In which Cheryl Morgan answers some common questions about Emerald City.

Is this a Wizard of Oz magazine

No, I just liked the title. See below for more detail on why I chose it.

What content can I expect then?

The primary content of the magazine is reviews of science fiction and fantasy books. You will also find a material about conventions, films, TV, comics and other media that involve SF&F.

Do you cover horror?

The borderline between "dark fantasy" and "horror" is very fuzzy, so we'll cover some material that people might class as horror. But you are unlikely to find reviews of things like "Freddie v Jason" here.

How do I submit work for publication or books for review ?

See the separate Submissions page.

How often do you publish?

We aim to produce one issue a month. We have managed to keep to that for ten years, so we are getting quite confident about our ability to stick to that.

How can I receive the magazine?

Emerald City is available in a variety of formats. If you are here you know it is available on line. A notification mailing list is available if you wish to be informed when new issues are published. Alternatively the magazine is available for download in either Microsoft Word or PDF format.

Are all the versions the same?

The web site version includes more in the way of artwork, hyperlinks and so on. Most people seem to think think that downloading a paper version makes for easier reading.

What's all this about paper sizes?

There are two major standards for paper size in the world. North America and various other places influenced by the US uses "letter" paper. Europe and its former colonies use "A4" paper. The Word and PDF versions of Emerald City are formatted to fit the paper on which they are to be printed, so for best results you need to get the version of the paper size you will be using.

Will you post me a printed version?

No. We have neither the time nor the money to handling printing and posting If you want a printed version there are plenty of options for getting hold of something you can print yourself.

What if I post you a copy of my fanzine in trade?

As we don't post out issues we can't trade them for fanzines.

Do you accept advertising?

Yes. See here for our ad rates.

Do you particpate in link and banner exchanges?

No. The Web already has far too many pages cluttered up with huge numbers of links. We will only link to a site if a) it is somehow related to the subject of the magazine, and b) we think it is especially worth looking at.

Do you only review books you like?

Well, no reviewer really wants to have to read a book that they don't like, so when people opt to review a book they do so with the expectation that they will like it. On the other hand, sometimes that expectation proves misguided If one of our reviewers does not like a book then they'll say so.

Do you review e-books?

Yes, if they are good enough. Electronic publishing is very cheap and easy. As a consequence the is a vast amount of material out there, most of it self-published and not very good. We try to review only the best quality SF&F fiction. If some of that is published as e-books, all well and good. But if you are publishing electronically because you can't get accepted by a print publisher there may be a good reason for those rejections.

Why haven't you reviewed any books by X?

To begin with there are far more SF&F books published each month than we can possibly cover. In addition, see the above comments about reviewers only wanting to review books they think they will enjoy.

Do you come from Seattle?

No. The name Emerald City came from a tourist brochure I read when I first moved to Melbourne which described my new home as the green city in the land of Oz (other Australian cities tend to be too hot for much greenery). However, I was delighted when the Seattle in 2002 Worldcon Bid Committee saw fit to advertise my fanzine on their t-shirts, even though I was working for a rival bid. Thanks guys :-).

So are you Australian?

No. I was born in England of Welsh parentage. I happen to have lived in Melbourne and in the San Francisco Bay Area. I love both places and try to revisit them whenever possible.