Have Fan Magazines A Use?
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| Title: | Have Fan Magazines A Use? |
| Creator: | Harry Warner, Jr. |
| Date(s): | July 1939 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | Science Fiction |
| Topic: | Fanzines in SF fandom |
| External Links: | Archived on Fanac.org |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Have Fan Magazines A Use? was an essay published in the July 1939 issue of science fiction zine Ad Astra.
Excerpt
...It's not a question of which came first --- the fans or the authors. The fans were always there, I suppose, but they weren’t fans until there were authors to make them fans. Thus, science fiction existed in magazine form for a number of years before a fan magazine was begun. It got along very well during that length of time, and if all fan mags would suddenly fold up, I don't think that you would find the pro magazines gasping for breath.But that’s not the point. Granted that fan magazines aren't essential; nevertheless, they do have a function, and a very vital one at that. There can be no stronger link in fantasy than that between author-editor-reader, as John W. Campbell Jr. has said to me. And I believe that over a period of time, an author can find the best reaction to his work in fan magazines. Better than what the editor can tell him, surely -- the editor's job is to make money, and can only pick out the stories that will make his magazine sell. Ofentimes, these are not the best...
...By reading the fan magazines diligently, any author can discover just why fans do or don’t like his work as a whole; and also what they think science fiction stories should be. Perhaps these are only opinions of a few inner-circle fans, but as a unit, they are a pretty good composite picture of the average science fiction fan. Therefore, I appeal to every professional author who reads this article -- read and support the fan magazines. It will pay you in the long run.