Query

[47Forteans]

I have often wondered why there is a "special" issue each year. Not that I mind, as much, it means an extra issue of Fortean Times, which one can never have enough of, I just wondered why there was a special issue every year...

 

[CarlosTheDJ]

Because most magazines publish thirteen times a year (four weekly ish), and you can't have two issues with same month printed on the cover.

 

[47Forteans]

Ah, that explains it! Thanks, Carlos! Now it all makes sense!

 

[CarlosTheDJ]

I hope I'm right now......

 

[47Forteans]

I hope I'm right now......

If the mistake is in your favour, don't correct it!

 

[ramonmercado]

Actually the real truth is that all of the Eds are members of a cult which has a 13 month year.

 

[47Forteans]

Actually the real truth is that all of the Eds are members of a cult which has a 13 month year.

I thought I was the only one to have a 13 month year!

 

[owenwhiteoak]

Fort the month

Actually the real truth is that all of the Eds are members of a cult which has a 13 month year.

I thought I was the only one to have a 13 month year!

Actually, of course, CarlostheDJ is quite correct in that publishers, distributors and the main retailers are very keen to have a 4-week rather than a calendar-month schedule - nice and neat administratively - but there is a sound fortean precedent. Tiffany Thayer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiffany_Thayer and http://www.forteantimes.com/features/pr ... hayer.html) was a founder of the Fortean Society and for many years the editor of "Doubt" magazine, and he instituted a 13-month year, with the extra month, named "Fort", coming between August and September (I think). We don't tend to hit the right spot with the "extra" issue, although we did teasingly label issue 200 in 2005 as "Fort" on the spine - it did come between August and September issues. From our point of view, it's convenient to fit the extra one in early in the year, so the cover date doesn't stray too far from reality, and we also try to find an important enough theme to justify calling it "special" or hit a nice round number such as issue 200, issue 250 etc.

YS

 

[floyd23a]

Re: Fort the month

From our point of view, it's convenient to fit the extra one in early in the year, so the cover date doesn't stray too far from reality

On the subject of cover dates, why is the cover date of the mag at least a month ahead of the actual date it's released? Always puzzled me that has.

Cheers

Floyd

 

[owenwhiteoak]

Re: Fort the month

From our point of view, it's convenient to fit the extra one in early in the year, so the cover date doesn't stray too far from reality

On the subject of cover dates, why is the cover date of the mag at least a month ahead of the actual date it's released? Always puzzled me that has.

Cheers

Floyd

That's been pretty standard in magazine and comic publication at least since I was buying comics in the Sixties, and I gathered then that it was a tradition going back decades. It's something to do with the shelf life of the product - if a mag is expected to be available on the newsstand for a month (and, historically, in distant parts of the distribution network that could be long after the city-based publication date), then towards the end of that time a truly "current" month is going to look like old, old, old and the assumption was that no one would then want to buy it. Of course, if everyone knows that the cover date is always in their future, then perhaps they could be expected to act accordingly...

 

[47Forteans]

I am always happy when I find an issue of FT in the mail box when I get home from work - it is the Soothing Ointment Of Refreshing Normality in an otherwise Weird World...