Who We Are:

Speculations was founded in 1994 by Kent Brewster and Sasha Miller. Denise Lee took over as editor after Issue Thirteen, and Susan Fry came on board in October 1999, for Issue Twenty-Nine.

After thirty issues in hardcopy, we made the difficult jump to cyberspace. The cost of printing and postage was eating our lunch, and we could see endless possibilities in taking Speculations online.

We were nominated for four Best Semiprozine Hugos in our first five years, in a category sadly dominated by a sixteen-ton elephant that we will never beat.

What We Do:

Speculations consists of several areas: the market report, the magazine, the Web site, and The Rumor Mill, our online community.

What's Free?

• The Web site. You're reading it now. Our site contains articles, resources, and links to other sites; it is, of course, under constant construction and subject to the usual vagaries of the Internet. If you find a link that's not working, please consider joining the Busted Link Patrol.

  We also link all of our previous tables of contents, so you can get a good idea of what we've done before.

• The Market List. This will always be at least one month out of date, but will still be a good jumping-off point for someone looking for address or contact information. Paying customers--see below--get the market information every month in their e-mail.

• The Ego Shelf. Yes, our readers sell, and we want you to know!

• The Rumor Mill. It's as free as we can keep it while a) covering ourselves from potential liability issues and random ill will and b) still motivating users to subscribe.

  Participation in The Rumor Mill is open to the general public, due to the fact that it's our best form of marketing. Most subscribers find the Rumor Mill first and discover that it alone is worth that $20 per year. You'll need to register in order to start new topics, but we will not collect or use any of your personal information for any purpose beyond verifying your password, once, via e-mail.

What's Hidden Behind the Veil?

• The actual magazine. Speculations proper is intended for paying customers only. We pay our contributors professional rates for their work and absolutely must make enough money to cover it, or we're out of business. If you're thinking something like "Hah! Screw that! I'm gonna stick it to The Man," please remember that we do not run paid advertising of any sort, so you guys are our only hope of survival.

  That said, we understand how these things are. If for some reason you come into possession of a copy without subscribing, please consider doing so if you feel it's useful.

  Speculations is e-mailed out to all subscribers in several PDF formats (galley proofs, 2-up consecutive, saddle stitched, and perfect-bound) and in plain text. If you're a current subscriber, you have access to any issue you paid for, so if you ever need to come back and grab a fresh copy--or a different format--you can. You may also charge any back issue against your subscription, if you'd like to read it.

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  Unless otherwise noted, all contents are copyright Speculations, PMB 400, 1111 West El Camino Real #109-400, Sunnyvale, CA 94087-1057. Please direct all e-mail to Kent Brewster, publisher, at kent@speculations.com.