and the ebook publishing potential they afford. Amazon’s Kindle and Createspace projects, in particular, have
enabled those with the talent determination to get their works published electronically or
as hard copies, selling them through a wide variety of outlets.
That’s not to say that there is not a lot fo dross on those electronic bookshelves and the
weeding out of the detrius from the worthwhile is one of the fuctions of the newly
revamped FEAR. We aim to highlight the best and warn against the rest and to that end,
this month, we are highlighting some rising talents - such as Barbie Wilde - from independent publishers and asking those who have influence in the literary markets - such as agent
John Jarrold and editor Dean M Drinkel - how to navigate the paths to publication.
We are also excited about the future. Looking forward we have a ‘Winter Ghosts’ issue
featuring the likes of Peter James and Ramsey Campell, and ventures into the field of high
fantasy with Stan Nicholls - who has also allowed us to reprint an interview with the late
and much lamented David Gemmell - and Stella Gemmell.
We hope that you will enjoy the journey. And we hope you will get involved.
Regards,
John Gilbert
Managing Editor
Fantasycon, Nottingham
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