As a lot of you will know, last year we raised the price of the SteamPunk Magazine (from £2.50 to £4 here, and from $3.30 to $5 in the US through Strangers). Since that time we’ve resisted the need to increase the cost to you of issues #1 through #4, but unfortunately the point has come where we can’t really put it off any longer.

The decision is the result of three things: the higher production costs in the UK vs. those in the US; the increased cost of paper, which has forced our printers to raise their prices in turn; and the fact that we are just plain trying to do more and more stuff.

Since Vagrants was first founded in the second half of 2009, the idea has always been to expand the wealth of steampunk, historical fantasy and otherwise retro-futurism beyond the limits of SteamPunk Magazine. We have laid plans for coffee-table-style art books, newspapers, guides, short story collections, novels and even music. However, doing all of these beautiful, wonderful things requires something that, as a non-profit-making organisation, we don’t have very much of: money. We want to be able to pay the people who write these books, record this music and draw all this lovely artwork for all the hard work that they’re putting in. We want to be able to both encourage and support the members of our own community in making their own money. We also want to bring out as much new material as we can, and make all of our publications of the best quality that we can make them – and this requires setting down huge amounts of money by way of printing and production costs.

The upshot of all of this is that, from the release of issue #7 of SteamPunk Magazine at the end of March, we will be increasing the price of issues #1 through #4 to £4 in line with the newer issues. This will allow us to continue to get reprints (thereby keep them available for purchase), and also to fund all of the wonderful things that are coming your way over 2010 and beyond.

As ever, SteamPunk Magazine will remain free for you to download.

Filed under: Orders by Admin