Uncanny Magazine is Kickstarting another year of fabulous, innovative, and passionate SFF fiction, nonfiction & poetry! This magazine has been an immensely important part of my life for the last five years, and I hope to see it continue for many years to come. The November/December 2019 issue, which begins Uncanny Year 6, will be my last issue as part of the editorial staff, and while I’m sad to know my time’s almost up, I’m incredibly thrilled and excited for what Year 6 has in store. I’m also excited that the goal of this year’s Kickstarter includes raising pay rates: for original short fiction, reprint short fiction, essays, poetry, and for Uncanny‘s editorial staff! So I hope you’ll join me in supporting another year of Uncanny as part of the Space Unicorn Ranger Corps, which promises to be filled with more amazing works of SFF by creators from all walks of life!
And now THE KICKSTARTER for UNCANNY YEAR 6: RAISE THE ROOF, RAISE THE RATES!
Over the last few years, Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas ran Kickstarters for the three-time Hugo Award-winning Uncanny Magazine Years One, Two, Three, Four, and Five. We promised to bring you stunning cover art, passionate science fiction and fantasy fiction and poetry, gorgeous prose, and provocative nonfiction by writers from every conceivable background. Not to mention a fantastic award-winning podcast featuring exclusive content.
Through the hard work of our exceptional staff and contributors, Uncanny Magazine delivered on that promise every single year. Stories from Uncanny Magazine have been finalists or winners of Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and World Fantasy Awards!
The Space Unicorn Ranger Corps, our name for the Uncanny Magazine community, made it possible for our remarkable staff and contributors to create this wonderful art for all of our readers via the web or as eBooks. THANK YOU, SPACE UNICORNS, FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
If you’ve been looking for an opportunity to join or re-up with the Space Unicorn Ranger Corps, now’s your chance! We need your help to continue this mission for another year. This is your magazine, Space Unicorns! Let’s make Year Six happen!
This year, we’re also back with a new mission for the ranger corps: RAISING OUR PAY RATES! We’ve been running Uncanny Magazine for five years with basically the exact same pay rates for all of our creators and staff. We think it’s time to pay all of these fabulous people a little bit more for their amazing creations.
Though Uncanny continues to have multiple ways to support us, we still need the help of the Space Unicorn Kickstarter community to keep bringing you this amazing content.
YOUR support specifically makes it possible for us to make our fiction freely available on our website.
We have put together a fabulous lineup of solicited contributors for Year Six!
ORIGINAL SHORT FICTION
- Elizabeth Bear
- Aliette de Bodard
- Jennifer Marie Brissett
- Tina Connolly
- Paul Cornell
- A. T. Greenblatt
- Cassandra Khaw
- Ken Liu
- Vina Jie-Min Prasad
- Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam
- Ursula Vernon
POETRY CONTRIBUTORS
- Betsy Aoki
- Leah Bobet
- Beth Cato
- Ada Hoffmann
- Annie Neugebauer
- D.A. Xiaolin Spires
- Hal Y. Zhang
ESSAYS
- Meg Elison
- Hillary Monahan
- Brandon O’Brien
- Malka Older
- Ada Palmer
- Ebony Elizabeth Thomas
- Fran Wilde
There will also be slots for unsolicited submissions (we reopen soon after we reach our first funding milestone). We remain deeply committed to finding and showcasing new voices in our genre from around the world. We at Uncanny think we’re doing important work, and we’d like to continue. Please consider supporting Uncanny Magazine Year Six!
How We’ll Use the Funding:
Our funding goal ($18,700) is for the current version of Uncanny.This goal pays for the six issues of Uncanny Year Six, including (at minimum) per issue:
- 25,000 words of new fiction (5-6 stories, depending on length)
- A reprint story
- Reprint cover art
- 4 new poems
- 4 new nonfiction essays
- 2 new interviews
This is the size the magazine has grown to thanks to ongoing community support. Our Year Six budget for this Kickstarter reflects our current content levels. We currently pay our writers $.08 per word for original fiction, our poets $30 per poem, our essayists $60 per essay, and our artists $100 per reprinted artwork. In addition to paying our content contributors (upon acceptance!), our initial Year Six budget includes:
- Paying our staff (Editors-in Chief, Managing Editor, Nonfiction Editor, Podcast Producers and Readers, Interviewer, and our Assistant Editor)
- Podcast production and hosting costs
- Office costs (accounting & layout software, hardware, promotion, etc.)
- Website hosting and maintenance costs
- Backer rewards production & mailing
- Kickstarter fees and taxes
Our Year One, Two, Three, Four, and Five backers were so generous we reached all our stretch goals! Our awesome backers also sponsored several pieces of original cover art last year.
Year Six Stretch Goals:
- $19,700- Original cover art from Galen Dara
- $22,000- Original cover art from Nilah Magruder
- $25,000- Original cover art from Kirbi Fagan
- $26,000- Increase Essay Pay Rate to $75 per essay
- $27,000- Increase Poetry Pay Rate to $40 per poem
- $30,000- Increase Original Short Story Pay Rate to $.09 per word
- $31,000- Increase Reprint Short Story Pay Rate to $.02 per word
- $34,000- Increase Staff Payments
Uncanny Magazine Year 6 Staff:
- Publishers & Editors-in-Chief Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas
- Managing Editor Chimedum “Chimie” Ohaegbu
- Nonfiction Editor Michi Trota
- Nonfiction Editor Elsa Sjunneson-Henry
- Podcast Producers Steven Schapansky & Erika Ensign
- Podcast Reader Joy Piedmont
- Interviewer Caroline M. Yoachim
- Assistant Editor Angel Cruz
We have many fabulous Rewards available! Please check them out!
We hope you’ll rejoin the Space Unicorn Ranger Corps. Let’s spread more art and kindness throughout the galaxy!