Fictionwise Magazine Sale

As some of you know, I tend to buy my fiction/short story magazines from Fictionwise. They are DRM-Free, in multiple formats (multiformat) and stay on your bookshelf "forever" (or as long as the store lasts), rather than being limited to just the last few copies. You can read them on any of your readers or your PC, also, rather than being limited to a single device, as is true of the subscriptions in the Amazon store.

This week (thru Sunday), Fictionwise is having a sale on their magazines - all of their one subscriptions have a 25% micropay rebate and and two year subscriptions get a 20% rebate (members get an additional 15% off the list price, as well). This is an instant credit to your account, which can then be used towards the purchase of any other books or subscriptions (although some rebates, including this one, don't work when you pay with Micropay Credit, the smaller percentages do).

They also have a good deal on back issues of Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine: From now until November 30, get all 2008 issues in a half-priced bundle for ONLY $24.00 ($20.40 for members).

Because of the way their searches work, I can't give you a link just to the subscriptions, but if you click HERE and then enter SUBSCRIPTION in the title search, you'll get a quick list of all the one and two year subscriptions.

To give you a quick idea of how the prices compare, Amazon charges $2.99/month for Analog Science Fiction & Fact, or $35.88/year. You can then read this on one Kindle device, but not on the iPhone or PC App and up to six issues remain on your device (although it could be fewer) unless you save them manually to your PC. Fictionwise charges $32.97/year for a subscription, so you save some right off the bat. This is then discounted to $28.02/year for members. If you pay by credit card/paypal, you get 25% of the price back as a credit ($8.24 or $7.01). If you were to purchase 4 subscriptions by credit card, you would have enough in your micropay account to then purchase a fifth subscription with credit (for which you would not get a rebate, in the current sale). Or, just save it and use on another book in the future.

If you happen to be a five-year member (which they charge for), you also get a 100% rebate on all books (not on magazines) paid for via credit card, up to $300, this week (on top of the usual 15% discount). Most of their books do have DRM and are not compatible with the Kindle, but their multiformat books (and magazines) are. Their ereader format will work with the upcoming Nook and their epub format works with the Nook and most of the Sony devices (and some others, as well). All the formats have at least one reader that works on PC's, as well.

If you have existing micropay credit, the magazine sale isn't as good a deal, since you'll accumulate more credit when extending your subscriptions ... in this case, I'd wait (unless you are about to expire) to see if they have another sale later on that lets you use your credit and still get the discount/rebate.