2024 Radon Retrospective

Since our launch on New Year's Day 2022, no year has brought more change than 2024. To say that we grew in 2024 is an understatement.

While we said goodbye to five editors (Saga, Sol, Kelsey, Eden, Alecto), we said hello to a whopping thirteen editors and readers (Angelica, Blake, Francis, Kallie, Lucas, Maya, Myranda, Renee, Katerina, Chloe, Dylan, James, and William).

One year ago we had never produced a print issue. Now, we have two under our belt and print has become an established aspect of our journal.

We realized this year that our previous modus operandi of all editors work equally on every aspect of the journal was no longer tenable. While Aimer remains a consistent presence from launch to the future, losing editor institutional knowledge hampers the journal greatly. So in 2024, we decided to specialize. This meant editors dedicated to working on editorial, marketing, or production. The fruits of this have just begun with Issue 9 and will come into their own for Issue 10 and beyond.

Our marketing aspirations grow larger each year as we aim to reach more people across an increasing number of platforms. Our interview series and author spotlight series also continue to rise in production value and time investment.

Our production schedule has grown increasingly stress-inducing. We now simultaneously produce Radon issues across the following formats: Web, PDF, Print 5.5 x 8.5, A5, and Epub. Having all of these ready at the same time ahead of launch day to make our print deadlines has necessitated extensive changes on our backend and we have learned on the job quickly. Issue 9 managed to be available worldwide on launch day and we are proud of this accomplishment. We have also implemented extensive interior graphic improvements to our print edition to ensure a more readable and professional experience. We also continue to update our website and give new features.

Due to increasing submissions, we brought on first readers so that editorial can bring down overall meeting discussion time and give them more time to focus on developmental editing with authors. Radon remains committed to being a literary journal that uniquely offers its accepted authors professional services to polish their work until they shine. As a newer semi-pro journal we mostly receive work that is one draft from perfection and needs a little editing love to shine.

In order to reduce the endless difficulty of procuring professional and exciting art for each issue, in 2024 we created the Artist-in-Residence position. Rather than switching artists each issue we now have artists join us in one-year increments to work with us directly across three issues. Beyond this, we aim to work with them on website art and other community goodies. In addition, this helps us elevate our artists and offer them consistent payments and introduction to a literary community that may not have otherwise encountered them.

Journal Reality

Science fiction journals and magazines remain defined by the effort their volunteers put into the project. They are sustained by sheer force of will and passion. Radon has not been profitable since our inception, but we did not expect it to be. We are grateful for our new Patron supporters and hope you will stick with us. We got close to our $200/month goal reaching an apex of $160. Currently due to economic uncertainty in the US we're down to $130. That said, we made great efforts to increase the money and goods we give back to our paying patrons in 2024. $15 patrons now receive a free print copy every issue, and $10 patrons an at-cost purchase option. We also created a new and amazing Patron mug design alongside a sleek new Radon sticker design.

Our Discord community remains a vibrant (and growing) worldwide writing community. No few days go by without in-depth discussions about the state of the short story and poetry publishing worlds, and new submission opportunities. But more than the utility is the consistent and widespread support every member of the community has for one another. The uplifting and cheering is a joy to see.

We intimately understand the precarious world Radon finds itself in 2025. Doubly so as an expressly anarchist publication with a staff that is almost entirely comprised of previously protected classes. We assure you that as of now we have no plans to change our trajectory or capitulate to any fascists or Nazis in power. In fact, we now consider our work more important than ever. We, like you, are unsure how existence will change in the coming weeks and months. If we have to go underground, change our branding, or otherwise pivot to protect our authors and community, we will let you know right away. Thank you for keeping with us and fighting back.

Interesting miscellaneous 2024 things:

• Locus finally recognized that we exist and BSFA shortlisted us

• We received a CLMP grant to implement site improvements

• Radon is in bookstores from California to Philadelphia

• We began a partnership with Seditionist in the UK to be our printer/distributor and bring us to anarchist bookfairs in Wales and England

• Twitter fell as our primary social media and Bluesky has taken its place for the broader writing community

• A print copy of Issue 8 has just finished crisscrossing the UK and EU and is now in America getting signed by its authors before arriving at our EIC.

• Radon was ranked #8 for best fiction lit mags of 2024 by the Chill Subs Community

2025 will see us exhibit at conferences for the first time (Balticon and Philcon). We've already upped our fiction limit to 5,000 became an entirely original-work journal, and just launched our first Radon art contest. Find out what it's all about on our socials or our Discord. We hope to continue on through Issues 10 and 11 this year, and so many more beyond.

Vive la révolution littéraire.