If I Had $100,000
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| Title: | If I Had $100,000 |
| Creator: | Louis Kuslan |
| Date(s): | Aug 1938 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | Science Fiction |
| Topic: | Science fiction prozines |
| External Links: | Hosted online Imagination! #11 pg 7 |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
If I Had $100,000 was a 1938 essay by science fiction fan Louis Kuslan. It outlined a number of complains that fans had with the prozines of the time, which they felt were embracing hack work by authors and artists alike. Editor Raymond A. Palmer had only taken on Amazing Stories within the same year, but fannish discontent with the magazine under his editorship would continue to grow.
The essay was printed with the simplified spelling called Ackermanese that was embraced by Morojo, the typist for Imagination!.
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Many times I have wonderd what I should do if I had such a fortune & the liberty to spend it any way I saw fit. After much profound cogitation & mental calisthenics I have decided to publish & edit a science fiction magazine which would be for real fans only & not the general public.After securing the printing establishment necessary I should have to get a name, not just any name but one which is science fictional. Several have occurd to me; it would be a battle before one was finally selected. Herewith are presented some I have thot of: Science Fiction Tales, or Scientific Fiction, or even Science Wonder, which is a perfectly good name & I wonder what made Gernsback give it up.
For the artwork I shall have contracted for several of the best artists. Paul would certainly be the first chosen, & Wesso, & Dold, all of whom are topnotchers. No restrictions on the artists, they can do what they please as long as it is good. They can even use green & pink if the combination turns out well. ([Ed.:] Green & brown is a gtd combo! Adv. --Morojo)
I should certainly use large size. The paper must be good quality, the printing fairly dark--almost like that which Wonder employed back in '35. Instead of being bound like the present day magazines, or by Life Savers or gum, as sugjested by Tucker several yrs ago, some new process would be sought which would keep the covers on & the contents in their proper places.
The no. of pgs whould in all probability be about 128, large size. Only the best storys would be accepted, contrary to the policy of one prominent sf magazine. The writers would be paid at least 3c a word, rate which would certainly stimulate those plebians who produce for pay & not for art. Certainly these hackys can do better. This is evidenced by some the work they turn out, which happens to be good. Even Schachner slips up some times & turns out something good. If they are spurd on I am certain the old time quality of their storys will be once more apparent. But if in spite of all this only a few good storys come in I should publish them ofcourse & then reprint some the old classics; not Wellstorys nor Verne, for we have had plenty of them, but some by [Garrett P. Serviss], Smith, [Harl Vincent]...
A science dept must be included. This would have an editorial on current science, much like the editorials in old Amazing, & a Q&A section, each conducted by a recognized scientific authority.
Ofcourse I can't leave the reader's dept out. I shouldnt make it so small as it is in current periodicals but increase its size to twice what it usually is. Any & every letter sent in by fans would be publisht, even if I & the magazine were hit by 2 ton brickbats. The suggestions would be followd to the best my ability & inter-reader correspondence encouraged.
There would be no advertising even tho they say magazines can't live thus. Quis scit? (Esperanto for which: Kiu scias?)
All this is ofcourse completely hypothetical but just let me get hold of $100,000 & you'll see how quickly it all will come true...!
Responses
Kuslan has some good ideas in his article, though I'm afraid the dream of paying s-f writers a word vanished with the halcyon days of 1928, when [William] Clayton, for example, did pay that fairly often, and never went below 2¢."Jack Coburn" (pseudonym for an unknown pro author): Letter printed in Imagination! #12, pg. 17. Sept. 1938.
I don't like Kuslan's magazine, and I wouldn't be any more happier about buying it than I would the present-day messes. Maybe he just didn't go into detail enough. His format is pretty good, but after all stories are a little important, and just tripling the rates won’t...be enough. What kind of stories would he print? 'There's the rub'.Jack Chapman Miske: Letter printed in Imagination! #12, pg. 18. Sept. 1938.
To answer Sir Chappy's query, the type of stories I would print are not uncommon. In fact, Fantasy, the new British sf mag, is composed of entirely ideal stories, at least to my way of thinking. Read it and see.Louis Kuslan: Letter printed in Imagination! #13, pg. 12. Oct. 1938.