Comments on: Challenging times for UK genre magazines by Mathew F. Riley

By: Highlander

Highlander — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 18:51:45 +0000

Just heard that the excellent Hemlock Books (http://www.hemlockbooks.co.uk/) will be stocking Rue Morgue along with the usual Hammer related mags.

By: Terry Roffey

Terry Roffey — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 20:34:46 +0000

Borders going under is a big dissappointment - but not shock with the way the highstreet is in decline.

Unfortunately, all the time the beast that is the supermarket is prepared to sell top-end chart books at less than the dealer cost it will become increasingly difficult for specialist retailers like Borders and Waterstone’s to compete.

And with the current obsession with ‘celebrity fiction’ and consumers rushing in their hoards to fill their head with this nonsense it’s only going to get worse.

We certainly can’t rely on WH Smith to pick up the baton of a great magazine retailer like Borders!

I work in Central London and often venture to Charing Cross Road and of all the bookshops on offer I always end up spending most of my time in Borders. Even Foyle’s doesn’t compete in terms of a horror fiction range.

Border’s will be missed - but there is a glimmer of hope as I’ve heard that Waterstone’s may be taking over some of their sites. Hopefully they will continue the Borders tradition of delivering an excellent range of books and mags. Fingers crossed!!

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 23:12:46 +0000

I never realised that Borders stocked imported genre magazines. Then a few months ago I, when I was in Borders browsing amongst the books, I wandered over to the magazine section and saw copies of Fangoria, Asimov’s, Analog and a host of other goodies. It was a pleasant surprise because I normally have to send away for such magazines and Borders offered a much better alternative. Now I find that they may soon be no more. Tragic.

By the way, Fictionwise.com offer Asimov’s, Analog and a few other such magazines in PDF format and if you live in the UK it is one way of getting hold of them. The PDF versions are a lot cheaper than a normal magazine, but I have to say that I prefer paper to pixels any day, sometimes though, needs must.