Horror Aficionados discussion

I've been trying to find a very GOOD horror magazine lately that doesn't cost an arm and a leg to subscribe to. I would love if it covered everything horror: novels, movies, stage, whatever. Does anyone have any suggestions? Everything I find at Barnes and Noble is about $8 an issue because it is imported from the UK, and then to subscribe costs over $50. I am used to paying about $20 for a year subscription, and would like to pay around that for a horror magazine, maybe a little more if it is really worth it. Do you guys know of any, or have any subscriptions to any?

Oh, if they contained short horror stories, that would be awesome too. :-) Thanks for the help.

The top magazine has got to be Cemetery Dance. Then there is Dark Discoveries. Both are good

Magazine subscriptions are just way too expensive. I'd love to try Cemetary Dance but I'm not gonna pay that much especially when I just know I won't read that much short fiction. I'd just end up with a huge pile of magazines I haven't read to go with the huge pile of books.


For an "all round" horror mag Rue Morgue is considered one of the best, but I've never read an issue of that either.

Phil wrote: "Magazine subscriptions are just way too expensive. I'd love to try Cemetary Dance but I'm not gonna pay that much especially when I just know I won't read that much short fiction. I'd just end up w..."

I thought the sub packages were pretty good myself:

6 Issue: $27
12 Issue: $49
18 Issue: $75

Shaun wrote: "Phil wrote: "Magazine subscriptions are just way too expensive. I'd love to try Cemetary Dance but I'm not gonna pay that much especially when I just know I won't read that much short fiction. I'd ..."

Yeh but sadly for outside the US I can double those prices :(

I subscribed to Cemetery Dance for years and would read it cover to cover but somewhere along the line I ended up with more books and mags then I could keep up with and now have a huge stack of them. It was at that point that I unsubscribed. It's a great mag but they were never consistent with getting them out and their reviews were always a bit old by the time the mag did get out. I think what the horror world really needs is someone with a lot of time on their hands to create a blog that is updated daily with new releases, reviews, author interviews, etc. If I had the time and connections I'd do it myself. I spend too much here though so I know I'd never get it done. There are some amazing blogs for other genres but the horror world seems to be lacking. Or am I just out of the loop?

Phil wrote: "Yeh but sadly for outside the US I can double those prices :( "

True. I do subscribe to it though as I think it's worth it (and issue 64 is going to rock because I'm in it, oh, and some bloke called Bentley Little, whose special issue it is)

I keep meaning to subscrube to Cemetary Dance. I never do though...

I would like to subscribe to Cemetery Dance, but I don't want to pay $50 for a year. I might try the 6 months though. Either way, I plan on buying the new issue for you, Shaun, and Bentley Little's stories.

Rue Morgue looks great, but it's $75 for the year, which is way too much right now. Thanks for the name, though, because I've never heard of it. Same with Dark Discoveries: 4 issues for $25 is a bit much.

I guess horror magazines don't work like video game and sport magazines. I pay $15 a year for Game Informer magazine (my only subscription) and I get a 10% off discount card for Gamestop (a video game chain). That is WAY cheap compared to these horror magazines. I bet their good, but until I start getting a paycheck again, I will have to wait. Thanks for the options, though, guys. I appreciate it.

@BarkLessWagMore If you still have that stack of old Cemetery Dance magazines, and you ever want to rid yourself of them, I'd be interested! :-)

Hope you enjoy it if you read it. Not being a monthly magazine, you subscribe to CD by issues, not months, i.e. 6 issues, 12 issues etc (I sound like a seller for them. lol). I think the problem with horror magazine prices is that they don't have a high circulation like most mainstream magazines that you find in shops, so the cost of printing etc is more expensive (smaller print runs).

Yeah. I think it's those outrageous prices that keep magazines like CD going. If there were more subscribers, prices would probably go down. But fifty bucks for 12 issues is a little much for me, too. I might splurge, though.

You really think that's expensive? A lot of newsstand magazines here cost far more. For example, a 12 month sub to UK magazine Gorezone is £50, which would work out at $78.

I think $50 for 12 issues is great, but it's $95 for outside the US which is just too much for me.

There's a magaIne in the UK called Dark Static,same company that makes Interzone. Never tried it tho

CD is a great mag but I agree it can be a bit inconsistent at times. It's run by a good group of people and they sometimes have a very tough time getting them to the press. The magazine has helped me discover new books that I didn't know about.

Shaun wrote: "You really think that's expensive? A lot of newsstand magazines here cost far more. For example, a 12 month sub to UK magazine Gorezone is £50, which would work out at $78."

Average magazine subs in the states can be found for around 20, often less.
Branden, maybe you can try to bargain with them though.
I wanted Architectural Digest, but it was $40 a year, so I sent them a check for $20 and wrote a note saying I'd subscribe for a year for this much. They did it, and renewed me at 20 a year after that.
They marked it a Dr Office sub, lol.
Dr. Stephanie

Really, Stephanie? That is hilarious! I had no idea that some places would even consider that.

But it is like Stephanie said, magazine subs are about $20/year in the states and that is what I was hoping to pay. In a few months I might splurge on CD though, once I start getting paychecks again.

You can get some good deals on Amazon. I think I just saw that a year's subscription to PC Gamer was only $10 (something like an 80% discount.) I'm sure there are a lot of other good deals.

You do have cheap subscriptions then. Magazines over here run for £4 and up per issue for say computer gaming magazines etc.

I love Rue Morgue. But I was running into the situation where I was just skimming them when I got them and never went back to them, putting whatever book I was reading at the time the priority so I let my subscription expire. But, yes, it is a great all-around horror mag. It's movies and tv but also books, music, and even history. They once had an article about the real person Sweeney Todd was based on and an article about how Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus was a horror story.

Rue Morgue and Famous Monsters of Filmland are my favorites. I also get Fangoria and Horrorhoud. And yes, they cost a lot each year, but I find them worth it.

Why all these magazines subscription only? Can you not pick them up off the shelf?(Certainly there are no horror magazines over here on shelf but surely in America I'd imagine thered be loads!)

Larry wrote: "Why all these magazines subscription only? Can you not pick them up off the shelf?(Certainly there are no horror magazines over here on shelf but surely in America I'd imagine thered be loads!)"

Fangoria is a great example of why subscription is better. You pay something like 85 a year or about 9 dollars per issue for individual issues. Subscriptions are a big savings trust me.

I don't know if this is something you'd be interested in but Shock Totem just started up. They just put out their second issue. I loved the first. It is mostly short stories but in the first issue they also did a lot reviews of music & movies and I think they had a couple of author interviews. Six bucks an issue and you can find it at Amazon & B&N. I have gift cards to both and am putting together orders and one will include issue 2 of Shock Totem.

I shouldn't say they *just* started. I guess it's been a year since they put out the first issue but it was a damn good issue and I've heard the second was well worth the wait.

Christina wrote: "I don't know if this is something you'd be interested in but Shock Totem just started up. They just put out their second issue. I loved the first. It is mostly short stories but in the first iss..."

That's great, Christina, thanks! I just ordered issue #1 through Barnes and Noble and issue #2 through Amazon. These look excellent. Thanks again.

I'd be interested to hear what you think once you've had a go at them. Issue 1 was so pretty I was drooling over it before I opened it and what was inside was even better.

Amanda wrote: "Larry wrote: "Why all these magazines subscription only? Can you not pick them up off the shelf?(Certainly there are no horror magazines over here on shelf but surely in America I'd imagine thered ..."

Here in Canada, Fangoria is something like $12 an issue.

Jason wrote: "Amanda wrote: "Larry wrote: "Why all these magazines subscription only? Can you not pick them up off the shelf?(Certainly there are no horror magazines over here on shelf but surely in America I'd ..."

Ouch!

Expensive magazines guys! The thing is I would have no intention of subscribing
to a mag that I'm not familiar with-in fact I don't subscribe to any mag because my interest wavers after a while and I turn to something else. So a sub is not the way to go for me-i like to buy them occasionally till I get bored with whatever I'm into and change to something else!

I just received Shock Totem 1 and 2 in the mail today! I can't wait to get to them. Thanks again for the rec. The covers are friggin' gorgeous!

I hope you like it as much as I did. They're gorgeous all the way through. I'm anxiously awaiting #2.

Spectra Magazine isn't solely horror, but we're crazy-mad horror fanatics so there'll always be a strong horror presence within the mag.

It's a digital-only publication, which allows us to keep the costs right down, and issue 1 just launched with a fantastic horror short story taking pride of place. It's a bizarre take on established zombie-fodder, with butchers who work the human-meat farms. Pretty graphic and gory in places, but it's all justified. I don't think the author, S. Boyd Taylor, is a member on Goodreads or Horror Aficionados yet, but hopefully we can get him to stop by soon.

Personally, I quite like Rue Morgue, too, and Fangoria is always a superb read. But I too find them very expensive, and now that Borders has pulled out of the UK they're damn hard to find. That's one of the reasons we wanted to go digital only with Spectra Magazine - not just to keep overheads down, but for the sheer ease of availability.

Anyway, we'd love to hear your feedback on the horror content in Spectra. Here's the website: http://spectramagazine.com

It looks so pretty. I want to touch it...

Spectra, your magazine looks great. I have to check it out some more. I would prefer it in e format. Since the last move and having to give away tons of magazines, I do not want to have to lug around as much paper again.

Aloha wrote: "Spectra, your magazine looks great. I have to check it out some more. I would prefer it in e format. Since the last move and having to give away tons of magazines, I do not want to have to lug a..."

Yeah. As great as it is having piles of books and magazines, it can become pretty inconvenient, too. Much neater having it all on an iPad or a Kindle :-)

I just purchased a Kindle edition of Spectra magazine to try it out.

I'll probably be reading it on my Mac, though, to get the full effects of the illustrations.

There are no illustrations in the Kindle edition. Will the magazine be available with illustrations in other e formats? I'm a visual person and it'd be great if I can see illustrations.

Aloha wrote: "There are no illustrations in the Kindle edition. Will the magazine be available with illustrations in other e formats? I'm a visual person and it'd be great if I can see illustrations."
Not really, no. The news items and reviews will each have an image (though nothing you'd call a deal breaker) on the computer and iPad/iPhone versions but other than the cover art we decided to keep the illustration to a minimum. It was a difficult decision, but we wanted to ensure the focus remained entirely on the stories and didn't hijack the reader's imagination with pictures, if you catch my drift.

Sorry about that :-)

Thanks.

Aloha wrote: "I just purchased a Kindle edition of Spectra magazine to try it out."

Thanks for giving Spectra a whirl, by the way. Please do stop by our forums to give us some feedback when you're ready: http://spectramagazine.com/forum

Will do. I'm going to push for illustrations. What the hey. :o)

It will give some out of work illustrators projects to do.

Aloha wrote: "It will give some out of work illustrators projects to do."
Excellent plan!

Would Spectra magazine be interested in a short horror story I wrote?

Larry wrote: "Would Spectra magazine be interested in a short horror story I wrote?"

Spectra Magazine would indeed, though we're currently closed to submissions while we clear our teetering slush pile. But we'll be open again soon, so please stay tuned and we'll let everyone know.

Actually, if you sign up at the Spectra Magazine site, we'll send out an email to registered users once submissions open again (http://spectramagazine.com). And we'll let everyone know via Twitter, so following on there wouldn't hurt either (http://www.twitter.com/spectramag).

I've just started Shock Totem #1. Living in Canada I try to be creative with my magazine & book purchases & would recommend the Book Depository to anyone in my situation. I ordered Shock Totem #1 for $6 CAD & the Book Depository offers free shipping :) They don't keep in stock all publications, but I've saved a fortune on small press & British pubs.

Awesome. I signed up for updates, Spectra.

The newest kid on the block is Dark Moon Digest with the first issue due out in October 2010. It is a quarterly publication and will be available in e-book format as well as in print. Check it out at http://www.darkmoondigest.com.