I am thinking about subscribing to Dragon Magazine, but I have not really seen any issues, so I am wondering if it would be worth it for me. I have been reading Forgotten realms fiction since 1990, and play video games. I have not actually played D&D for a number of years, and don't think I will be playing again anytime soon.
I am mostly interested in the short stories that are included in the magazine. Are there short stories in every issue?
I also like information on races/classes/monsters and that stuff, but will I get my money's worth if I am not planning on playing?
Is there any other way to get these short stories besides the magazine?
Contributor
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I am thinking about subscribing to Dragon Magazine, but I have not really seen any issues, so I am wondering if it would be worth it for me. I have been reading Forgotten realms fiction since 1990, and play video games. I have not actually played D&D for a number of years, and don't think I will be playing again anytime soon.
I am mostly interested in the short stories that are included in the magazine. Are there short stories in every issue?
I also like information on races/classes/monsters and that stuff, but will I get my money's worth if I am not planning on playing?
Is there any other way to get these short stories besides the magazine?
We run, on average, three or four short stories a year (yes, everyone, even after the redesign). ;)
Every issue of the magazine will have something in it, whether fiction or some other piece, that a non-gaming reader can appreciate without the slightest knowledge of D&D (and if you know a bit of D&D, you'll appreciate it even more). As you said, there is also at least one monster (in Ecologies), one race (in Winning Races), and one class (in Gaining Prestige) each month. Finally, we're going for a nice balance in the Class Acts section between new game rules, background help, and miscellaneous real-world information pertaining to the class.
There is no current plan to make the short stories available outside of the magazine.
If you're really interested in great short stories (and other geeky type things), check out Amazing Stories.
I would like to quibble with the reasoning behind keeping fiction to only "established" writers. One of the things that was great about the fiction back in the day (first issue bought: #61) was its raw, new quality. It was also a good place for a new writer to get his feet wet in the business. While I do understand that Dragon is not a fiction magazine, I think for that very reason that the fiction that is included should be open to new, untested writers who write interesting stories.
The fiction that has been in the magazine recently has not been all that great, IMO. The story set in the Holy Land, though a fine story in and of itself, just didn't resonate with me as a gamer at all. If you're going to put a short-story in a magazine about Dungeons and Dragons, shouldn't there be some overt elements of Dungeons and Dragons included?
I would say that I could do better, and maybe I could/maybe I couldn't, but I'll never know, because you won't even accept my submissions. I think you're missing out on discovering the next Hickman/Weis/Salvatore by not taking unsolicited material.
I hope that I don't come across as angry, because I'm not. It is your magazine and you'll do things the way you want. I respect that. It's just, as they say, my two cents.
I am glad to hear that there will continue to be new fiction in Dragon. To date, I have read every piece of fiction ever printed in Dragon magazine. I would like to echo the opinion that the occasional unknown should be included, if the work is up to grade, then it should not matter who wrote it.
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Contributor
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I would like to quibble with the reasoning behind keeping fiction to only "established" writers. One of the things that was great about the fiction back in the day (first issue bought: #61) was its raw, new quality. It was also a good place for a new writer to get his feet wet in the business. While I do understand that Dragon is not a fiction magazine, I think for that very reason that the fiction that is included should be open to new, untested writers who write interesting stories.
The fiction that has been in the magazine recently has not been all that great, IMO. The story set in the Holy Land, though a fine story in and of itself, just didn't resonate with me as a gamer at all. If you're going to put a short-story in a magazine about Dungeons and Dragons, shouldn't there be some overt elements of Dungeons and Dragons included?
I would say that I could do better, and maybe I could/maybe I couldn't, but I'll never know, because you won't even accept my submissions. I think you're missing out on discovering the next Hickman/Weis/Salvatore by not taking unsolicited material.
I can't speak to the long-term, but the next few stories we intend to print all have their basis in D&D.
If you're interested in writing fantasy fiction and would like to try your hand with a Paizo magazine, Amazing Stories is always looking for such fare. /plug ;)
While I can understand the frustration of some of our readers due to our fiction policy, it comes down, as always, to time and priorities. Would you rather have me (one-third of Dragon's editorial staff) spend my time reading fiction submissions (with the industry standard 95+% rejection rate), or would you rather I spend my time helping to bring you the best in D&D content (with the magazine standard 99+% excellence rate)? :) For me, I'll leave the time-consuming fiction-sifting to my office-mates across the hall at Amazing Stories and stick with the easy numbers. ;)
Before I worked on Dragon, I submitted a few short stories to the magazine. To my mind, because Dragon wasn’t mainly a fiction magazine, it wouldn’t be as hard to get a story accepted. Also, I liked writing genre fiction like I read in the TSR novels, and it seemed to me that I’d have a better chance with Dragon than anywhere else.
Boy was I wrong.
Mike's 95% rejection rate is a little generous for Dragon. I worked on Dragon for three years while it was reviewing fiction submissions. We usually got at least three submissions each day and often received as much as ten. Of those 5,000 or so submissions that went through the review process during those three years, Dragon accepted none.
What it boiled down to was that Dragon has, at most, twelve chances to publish a short story each year. Established authors increase the sales of an issue because some consumers recognize their names and purchase the magazine based on that recognition. So accepting unsolicited fiction submissions meant that submitters faced the nigh impossible task of beating out thousands of other submissions, the skills of established authors, the name cache of established authors, and the value to our readers of putting in a D&D article in the short story's place.
I made the decision to stop accepting unsolicited fiction not just to save the staff a couple hours of work each day but also to save thousands of hopeful writers from wasting their energy on Dragon. If you’re one of those hopeful writers, I know it seems a door has been closed. I’m sorry for that, but I couldn’t in good conscience continue Dragon’s daily crushing of such author’s hopes and dreams, or expend our small staff’s energy in doing so—especially not when Dragon needs good authors to write articles, and the acceptance rate on articles is so much higher.
What it boiled down to was that Dragon has, at most, twelve chances to publish a short story each year. Established authors increase the sales of an issue because some consumers recognize their names and purchase the magazine based on that recognition. So accepting unsolicited fiction submissions meant that submitters faced...
Well, I understand your point. I just disagree with it. I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree. Thanks for taking the time to reply.
I've always hated the fiction section. If I want to read a story, I have subscriptions to FSF, Analog, Asimov's, Ellery Queen, and AHMM, not to mention a library of books (that I should really get around to reading). I buy Dragon for D&D/RPG material, not fiction.
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I 100%ly agree with "Alien Gunfighter": fiction always proved to be a great inspiration for my campaign, apart from the fact that reading a short story is way more "atmospheric" than reading a "dry" article on some D&D-topic.
In that regard I seem to be rather a fan of the old ecology section in Dragon: you can still add D&D rule stats in foot notes... maybe that could be a way to go for the fiction section?
I would like that approach much more than reading "a novel approach" or "silicon sorcery"...
Greetings from Germany,
Guenther
I have to agree with Alien Gunfighter as well. I read some, not very much, of the fiction in Dragon, and would much rather have more gaming content. It's especially frustrating when the fiction is the longest article in the magazine.
I don't mind a mix of fiction and gaming, though - setting the gaming elements inside a story, like the old Ecology articles, as mentioned by Guennarr.
But, as stand alone, well, I'd rather have other content on those pages.
I am with Alexandra, and AG.
I almost never read the fiction in Dragon, and I am usually annoyed when it appears in issues.
I have tried to read some of the fiction, but I usually find it uninteresting.
The only one I ever read all the way through was the one that was a tie in to the Bloody Eye novelette.
I do read FR, and Dragonlance Books, and I am looking forward to the Eberron books, but I am not interested in losing gaming content in Dragon to support established authors.
While I like the idea of getting a regular dose of fiction in Dragon (4-6/year works for me) I'm of mixed emotions on the established writer vs. newcomer debate. Ideally, I think it would be great if Dragon could be a place for aspiring fantasy writers to break into the market, but I can understand the strain of reading through piles of unsolicited manuscripts would put on the editorial staff.
On the other hand, considering Dragon's established-only policy and my total lack of interest in the fiction that's been published over the past year or so, I have to say I'd rather those pages simply be given over to more game-specific content. IMO, a better variation on the established-only policy would be to print excerpts from new WotC novels, most of which seem to be the equivalent of expanded fluff, written specifically to tie into the latest game supplements anyway. (ie: Lisa Smedman's VENOM'S TASTE, aka the novelization of the Psionics Handbook and Serpent Kingdoms.) At least that way, the fiction is integral to the overall gaming experience while providing a marquee name to slap on the cover for a boost in sales.
By the way, what issue of Dragon is "Venom's Taste" in? Thanks ahead of time.