First I’d like to thank everyone—readers, writers, and volunteers—who have supported MindFlights with their time, talent, and money. We appreciate your support. Truly we couldn’t publish MindFlights without you.

Due to a shortfall in both money and staff time, we have had to make some changes in order to keep MindFlights running.

Rather than cut back the amount we pay authors—or, even worse, become a non-paying market—we have decided to simply publish fewer works. We are aiming for about four works a month, instead of the eight-to-twelve we had originally planned to publish. We believe this will keep the quality of the works high while allowing us to stay open on a more limited budget.

Also, we will no longer offer payments by check. All author payments will be made via PayPal. This is much less time-consuming for us. Plus it is cheaper and saves trees. I know it may be an inconvenience for some writers and that some prefer the “trophy” value of a physical check, but right now the only way we can pay writers on a timely basis is to pay them via PayPal. I appreciate your understanding.

As a way to cut costs, we will no longer be producing a quarterly print edition. To be honest, as much as I love having a quarterly print edition, it is by far the biggest drain on our financial resources. So, during these lean times, it has to go.

Instead, we will produce an annual print edition. It will contain our favorite stories and poems from that year's online editions. At the end of each calendar year, we will choose items for the print edition and publish them early in the following year. For instance, our first yearly print edition will cover 2009 and be published in early 2010.

Now for the plea...

We need about $720 total in order to publish just two stories and two poems during each month of next year. That may seem like a lot, but if only one hundred people donated $10 each, it would be more than enough to cover next year’s expenses.

If you enjoy MindFlights, please consider donating toward next year’s budget. Even just $5 (the cost of one poem) would help. You can donate through PayPal by using the "Make a Donation" button at the top of our forum page.

Please help MindFlights continue publishing great speculative fiction that is free for all readers.

Thank you for your support.

Selena Thomason
Managing Editor,
MindFlights magazine

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