Editor William Sanders reports that the autumn issue of Helix SF, the tenth, “will be the final issue of Helix. As of the end of this year, the magazine will no longer exist, except as a fond memory.” In classic Sanders fashion, he continues, parenthetically, “Anybody for whom the memory isn’t a fond one can blow me.”
He continues by saying that the plan, when he and Lawrence Watt-Evans first started the online magazine, was to run it no more than two years, and possibly less. “By last fall, though, it was obvious that the project had succeeded far beyond anything we had dared hope for—with one major exception: the ongoing failure to develop a broad base of support.” They were bringing in enough money (through their free-but-for-donations plan), but “it was coming from a small number of amazingly generous donors.”
His full announcement (which is the only way to do justice to his words) is available here.
He does say, quite emphatically, that the decision to shut down was made before this summer’s flap over one of his rejection letters (which we covered in this article).
Mike Allen reports that he’s known of the impending closure since January. Jennifer Pelland reports knowing the same thing around the time she sold Helix a story in at the end of January. And Steven H. Silver, who had written a column on alternate history which appeared in the first four issues, writes that his first fiction sale, “Les Lettres de Paston,” appears in the final issue.
Sanders, Silver, and others remind readers that, with their “we pay authors based on donations” method of funding, the authors appearing in the last issue will, as always, be paid only from donations received after its publication, which should be very soon.