We’ve got an excellent selection of new content this month. Cat V. and our hard working team of submissions editors have done a knockout job once again!

New Fiction:
“Portage” by An Owomoyela
“L’esprit de L’escalier” by Peter M. Ball

New Poetry:
“Ghosha” by Shweta Narayan
“The Chorus of Dead Girls” by JoSelle Vanderhooft

Featured Reprint:
“each thing i show you is a piece of my death” by Gemma Files and Stephen J. Barringer

This month we need $400 in subscriptions, donations, and single copy purchases to meet our costs for Apex Magazine content. We can use any financial assistance you can give. However, we know not everyone has the spare coin during these rocky economic times, and that’s okay, there are other great ways you can help! Tweet or blog about the issue. Send this newsletter to a friend. Review the issue. We’re grateful for any help, financial and non-financial.

Check out the zine: http://apexbookcompany.com/apex-online/
Ways to lend a hand: Subscription or single issue purchase

Enjoy the issue!

–Jason S.

The go check out Monster Librarian’s Review as well!

Clicking the cover to the left takes you to the book’s page at the Apex Book Store where you can get your own copy. If you’ve already read the book, let us know what you think. If you posted a review, drop a link in the comments.

If you would like to catch up with Sara, she is having a signing during the local Art Crawl this Saturday at Sherlock’s Books in Nashville.

Two of our longtime submission editors, Maggie Jamison and Jennifer Brozek, have stepped down from slush duty. Both will be staying with the Apex Publications team, but in other capacities. I would like to thank both of these dedicated, smart ladies for all their help in bringing Apex Magazine to where it is today.

Also, longtime slush wrangler, Chris Einhaus, has left the team to pursue his own writing and spend more time with the family. Both are noble pursuits, but he will be missed. Thank you, Chris, for all your time and hard work!

Two new slush readers did recently join the team: Patrick Tomlinson and George Galuschak. Welcome!

And yet, we need more slush minions!

If you’d like to become an Apex submissions editor, drop me an email (jason at apexbookcompany dot com). Please answer these five questions in your email:

1) What are your all-time favorite Apex Magazine stories and explain why.

3) Do you have any prior pertinent experience?

You’ll be expected to evaluate at least 20 stories a week.

From Africa to Australasia, from Europe to the US, take a terrifying journey led by world-renowned and up-and-coming authors of horror. See how Moccus, the Celtic God of fecundity, brings His barbaric brutality to the twenty-first century. Experience the nightmare of an apostle unable to live up to His teachings in “Dreaming” and, in “Without Mercy,” witness the torment of those who can. But it doesn’t stop there. Even hundreds of years after Mocuss’s death, His savage reign continues for those who dare to question, as you will discover in “For They Are As Beasts” and “Abattoir Blues.”

Thirteen stories–some menacingly dark, others violent and rapacious–will show you a future where death is a blessing.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: The New God, The New Order—Gill Ainsworth
“Secrets of Fatima”—Steven L. Shrewsbury
“Without Mercy”—Lucas Pederson
“The Messiah of Mincemeat”—S. Clayton Rhodes
“Dreaming”—Brenton Tomlinson
“Daughter of God”—Maxwell Peterson
“The Free Poor”—Mark Grundy
“Bad Meat”—Michael Keyton
“Chain of Hearts”—Eric Gregory
“Big Game”—Conrad Zero
“Dance of the Psychopomps”—Joshua McCune
“Song-Ji and the Wolf”—Paul Williams
“For They Are as Beasts”–Camille Alexa
“Abattoir Blues”—Geoffrey W. Cole
“The Holy Meal”—Moccus Meats hlc

For the next seven days, use the coupon code BLACKNESS20 on checkout to receive 20% off your order.

The Blackness Within is shipping now! Order today!

**Digital editions to be released over the next two weeks.

Apex Publications is pleased to announce the signing of horror legend Brian Keene. Mr. Keene will be penning a novella exclusively for Apex with an expected publication date of the summer of 2011.

BRIAN KEENE is the author of over twenty books, including Darkness on the Edge of Town, Urban Gothic, Castaways, Kill Whitey, Ghost Walk, Dark Hollow, Dead Sea, Ghoul and many more. He also writes comic books such as The Last Zombie and Dead of Night: Devil Slayer. His work has been translated into German, Spanish, Polish, French and Taiwanese. Several of his novels and stories have been optioned for film, one of which, The Ties That Bind, premiered on DVD in 2009 as a critically-acclaimed independent short. Keene’s work has been praised in such diverse places as The New York Times, The History Channel, The Howard Stern Show, CNN.com, Publisher’s Weekly, Fangoria Magazine, and Rue Morgue Magazine. Apex readers will remember his excellent work in the final issue of Apex Science Fiction and Horror Digest and the recently released anthology Dark Faith. You can communicate with him online at www.briankeene.com or on Twitter at twitter.com/BrianKeene.

It’s official. The Apex Alien presence has taken one large step forward in fruition of our global domination plans.

Contained within are twenty-one stories to showcase the unique talents that Apex has published and employed in the past five years. Apexology: Horror contains work from two Campbell Award winners, a Hollywood screenwriter, a NYT Bestselling Author, Nebula and Hugo nominees, Stoker Award winners, and Mari Adkins!

Get a taste of some of the best Apex has to offer. Study Apexology: Horror.

This is a digital only release!

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction: Five Years and Counting by Jason Sizemore
“It Tasted Like the Sea” by Paul Jessup
“Summon, Bind, Banish” by Nick Mamatas
“To Every Thing There is a Season” by Dru Pagliassotti
“Life’s a Beach” by Alethea Kontis and Ariell Branson
“Kusatenda Uroyi” by Gill Ainsworth
“Lottery” by Gene O’Neill
“Cerbo en Vitra ujo” by Mary Robinette Kowal
“The Spider in the Hairdo” by Michael A. Burstein
“The Dark Side” by Guy Hasson
“With the Beating of their Wings” by Martel Sardina
“Enough to Make a Devil” by R. Thomas Riley
“Flash of Light” by Jason Sizemore
“Transylvania Mission” by Lavie Tidhar
“Inside Looking Out (or: Falling Through the Worlds)” by Mari Adkins
“Powered” by Deb Taber
“Disturbing Things” by B.J. Burrow
“Eulogy for Muffin” by Jennifer Brozek
“Hands of Heritage” by Elizabeth Engstrom
“The Junkyard God” by M. Zak Anwar and O.M.R. Anwar
“Bessie Green’s Thumb” by Fran Friel
“Big Sister/Little Sister” by Jennifer Pelland

Download your copy here today!

Available as PDF, EPUB, MOBI, LRF, PDB, and LIT.

One of the most common questions I receive has to do with Apex Magazine and where do I find the money to keep it operating. They see that we pay five cents a word. They see that we buy great art each issue. They see that the published products are polished and edited. You’ll find few typos in our stories (and if you do, feel free to call us out on it, I’d prefer fixing it than leaving it for the world to see like some ugly cold sore). They want to know how do I fund Apex Magazine.

The answer is simple. Straight from my pocket.

How much is this exactly?

It doesn’t take a math wizard to get a close estimate of how much money is spent running Apex Magazine. Copy and pasting Nick’s story into Word gives us a value of approximately 2100 words. Doing the same for Theodora’s story and you’ll get around 7200 words. That alone is $465 in author expenses. The poem was $5 and we paid $25 for the VanderMeer reprint. All told, $495 in author expenses.

I’m not going to divulge what we paid the artist, but I can give an honest estimate of $50 per issue for the art.

Each issue costs on average $500-$600 to produce.

Even with my prior post asking our readers to consider becoming a minion, the magazine has earned $122.36 this month through donations, minion memberships, and digital copy sales. And this is an exceptional month. Most months the amount is $40-$60.

I love financing and producing Apex Magazine. But I sure could use an assist. Even if the amount earned was just half the cost to produce it would be a great help.

I don’t ever foresee me ending Apex Magazine. I love working with writers, artists, and editors too much for that to happen. Yet, painful concessions would have to be made eventually. Our word limit would decrease. Pay would drop below the professional rate. No more beautiful art to adorn each issue. Fewer reprints. No poetry.

This isn’t one of those patented Internet ultimatums: ya unappreciative bastards pony up or I close the show. This is me asking for some financial aid to help Apex Magazine remain a top-notch pro publication. I know it can be done because I know our site visit numbers. Since June, 2009, they have doubled. Over a 30 day span, a single story on Apex Magazine receives an average of 2000 unique visitors (and draws about 10 a day as long as it’s available).

Being a minion grants you benefits and rewards. You will receive each issue (in seven different eBook formats) a week before the content is posted online. You get a discount code for the Apex Store. There are a number of other benefits, as well. Check them out here.

If you’ve made it this far, well, thank you for your kind attention. But shouldn’t you be clicking the link above to become a minion? Get to it, already!

Why should you consider becoming an Apex minion?

Because the minion program is how we support the publication of Apex Magazine.

Most of you are familiar with our flagship publication. Apex Magazine is a monthly e-zine of dark speculative fiction in the short story format. The magazine has been in existence since 2005, with a switchover to digital only in June, 2008. In May, 2008, we upped our author payment to five cents a word. Soon after, the magazine became a SFWA-certified professional market.

In May, 2010, longtime fiction editor announced he would step down to be replaced by noted dark fantasy author Catherynne M. Valente. The current issue (August, 2010) is also her first.

Since the magazine’s inception, we’ve helped discover and nourish the careers of many talented authors, including: Mary Robinette Kowal, Peter M. Ball, Alethea Kontis, Douglas F. Warwick, Terra LeMay, Jerry Gordon, Katherine Sparrow, Jason Heller, and Jennifer Pelland. We’ve also published plenty of established talents such as Ekaterina Sedia, Lavie Tidhar, Theodora Goss, Ben Bova, William F. Nolan, Brian Keene, and Cherie Priest.

We ask past contributors and potential future contributors to spread the word about Apex Magazine. The best thing you can do is to ask your fans and friends to read our publication. Encourage them to donate or join the minion program. There are precious few professional-level genre publications for authors, so get out there and shake the bushes, and help us grow our readership.

We ask our readers to seriously consider paying $10 to become a minion and receive a digital subscription to the magazine. Higher levels receive higher rewards. Mugs! Shot glasses! Discounts! Oh my!

Want to be part of something awesome? Then become part of the story that is Apex Magazine.

Cover Artist Priscila Santos

Congratulations to Ms. Catherynne M. Valente on her premier issue as Apex Magazine’s fiction editor!

Original Fiction:

Fair Ladies by Theodora Goss
Four Is Me! With Squeeeeee! (And LOLer) by Nick Mamatas

Reprint:

Secret Life by Jeff VanderMeer
(originally appeared in Secret Life)

Poetry:

Dogstar Men by C.S.E. Cooney

Go here to read the August issue.

You can click on the cover image to read the issue for yourself. It takes you to the archives, so while you are there, read a little more.