Posts filed: meta

Last minute call for advertisers for issue 6.

Posted on 2011-07-08 at 01:56 by montsamu

Still haven't sold the back cover ($200) or back inside cover ($100) for issue 6. Full color, 8.5x11. Publication date July 30, on newsstands until late fall. Final art due July 15. Contact [email protected] for details. Previous back covers have included Pyr, Tor, and Solaris. Also have black and white full page space at $50. Back cover is for books and conventions only, inside is more open. Thanks! Back inside cover runs opposite editorial.

Posted in meta

Further afield. Some things beginning to unwrap.

Posted on 2010-09-01 at 02:09 by montsamu

So: making a bit of a regional and further push as I put the wraps on issue #2. (Which includes another box, though I have to decide how many.) A lot (lot!) of the regional pushes (Acme Comics in Greensboro, Barnes & Noble of Burlington, Black Bear Books of Boone, etc.) are pending, but a few further afield places are giving me a shot.

CHICAGO: Quimby's Bookstore will take anything, so I'm not special. But it was nice to get an e-mail receipt from them, so I know they've received the books. So, my fine

Posted in meta, store-announcements

Issue #1 is back in stock. In a big, big way. And quarters. And more.

Posted on 2010-08-26 at 00:57 by montsamu

So. I can't really say enough about Publisher's Press, without whom I don't think it would have been possible to start an honest-to-goodness, full-size, glossy, thick stock, some color print magazine at all. When I sold out of issue #1 at NASFIC I figured I was done with issue #1, period, end of story.

But then folks kept asking for #1. Heck, bookstores called me and asked for #1. So, I caved. I called up my printer and asked about one last run. Deliriously happy with the quote, I ordered one last box, and

Posted in meta

Two new homes for Bull Spec! Also, flyers! Also, a brief aside on selling out.

Posted on 2010-08-10 at 19:26 by montsamu

I'm very happy indeed that there are two more places in the Triangle where folks can get their hands on a copy of Bull Spec #2: The Durham County Library's Southwest Regional Branch on Shannon Road, and Duke University's Gothic Bookshop.

I want to talk about the library first, not only because it was there first chronologically but because, well, it's very awesome for me on a personal level to know that somebody can walk into the library and discover worlds, as I did all through my youth at my "home" public

Posted in meta, store-announcements

Closed to non-local submissions until 10 July.

Posted on 2010-06-08 at 14:02 by montsamu

As I've just updated the status on the guidelines page to indicate, Bull Spec is now temporarily closed to non-local submissions until (at least) 10 July as I try to catch up on the backlog of submissions and take stock of the stories already accepted and the magazine's needs for future issues.

Posted in meta

Things which BULL SPEC needs to do:

Posted on 2010-06-07 at 03:03 by montsamu

1. To send issue #2 to the printers. (Soon.)
2. See #1: finish edits on the reviews. Thank goodness interviews are locked and loaded, and final story edits are in my inbox! All art is locked in! Ads are almost locked in, one more to wait on. And:
3. To figure out how to communicate to real publishers when I want to excerpt a local author's novel. (See "#1: To send issue #2 to the printers" above.) I don't grok fax machines very well.
4. To get some story reading help. Seriously.
5. To get the interviews video podcast going

Posted in meta

Slight update to guidelines: no more multiple fiction submissions.

Posted on 2010-05-06 at 19:56 by montsamu

Simultaneous submissions are still welcome, and current multiple submissions will be read, but (1) due to giving not having "reading periods" a go and (2) the volume of submissions this is a change I'm having to make. It has been interesting to read more than one story from the same writer at one go, but as I try desperately to claw my way through at least the March submissions, I am going to give this a try in lieu of temporarily closing.

For poetry, multiple submissions are still fine (2 at most at a time,

Posted in meta

We're pleased to announce that BULL SPEC #1 is open for pre-orders.

Posted on 2009-12-14 at 14:20 by montsamu

While I'm sure we'll find the edge cases that lurk and wait to bite, no orders are getting mangled or lost. So: BULL SPEC #1 is open for pre-orders: http://www.bullspec.com/order.

[And source code for the Google App Engine to Paypal ExpressCheckout portion of the site is available on GitHub: bullpay.py]

While any feedback would be great, in particular:

1. Is having a pre-filled "suggested" gift appropriate? If not, should it be "0" or "empty" -- with "empty" requiring some value to be entered before submitting

Posted in code, meta

Pardon the mess; Getting ready for pre-orders.

Posted on 2009-12-09 at 15:22 by montsamu

Pardon the mess, folks. There will be some intermittent issues at bullspec.com and www.bullspec.com -- and potentially the e-mails @bullspec.com -- while we roll over some DNS records in preparation for opening a simple site to start accepting pre-orders for the print issue. We've found our printing partner and finalized our first-run costs ($3/copy: 64 lovely full-size glossy pages, pull-out-able serialized graphic novel in full color in the middle if we can close on that in time), and are now working to

Posted in meta

Looking for a serialized graphic novel for the 2010 run.

Posted on 2009-12-07 at 10:47 by montsamu

OK. Let's do this. BULL SPEC is looking for a 4 issue (2-4 full size pages each) spec fiction related comic for the 2010 run. Reprints OK. PG to low PG-13 rating. For original work: Not pro advance payment for comics at this time, but the text will be advanced at $0.05/word along with some additional advance for the art, though not at "a picture is a thousand words" as we would all like, not yet. But not insulting, and BULL SPEC will revert its share of all royalties to the authors until a pro advance is

Posted in meta