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Dear Enchanted Friends:
It’s been a thrilling year here at The Fairy Tale Magazine. We’ve appreciated the support and generosity so many of you have extended.
We will be making changes for 2024. When we started this year, we didn’t know what we didn’t know. Along the way we had a lot of fun, but I realized the four-issue schedule could not continue after this year. Here’s why:
I’m healthy as of now, but as I get older I want to be a healthy granny as long as possible. Cutting back on time spent on FTM will help me achieve that goal.
I will no longer be putting my own money into the publication. I would have had to reach this decision eventually, but 2023 pulled it into clear focus. People have been incredibly generous, though, and I appreciate it!
I want to avoid burnout. I definitely do this because I enjoy it—I’m very proud of the magazine—but even good things can be exhausting! I’d like to continue to enjoy this passion project. To do so requires me to cut back on the time and energy I devote to FTM.
The good news is that we will be publishing two issues in 2024. They will be free, because we want as many people as possible to read the magazine. We actually had solid subscription sales for the first year, but it hasn’t brought us anywhere near the number of eyes on the issues we’ve had in the past. So, we will do two issues, free to all.
Spring/Summer will be published on May 1, 2024. Fall/Winter will be published on Oct. 1. They will be in glorious PDF form as only Amanda Bergloff, managing editor and art director, can do them! Just make sure you’re a current Fairy Godparents Club member or have signed up for our newsletter, and you’ll receive each issue. The site will also help get you to the PDFs next year.
(The Fairy Godparents Club will continue next year. We will meet four times, and the cost will be $20 for the year if you sign up for the 2024 issues by Dec. 30. Stay tuned for instructions on how to sign up and pay.)
We will be opening the submissions window for the spring/summer issue on Jan. 22 and closing it Jan. 29. The fall/winter submissions window will be June 17 to 24.
The pay rate will be $25 and the lengths will be 1,000 to 2,000 words for stories and up to 500 words for poems. The theme is classic fairy tales as inspiration.
We will be doing the fundraising contest in 2024. It will be our major fundraising event for the year. The contest window would be July 1 through July 30.
The submissions page does not yet reflect the changes, but it will, very soon. We’ll alert you when the changes happen.
I thank you all for taking this journey with me.
Yours in Enchantment, Kate Wolford
Image by James Jebusa Shannon, 1910