This has been a hard post for me to write… All fiction markets die; every last one. It saddens me to (officially) announce the closure of what was the first Twitter fiction magazine. I’d like to thank all of the contributors who submitted to the market while it was open. It was fun while it lasted.
So what caused the demise of Thaumatrope?
- Twitter API: OAuth
- Time
- Payments
I was feebly plugging along when Twitter changed their API, and I wasn’t able to make the site compatible with those changes. In order to truly relaunch the magazine I have to go back and completely rewrite the backend of the website (which included all of the code to receive submissions and send acceptances/rejections) to work with OAuth. Which leads to the second Thaumatrope killer: Time.
The time it takes to edit stories that are 140 characters long is minuscule. Not only does it just take about 5 seconds to know if your going to accept the story, it only takes 5 seconds to read the entire story: beginning, middle, and end. Unfortunately, it takes much more time to run the magazine (think marketing, advertising, development, and for the truly courageous, commerce) than what I was able to provide. Rewriting the back-end to really work with OAuth, and/or so that volunteers might be able to manage much of it in my stead, is time that I don’t have.
Which leads to the final reason that Thaumatrope closed: I got behind (WAY behind… embarrassingly behind) in my payments to authors. It reached the stage that I didn’t see the point in going further into the hole. My current goal is to address all outstanding payments before I launch (or re-launch) any additional fiction markets.
In retrospect, I should have pulled the plug and made changes to the website to reflect the fact long before now, but I didn’t have the time. As I’ve mentioned before, I didn’t even really have the time to read and respond to e-mail, among a host of other things I didn’t have the time for. As I wind down my fitness regimen and get used to my schedule working on the house I’m finding more time to get back online and tie up loose ends. At some point Thaumatrope is likely to relaunch, and when it does you’ll hear it here first.
Thank you for this. :) Markets come and go…I really wish tweetthemeat was still around (and with no names attached it’s hard to pester sources for news). I her you on both time and money :/
If/when it comes round to it, I’d be interested in helping revamp the backend (and making use of such myself, possibly….)
Hi, Nathan. Sorry to hear of the problems you’re having with Thaumatrope. I was wondering what’s happening with Everyday Weirdness. You seem to have had a restart last September and than gone into hibernation again in December. I hope you’ll be able to get that up an running again, too. Where else could a writer like me be published the day after Charles Dickens, and two days after H P Lovecraft?
Help! I need an outlet for my weirdness.
Best of luck with your relaunches.
Sincerely
Oscar
Hi Nathan.
Sorry for this sad news, Thaumatrope was a brave, smart idea. I hope you can relaunch it as soon as possible.
A.
It was sad to see Thaumatrope go down, and frustrating to see responses and payments not materialize, but I respect you coming out and explaining the circumstances. It would have been easy to let this one curl up and hide. Thank you for taking it out in the open.
Things happen, such is life. I echo all the sentiments stated above–especially the part about this being “a brave, smart idea.” Chin up and I look forward to seeing what you do in the future. :o)