The Grantville Gazettes

The Grantville Gazettes are anthologies of short stories set in the 1632 universe introduced in Eric Flint's novel 1632.

The Gazettes started as an experiment: a professionally edited, officially sanctioned "fan magazine" published electronically. Initially released as serialized e-magazines, they were later published as e-books (taking a page from the Baen Books experience with E-ARCs—Electronic Advance Reader Copies, which had been instituted several years earlier.) Because the electronic sales were successful, Baen contracted with Flint for more issues, to be published 3-4 times per year (bimonthly, starting in 2007^[1]). Each would form part of the canonical background for the other works (novels and anthologies) in the rapidly growing 1632 series.

As of mid-2012, e-magazines are published bimonthly, and six books have been published (five of those as both hardcover and mass market paperback) excerpted from the first 17 issues of the magazine. A seventh book is promised.^[1][2]

Origins

Separating 1632-verse history from the internet web fora at Baen Books web site Baen's Bar is impossible, for the forum has shaped the series, as the series has, in part, shaped the forum. Only the Honorverse web forums of best selling author David Weber have been busier than the eventual three special fora set up for 1632-verse topics since 2000, and according to Flint, by 2005 over two hundred-thousand posts had been made on the '1632 Tech' forum alone. Hence, while fan fiction, the Gazettes from the outset differed in important ways from most fan fiction:

1. Flint himself had sought out and accepted ideas and input from fans when beginning the writing of the lead novel 1632. Some of those discussions became back plot for the series, and some were submitted to him as stories.
2. Flint, caught unaware and unprepared by the demand for a sequel, decided to open up the universe and invite other established authors to help shape the milieu. With all the internet buzz, and having already sought and gotten months of input from the new 1632verse business-only forum "1632 Tech Manual", he and Baen agreed to include meritorious fan fiction in the collection envisioned. That anthology became Ring of Fire, but was delayed for business reasons—sound marketing. David Weber and Flint had threshed out a backplot and agreed to do a 1632 sequel as a novel, and it built upon and integrated the thoughts submitted for Ring of Fire. Jim Baen sat on Ring of Fire, as anthologies in today's fiction market generally don't sell well, and a series with an anthology as its second work was new ground.
3. It was professionally edited and produced by experienced persons in the publishing industry, and Flint as gate-keeper for the series canon was unhesitant in turning back poor writing for rewrite or just rejecting same.
4. If accepted and published, the story background and back plot thereafter was canon for the universe—if material was published in a Gazette, it became part of the basis of the series thereafter.

Issued initially as an electronic quasi-magazine using the publisher's e-ARC distribution system, the original magazine came out only sporadically—as Flint and Baen copy editors had time to put early issues together. By the time of the seventh issue in June 2006, three years from the first volume, having proved to be a self-funding success, the publication changed. Along the way, Jim Baen had agreed to try another experiment, and brought out volume 1 in print as a paperback. In March 2006 Baen published volume 2 in hardcover, which became a New York Times best seller.

No longer were issues serialized in three installments, the form of the promotional Baen Webscriptions value packs, but began coming out as a single ebook at a much greater regularity. By volume 10, the magazine had hit a regular publication rate of one issue every other month released the first day of odd numbered months, and migrated from being an offering within Baen's catalog of offerings (where they are still listed as ebooks) to having a subscription system administered and accessed from its own website. It is particularly notable in that is composed of short fiction which has spawned no less than three best sellers in an age when the market for short fiction (anthologies) is very poor. In addition, the Grantville Gazettes have served as the source of new ideas and relationships which energize the popular series and find their way into the novels of the 1632 series.

Beginning in early 2007, the Gazette's publishers added an on-line web based edition published quarterly (eventually bimonthly). Additionally, the publishers switched to paying full professional rates instead of the semi-pro rates that had been paid and became an SFWA qualifying market.^[3] After the first four volumes, the published book became a "Best of" annual collection.

The Anthology Authors Process

The various authors featured in the Gazettes are part of Flint's online experiment (Phase II) in developing a milieu with input from many others on the webforum Baen's Bar. The 1632 Tech Manual (oldstyle: '1632 Tech') sub-section of the Bar focuses on reproducing modern technology in the 17th century. The 1632 Slushpile forum is where authors first submit to a tough peer review process. Once critical readers have deemed the nascent story worthy, the work passes to an editorial board, which also considers how the work will fit into and impact the milieu as currently planned out and plotted. Some stories have thus served as the genesis of their own 1632 universe sub-series or plot thread. This is chaired by Eric Flint, who retains veto power over all work in the 1632 verse, and Eric then decides in which issue or volume of the Gazette the story should be allocated. Authors get paid a sub-professional rate upon the acceptance of the work, and additional financial remuneration and considerations when the anthology reaches print at a later time.

The Gazettes thus contain short stories based in the world of Flint's 1632 series, as well as articles about the restrictions on technology available in the time-stranded town and the plausibility of items and redeveloped technology within the milieu of the 1632 multiverse. The latter essays are written by members based on findings and results from a more formal subset of contributor-advisors known as the 1632 Technical board. Part of this group also sits on the 1632 Editorial Board.

Importance of the Gazettes

The impact of individual stories submitted for inclusion into the Grantville Gazettes will likely never be truly known, because even the bad or 'unaccepted' ones have shaped ideas, the action, commentary, and thought on the web-forums 1632 Tech and 1632 Comments. Even those that fail to meet the final test of espousing 'canon' developments in the neohistory have influenced later written works, including those by Flint, who is the final determiner as the sole person involved in each work in the milieu of what is acceptable canon, and who has acknowledged a debt to all such submissions and discussions. Considered one way, each story written has the ability of setting a new Point of divergence, affecting various storylines. Several fan-written stories have suggested major plotlines, even before the concept of the Grantville Gazettes eMagazine experiment was approved by Jim Baen. Those stories were published alongside established writers in the Ring of Fire, and according to Flint, affected other main plotlines like 1634: The Ram Rebellion.

Other Gazette stories have filled in important gaps in terms of economics, sociology, and technology: "The Sewing Circle" deals with four precocious teen friends and their stubborn insistence on making adult contributions. When they succeed, they establish a model for uptimers starting downtime businesses, setting an example that ripples through Grantville. In the sequel, "Other People's Money", they shake up the European stock markets, and not inconsequentially, interest the downtime populace in learning more about investing and uptime financial knowledge. Sociologically, their success doomed tailoring guilds, and spawned down-timer publication of popular fiction, inculcating up-timer sociology et cetera via modern novels, especially perhaps, Romance novels. Apparently even downtimers like their soaps! "A Lineman for the Country" along with a couple of other short stories created the forthcoming important Eastern European thread , and so on.

Flint has stated that he intends that short stories featuring major characters, or establishing points that will be important in future novels will be collected into the Ring of Fire anthologies, and that The Grantville Gazettes anthologies will feature the stories of characters that don't establish new background for the novels. However, many of the characters or events become more important in retrospect than either the author or editor expected, so this rule is fairly weak, as shown in the Other People's Money example.

On another level entirely, the gazette stories are just stories. Since they tend to focus on the ground-level interactions of their protagonists, and those characters tend to repeat, not only in subsequent stories by the same author, but in stories by others, Flint has characterized them in part as soap-operas in the preface to Grantville Gazette IV.

Print publication

Starting in November 2004, the first Gazette was also released experimentally in a paper edition with issue I as a paperback. The second volume was released in hardcover in March 2006, this and subsequent titles use Roman Numerals for titles such as are listed below in the section List of Gazettes, as appear on the print publication covers.

Each print edition contains an additional story that was not published in any e-magazine. Starting with volume V, each print edition contains stories from several of the magazines, and not all magazine stories are published in the books. The List of Gazettes section below gives the publication dates and a rough guide to which magazines are collected into particular books.

Overall literary criticism and reception of the printed versions

Sales of the printed versions of the Grantville Gazette I^[11][12] and Grantville Gazette II^[13] were high enough to have these issues listed on the Locus (magazine) Bestsellers Lists with Volume I topping at number 9 in 2005 for Paperbacks and Volume II at 10 in 2006 for Hardcovers respectively.

Overall, most reviewers wrote favorable reviews^[14][15] while only a small number were negative.^[16] Roland Green of Booklist wrote that "Flint’s 1632 universe seems to be inspiring a whole new crop of gifted alternate historians."^[17]

Reception of printed volumes that do not have their own page yet

Grantville Gazette IV

The reviewer for Observe and See wrote that the printed version of the Grantville Gazette IV is "It is every bit as enjoyable as the other editions" and reviewed each story in this edition.^[18] The reviewer for the The Billion Light-Year Bookshelf wrote extensive individual reviews for each of the included stories.^[19] The reviewer also noted that one of the stories from the Gazette was a part of the backstory of one of the novels that she had previously reviewed.

• Grantville Gazette IV title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

Grantville Gazette V

The reviewer for Booklist wrote that the printed edition of the Grantville Gazette V "add[s] dimensions to Flint’s singular alternate-history creation."^[20] The reviewer for the The Billion Light-Year Bookshelf wrote individual reviews for each of the included stories.^[21] Most were positive, however she did warn the reader that at least one story could be incomprehensible unless the reader have already read most of the books in the series.

• Grantville Gazette V title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

Grantville Gazette VI

Bill Lawhorn of SFRevu reviewed the printed version of Grantville Gazette VI and wrote that "This is another great collection for fans of the Ring of Fire series. There is a little something for everyone, history, mystery and adventure."^[22] The reviewer for the San Francisco Book Review wrote that "all of the stories are well-written and peopled with fascinating characters."^[23] The reviewer for the Library Journal also gave a positive review.^[24]

• Grantville Gazette VI title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

Grantville Gazette VII

The reviewer for the SFRevu wrote that "The stories run quite a gamut. There are mysteries, action adventure, and little bit of rewritten history." Some of the stories are quirky and that "the characters have a sense of humor" while some of the other "stories aren't all humorous, they also deal with subjects related to inequality and opportunity. The reviewer also wrote that "Another really good part of the series, is the serious discussion of technology and how old technologies can be recreated until the equipment needed to build the modern technology is available." The reviewer also states that "The Gazette has been a pipeline for developing authors."^[25] The reviewer for the Midwest Book Review wrote that the book "provides a lively set of vignettes and tales that juxtapose well with the primary books in the series and fill in many gaps with new stories and new information".^[26]

• Grantville Gazette VII title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

Free Access

Jim Baen believed in the promotional power of library access to books. In the very early days of the Web, he started releasing free e-book copies of many of the books in the company's back list at a website called the Baen Free Library.^[27]

Additionally, sample CDs of e-books are bound into many Baen first edition hardcover books. Although the books on these CDs are often not included in the Baen Free Library, the publisher allows fan sites to put these CDs up on the web. The e-book version of the book version (thus containing each "extra" Flint novella) of the first five Grantville Gazettes, along with most of the novels in the series are on CD#23 available on The Fifth Imperium.

Jim Baen's Universe

Starting with magazine issue #19, another Baen magazine was merged into the Grantville Gazette. For the next ten issues, there was no change in the Gazettes beyond a dual title on the title page. In magazine issue #30, Eric Flint introduced the "Universe Annex" to the Grantville Gazette^[28] featuring a story slot and columns from Jim Baen's Universe.

List of Gazettes

List of Stories

In this table, Volumes of The Grantville Gazette electronic magazine are indicated by Arabic numerals in the title. Volumes of The Grantville Gazette published books are indicated by Roman numerals in the title.^[29] Up to volume IV, each book contained the equivalent magazine content plus an additional story. After volume IV, each book contains stories from several magazines. Not all stories from the magazine are included in books, and each book still has an additional story that was not in the magazines.^[29] Publication in the book version of the Grantville Gazette are indicated by GG and a Roman numeral in the "book" column. For simplicity, stories from the Ring of Fire anthology series are included in this same table and are indicated by ROF and a Roman numeral I, II, or III in the "book" column.

See also

• Ring of Fire (anthology)
• Ring of Fire II (anthology)
• Ring of Fire III (anthology)
• 1634: The Ram Rebellion (melded novel/anthology)
• 1635: The Tangled Web (melded novel/anthology)
• 1636: The Kremlin Games (serialized novel)

References

External links

• Official website
• Grantville Gazette Anthologies and Magazines ISFDB Series Record # 25252 series listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database