BCS has been expanding our social media presence into additional social media platforms. Here’s an updated list of where to find BCS on various social media:

BCS on Mastodon:

https://mastodon.social/@bcsmagazine/

BCS on Tumblr:

https://beneath-ceaseless-skies.tumblr.com

BCS on Instagram:

https://instagram.com/bcsmagazine/

BCS on Facebook:

https://facebook.com/_Beneath-Ceaseless-Skies_-Online-Magazine-110083031133/

We will stay on Twitter, https://twitter.com/BCSmagazine, so long as it’s functioning, but readers, writers, supporters, and fans who’re more active on these other platforms, follow us out there.

Beneath Ceaseless Skies hereby recuses the magazine from further nominations or finalist appearances for the Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine.

It has been a wonderful honor for BCS to have been a finalist for Best Semiprozine ten times. We are deeply touched by the respect and appreciation voters showed in nominating us or voting for us. During those years, BCS‘s readership doubled, our submissions expanded, our stories received greater acclaim, and our subscriber and supporter base grew enough to fund increases in our word-count limit for submissions, our author pay rate, and the honorarium we pay our First Readers.

There are many other indie zines, run by dedicated staff and publishing great and important stories, whose work in our opinion deserves a Best Semiprozine finalist and the boost in reach and support it can provide. We want to see them get it.

(BCS has not exceeded the eligibility requirements for Best Semiprozine about revenue. This recusal does not mean our financial situation is any less precarious than it’s always been! We still need the support of our donors and ebook subscribers to fund the magazine and our patrons on the BCS Patreon to fund the author pay rate increase and the honoraria for our First Readers. If you’re already supporting us, THANK YOU. If you’re not and would like to, please consider donating, subscribing, or becoming a Patron.)

Please still consider BCS stories for Hugo nomination when you find them worthy. It’s a great honor for authors and a magazine to have stories voted finalist for the Hugo or any award. Here’s our list of award-eligible BCS stories from 2022 and their award category (Short Story, Novelette, Novella).

(If you still want to nominate part of BCS for a Hugo, Scott (me) is eligible for Best Editor Short Form. In 2022 he was six votes short of making the final ballot. But there are many great editors of pro zines or anthologies who deserve your consideration in that category first.)

For other worthy indie zines to consider for Best Semiprozine, the 2022 Hugo longlist included Mermaids Monthly, Khōréō, Fireside, Diabolical Plots, The Deadlands, GigaNotoSaurus–all unique, important, and worthy.

For BCS readers, authors, submittors, and fans who’re on the social network Mastodon.

You can view our page/profile here: https://mastodon.social/@bcsmagazine

And if you’re on Mastodon too, our handle there is: @bcsmagazine@mastodon.social

Please feel free to post the Mastodon handles of other readers, writers, F/SF zines, and fans, here or on Mastodon. We’re interested in finding our people there.

BCS reported our circulation statistics for 2021 to Locus magazine, for their annual February issue that lists such data for magazines in F/SF short fiction. We will also post them here.

In 2021, BCS published 26 issues, containing 54 pieces of original fiction (33 stories, 19 novelettes, and 2 novellas) and 22 audio podcast episodes (17 originals and 5 episodes of our archive podcast The BCS Audio Vault).

The BCS website averaged 70,000 unique visitors per month, up 5% from 2020 but down 10% from 2019-2018. New podcast episodes averaged 9,000 downloads per episode, down 25% from 12,000 in 2020-2017. Submissions volume remained 20-50% above pre-pandemic levels.

Accolades included a ninth Hugo Award finalist for Best Semiprozine, an eleventh World Fantasy Award finalist, a second Ignyte Award finalist for Best Podcast, and “The Mermaid Astronaut” by Yoon Ha Lee voted a Hugo Award finalist for Best Short Story.

Fiction singled out included “The Captain and the Quartermaster” by C.L. Clark, “When Your Being Here is Gentler Than Your Absence Hard” by Filip Hajdar Drnovšek Zorko, “A Stranger Goes Ashore” by Adam R. Shannon, “A Flower Cannot Love the Hand” by Aimee Ogden, and “In Case You’re the One to Devour a Star” by Tamara Jerée, as well as pieces by K.J. Parker, Marie Brennan, Richard Parks, Cat Rambo, and Carrie Vaughn.

Funding remained a challenge. Supporters of the BCS Patreon enabled the magazine to maintain its 2019 increase in fiction pay rate, to 8c/wd, and to increase the honorarium paid to the magazine’s First Readers.

Our circulation increased since 2020 but remains down since the years before the pandemic, and submissions volume remains up since the start of the pandemic. Thank you to our readers and fans and supporters and subscribers, and we look forward to 2022!

Starting with BCS #328 later this month, BCS will switch from online and ebook publication to all-print publication.

With the growing population of the short fiction readership that’s embracing the cost, convenience, and accessibility of print magazines, this change in format will place our authors’ great secondary-world fantasy stories in the hands of more readers worldwide than our website, podcast, and international ebook distribution are able to reach.

Each new issue of BCS will be available in print copy at your local newsstand, indie bookstore, and big-box chain bookstore. The BCS website will be taken down and replaced with a convenient web portal for ordering print copies of every back issue, from BCS #325 through BCS #1, delivered conveniently to your door in just 4-6 weeks.

Acquiring print publication rights to all 700+ stories previously published in BCS and forthcoming, which were contracted for electronic publication only, will require additional funding. Our Kickstarter to support paying our authors a pro rate for these print rights launches this afternoon. We have a stretch goal of providing BCS Audio Fiction Podcast episodes on cassette tapes, mailed conveniently to your door. Please consider supporting us! Thank you.

BCS reported our circulation statistics for 2020 to Locus magazine, for their annual February issue that lists such data for magazines in F/SF short fiction. We will also post them here.

In 2020, BCS produced 26 issues, containing 60 pieces of original fiction (41 stories, 17 novelettes, and 2 novellas), with 20 of those also as audio podcast episodes.

The BCS website averaged averaged 64,000 unique visitors per month, down 15% from 76,000 in 2019/2018. New podcast episodes averaged 14,000 downloads per episode, up 15% from 12,000 in 2019/2018/2017. Submissions increased 50% in March and remained 20-50% higher through the end of the year.

Highlights of 2020 included a fifth biannual science-fantasy theme month, in February; the 300th issue, in March; and a twelfth anniversary double-issue. Accolades included an eighth Hugo finalist for Best Semiprozine and “Do Not Look Back, My Lion” by Alix E. Harrow a Hugo finalist for Best Short Story.

Fiction singled out included “The Mermaid Astronaut” by Yoon Ha Lee, “Clever Jack, Heavy with Stories” by R.K. Duncan, “The Garden Where No One Ever Goes” by PH Lee, and “Girls with Needles and Frost” by Jenny Rae Rappaport, as well as pieces by C.C. Finlay, R.B. Lemberg, Andrew Dykstal, Aimee Ogden, Maurice Broaddus, Merrie Haskell, Prashanth Srivatsa, Lavie Tidhar, and K.J. Parker.

Funding remained a challenge. Supporters of the BCS Patreon enabled the magazine to maintain its 2019 increase in fiction pay rate, to 8c/wd, but a campaign to fund paying the magazine’s staff was canceled out of concern for the economic impact of the pandemic.

Overall, a down year for BCS, potentially related to pandemic effects. Thank you to our readers and fans, and we look forward to 2021.

WE DID IT! Or more accurately, YOU ALL did it.

The BCS Patreon yesterday reached our main goal of $700. This will enable us to pay the new higher SFWA-qualifying pay rate for stories, 8c/wd, when it starts on Sept. 1.

Thank you all so much!!! We literally could not have done it without all of you, who donated or commented or spread the word on social media. We are grateful for your support.

This doesn’t mean our fundraising campaign is finished. We still need the BCS Patreon to stay above $700 each month going forward, so we can keep paying the new rate. We’re also working on additional goals for the future, which would need reader support. So please continue to spread word of the BCS Patreon to any fantasy or short fiction readers you think might be interested in supporting us.

Thank you all!!! We look forward to paying writers more and continuing to have their story sales to BCS qualify them to join SFWA if they choose. We could not be doing that without your support.

The BCS Patreon reached its first goal! Our monthly total in pledges from our supporters on Patreon passed $350 per month. That allows us to raise our pay rate for short fiction to 7 cents/word, which will happen on June 7.

BCS is on Patreon as part of our campaign to increase revenues so we can pay authors the higher pay rate of 8 cents/word. The Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) raised their qualifying “pro” pay rate for short stories by 33% effective Sept. 1, to 8c/word. All writers deserve this higher pay, but we need a 33% increase in support from our readers and donors in order to pay it.

We’ve taken steps to help readers and donors support BCS to this main goal, including changing the price on BCS ebook subscriptions, new tiers of recognition for donors, and the BCS Patreon.

We are delighted that we’re more than halfway to our goal! Thank you so much to all who have donated, bought or renewed a BCS ebook subscription, or supported us on Patreon.

If you would like to help get BCS the rest of the way to paying our authors this higher pay rate, please consider supporting us on the BCS Patreon or making a recurring donation via Paypal. Our parent company, Firkin Press, is a 501(c)3 non-profit approved by the IRS, so your donations through Patreon or Paypal are tax deductible.

$3 Monthly

$5 Monthly

$10 Monthly

Thank you!

Since our launch in 2008, BCS has always paid our authors the pay rate that Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) sets as their qualifying “pro” pay rate for short fiction (currently 6 cents/word).

We believe that all writers deserve a professional rate for their work. We publish many new and emerging writers, and we are proud that their stories sold to BCS enable them to join SFWA.

SFWA’s pro pay rate for short stories is increasing by 33% this September, to 8 cents/word. All writers deserve this higher pay, but our budget can’t absorb a 33% increase.

We don’t want to cut the number of stories we publish by 33% (4 per month down to 3) or lower the word length (15,000-word limit on submissions down to 10,000 words). So we need a 33% increase in support from our readers and donors by Sept. 1 in order to pay this new higher pro pay rate.

To reach that goal of paying the new SFWA rate, we’re making some changes, including new ways you can support BCS and help us pay authors this new higher pro rate:

1. BCS is now on Patreon. Patreon.com is a simple way for you to support BCS and many other magazines, writers, and creators. The BCS Patreon has pledge tiers from $2 to $25 per month. Our parent company, Firkin Press, is a 501(c)3 non-profit approved by the IRS, so your donations through Patreon are tax deductible.

(Update: we’re already 30% of the way to our goal on Patreon! Thank you! When we reach 50% we will raise our pay rate to 7c/word. You can help us the rest of the way.)

2. New donation tiers through Paypal, including for recurring donations. We’ve always offered donation by Paypal, with tiers of recognition for our donors (become a Knight of BCS!). Some of our Paypal donors have been donating monthly for seven and eight years (we love you!).

One-time donations are great, but recurring subscription-style donations are better for us because they let us budget on that steady small stream of revenue rather than waiting for occasional larger ones. Our parent company is a 501(c)3 non-profit, so your donations through Paypal are tax deductible.

$3 Monthly

$5 Monthly

$10 Monthly

3. Raising the price on BCS ebook subscriptions. The BCS Ebook Subscription, through our exclusive partner Weightless Books, will be going up on June 1 to $19.99 per year, for 26 issues/55 stories. That’s still only 37 cents per story, far lower than most magazines, and you can get issues delivered directly to your reader device.

4. Raising the price on BCS ebook single issues. We’ve always sold our single issues for the lowest price that Kindle Store allows, but on June 1 we will be raising that to $1.49; $2.99 for double issues. Our single-issue ebook sales don’t bring in much revenue, but in order to pay this new higher SFWA rate, we need every bit of help.

We are excited about these new ways readers and donors can support BCS and help us pay authors this new higher pro rate, and at the success these new ways have shown so far.

We hope this explanation of our situation will spark discussion in the F/SF short fiction field: that free fiction is not actually free if writers get the pro pay they deserve, and that the financial viability of indie magazines and of writers receiving pro pay depends on the combined efforts of magazines and the readership. We can’t do it without your help, but we will offer as many ways for you to help us as we can, and with your help we will reach the goal that we believe is best for us and our authors and the field.

Thank you!!

Scott H. Andrews

Editor-in-Chief, Publisher