Template:BPsection:About the Gazettes
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The bi-monthly Grantville Gazettes nowadays are published with clockwork regularity; all edited by assistant editor Paula Goodlett and vetted by Eric Flint who maintains editorial control over the canon for the series on the 1632.org website. They began quite differently with Flint as sole Editor, as well as keeper of the canon, and were very much an experiment on several levels explaining somewhat their early irregular appearance, that can best be described as "sporadic and haphazard".
After the initial explosive interest in 1632 Flint's first idea was to open the universe to other experienced writers to ride the wave of popular interest and internet buzz, for he had no plans for a sequel and other projects drawing on his time. That solicitation of stories included an invitation to fans of 1632, and generated far too much good "fan" fiction for a single anthology. In the event, best selling author David Weber was also attracted by the opened universe, and contracted with Flint to co-author five novels in the series. The release of any short fiction was held up by Jim Baen while 1633 was written and rushed into production.
Currently, Mrs. Goodlett, in conjunction with the 1632 Editorial Board, nowadays selects groups of stories from those formally submitted on the web forum 1632 Slush put together each volume with regard to length and diversity and the select the various 1632 Research Committees generated period oriented fact articles and essays which also characterize the gazettes, and distance them from the Ring of Fire anthologies. The e-ARC version of Grantville Gazette I followed the hardcover 1633 sequel and antedated the e-ARC release of Ring of Fire by nine months (February 2003 vs. November, 2003), as did Grantville Gazette II (August 2003). Flint then reviews the assembled collection of stories and alternates, and approves them as canon or not. Those he sets aside sometimes find themselves promoted to a prominent place in the series (see 1634: The Ram Rebellion and Ring of Fire II ), or might just be held for canonically compatible developments to be revealed before they are given publication. Others are simply rejected as non-canonical despite the Editorial Boards selection. The Editorial Board and Research Committee members are all volunteers being regular participants to the Baen's Bar web fora 1632 Tech Manual, 1632 Slush, and 1632 Slush Comments.
The earliest Gazettes are technically rated as fan fiction, which means the authors do not qualify as members in the Science Fiction Writers Association, which requires three stories be published in an accredited publication before a writer is eligible—this changed with Grantville Gazette X when the publication became qualified as a SFWA publication and began paying better than usual pro-rates. The gazettes idea began because there was so much good fan fiction submitted for Ring of Fire , which includes half the stories written by established authors. Flint had in fact, solicited input for ideas from fans before setting out to field research the flagship novel in 1999, so fans were involved in discussing the development of the neohistory from the outset. Subsequently, Flint, an experienced editor, suggested the idea of an online magazine to generate some income flow for the work to publisher Jim Baen using a similar concept to that used for Baen's Webscriptions monthly release. Baen, agreed to the experiment, and the Gazettes began as a serialized e-zine produced only sporadically, the segments of which were collected into an then electronic volume marketed as an e-book.
A subsequent experiment by Baen and Flint was to release the e-book version with an additional story by Flint in print as a mass market paperback. The experiment was successful, and Grantville Gazette II and Grantville Gazette III followed, with Grantville Gazette IV under contract as the last sale from Flint to Jim Baen shortly before his death.
In addition to fiction, the Gazettes include fact articles (based on the work output of the informal group, the 1632 research committee, written by one or more of its members) and stories which are initially vetted through a tough peer review on the Baen's Bar sub-forum 1632 Slush, typically requiring several rewrites then are subsequently nominated by the "EdBoard", whereupon Flint chooses the stories for inclusion in the Canon and for each volume based in part how it leads into or integrates with the ongoing main storyline 'threads' in the various novels. This template appears in article space in the book/ezine articles for the many Grantville Gazettes pages here on wikipedia.
