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} }) </script> </div> </form> </fieldset> <article class="entryArticle content STeditorial"> <header class="entryHeader icon-publication"> <h1 class="entryTitle">Semiprozine </h1> </header><p class='tagLine'>Entry updated 12 January 2014. Tagged: Publication, Theme.</p><div class="browsingBtns"> <span> <input class="button PNI previous" type="button" onclick="window.location.href='/next.php?id=p&entry=semiprozine'" value="Prev" /> </span> <span> <input class="button PNI next" type="button" onclick="window.location.href='/next.php?&entry=semiprozine'" value="Next" /> </span> <span> <input class="button PNI incoming" type="button" onclick="window.location.href='/incoming.php?entry=semiprozine'" value="About This Entry" title="What links to the entry; contributor initials explained; how to cite; other information" /> </span> </div><p style='float:right; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:10px; position: relative; top: 3px;'> <a href='/gallery.php?id=PopularMASFJ-V1N1.jpg' target='_blank'> <img src='https://x.sf-encyclopedia.com/gal/thumbs/PopularMASFJ-V1N1.jpg' alt='pic'></a></p> <p>In the terminology of sf <a href="/entry/fandom">Fandom</a>, this expression – once colloquial but enshrined since 1983 in the constitution of the World Science Fiction Society, the body that administers the <a href="/entry/hugo">Hugos</a> – means a semiprofessional magazine as opposed to an <a href="/entry/amateur_magazine">Amateur Magazine</a>, or <a href="/entry/fanzine">Fanzine</a>. Originally, according to that constitution, a magazine with a circulation of more than 10,000 is a professional magazine (though the revision of the Hugo rules which divided the Best Professional Editor category into long and short forms – the latter covering both magazines and anthologies – removed the <a href="/entry/prozine">Prozine</a> definition). A semiprozine, it might thus be inferred, must have a circulation of less than 10,000, a requirement – if the term semiprozine had any currency beyond fandom – that would disqualify many of the most respected literary journals of the past century from professional status. The actual requirements, according to the constitution, are to have published at least four issues (at least one in the previous calendar year) in print or other media, and to fulfil two of the following five criteria: have an average press run of at least 1000 copies; pay its contributors and/or staff in other than copies of the publication; provide at least half the income of any one person; have at least 15% of its total space occupied by advertising; or announce itself to be a semiprozine. Charles N <a href="/entry/brown_charles_n">Brown</a>, when editor of <a href="/entry/locus">Locus</a> magazine (which has won numerous Hugos for Best Semiprozine), stated additionally in his regular commentaries on magazine publishing that the frequency of a semiprozine should be at least quarterly, and that unlike a professional magazine it should not have national newsstand circulation.</p> <p>A number of the most important magazines of comment in the fields of sf and fantasy, and several of the magazines that publish fiction, are or have been semiprozines. The first fiction-based semiprozine to be shortlisted for a <a href="/entry/hugo">Hugo</a> Award under this definition was <a href="/entry/whispers">Whispers</a> in 1984 and 1985, followed by <a href="/entry/interzone">Interzone</a>, but there were earlier magazines that could qualify as semipro retrospectively. In theory <a href="/entry/unusual_stories">Unusual Stories</a> published and edited by William L <a href="/entry/crawford_william_l">Crawford</a> was the first magazine to meet some of these criteria in 1933. The semiprozine Hugo was the exclusive domain of <a href="/entry/newszines">Newszines</a> until <a href="/entry/interzone">Interzone</a>'s win in 1995. A more decisive-seeming swing to fiction magazines came in 2009, when the winner was <a href="/entry/weird_tales">Weird Tales</a>, followed by <a href="/entry/clarkesworld">Clarkesworld</a> in 2010, 2011 and 2013 – though <a href="/entry/locus">Locus</a> won again in 2012. [PN/MA/DRL]</p> <p><b>previous versions of this entry</b></p> <ul><li><a href='https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/semiprozine' target='_blank'>Internet Archive</a></li></ul><br /><br /></article></div> <div class="sideBarsWrapper"> <div class="sideBarsColsWrapper clearfix"> <div class="column sideBar12 clearfix"> <div class="columnForm"><aside id="blogFeed" class="widget"> <div class="content STeditorial clearfix"> <h2>Recently visited entries<span style="background:url(/images/thingSFE2.png) !important"></span></h2><ul style='width: 50%; float: left;'> </ul> <p align=center style="float:right; padding-top:20px; padding-bottom:20px;">ISSN 3049-7612<br /> <a href="/facts.php?id=logo"> <img src="/images/VitMan.gif" width=150 height=150 title="Click for larger version of this SFE logo"></a><br /> <b><a href="/donate.php"><img src="/images/Paypal-Donate.gif" WIDTH="92" HEIGHT="26" BORDER="0" /></a><br /><a href="/">Home/Welcome page</a></b></p><div style="margin-bottom:10px;"></div></div> </aside><aside id="blogFeed" class="widget"> <div class="content STeditorial clearfix"> <h2><i>SFE</i> Special Features<span></span></h2><p style="margin-top: 10px;"><input type="button" value="What’s New" style="width: 150px !important;" class="button primary" onclick="window.location.href='/whatsnew.php'">  Latest entries; 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