Two very well-known and much-loved genre sites have announced their closure over the last few days. First SF Signal, long-running multi-contributor site established by John DeNardo and JP Frantz. Then My Bookish Ways, the blog of SF Signal associate editor Kristin Centorcelli.
These closures have prompted renewed discussion about various issues that have been around in SFF blogging circles for some years. How to balance the necessary time with a day job and family? How to make money from blogging? Will only corporate-funded sites survive? What is the future of genre blogging? And: where have all the good blogs gone?
One of the SF Signal gang, Andrea Johnson, sees the mother site’s closure as the moment for her and others to go forward on tbeir own. John DeNardo has affirmed this.
Personally, I am sad about the closure of SF Signal and My Bookish Ways, but optimistic about the future of genre blogging. The good news is that there are still many very good sites out there. The answer to the question “where have all the good blogs gone?” is “two have gone, but many more remain.”
The proof of that is in the following list of sites I follow. Some are large multi-person sites, others are one-person blogs. All, as far as I know, are active and have no immediate plans to close. I must have forgotten some worthy sites, but that only proves how many there still are… .
A Fantastical Librarian
ATG Reviews
Battered, Tattered, Yellowed, & Creased
Beauty in Ruins
Best Fantasy Books
BiblioSanctum
Bibliotropic
Blog, Jvstin Style
Book Punks
Book Smugglers
Books by Proxy
Books Without Any Pictures
Books, Bones and Buffy
Bookworm Blues
Bookwraiths
Civilian Reader
Dark Wolf’s Fantasy Reviews
Dragons and Jetpacks
Dreaming About Other Worlds
Drunken Dragon Reviews
Earthian Hivemind
Ebookwyrm
Every Day Should Be Tuesday
Fantastic Reviews
Fantasy Book Critic
Fantasy Book Review
Fantasy Cafe
Fantasy Faction
Fantasy Literature
From Couch to Moon
From the Wastes
Galleywampus
Garbage File
Geekritique
Jim’s Scifi Blog
Leona’s Blog of Shadows
Little Red Reviewer
Lynn’s Books
MPorcius Fiction Log
Mervi’s Book Reviews
Mighty Thor JRS
MyLifeMyBooksMyEscape
Nerds of a Feather
Neth Space
Not Yet Read
Over the Effing Rainbow
Pip’s Book Reviews
Pornokitsch
Qwillery
Rabid Reads
Red Star Reviews
Relentless Reading
Revolution SF
Rinn Reads
Rob’s Blog o’ Stuff
Ruthless Culture
Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Review
SciFi Chick
Science Fiction Ruminations
SFFWorld
SF Mistressworks
SF Potpourri
SF Reviews.net
Skiffy and Fanty
Space and Sorcery
Speculative Book Review
Speculative Herald
Stainless Steel Droppings
Templeton Gate
Tenacious Reader
The Arched Doorway
The Critical Dragon
The Eloquent Page
The Fictional Hangout
The PorPor Books Blog
The Quill to Live
The Wertzone
The World in the Satin Bag
Thoughts on Fantasy
Tsana’s Reads and Reviews
Two Dudes in an Attic
Val’s Random Comments
Weighing a Pig Doesn’t Fatten It
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S.C. Flynn 
My Bookish Ways – Oh, I didn’t know!! What is going on?
Anyway, great piece. It’s a difficult balance to strike isn’t it!
Lynn 😀
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Yes, MBW as well – sorry to be the one to break you the news, Lynn
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You left out Chuck Wendig’s Terribleminds and the Vandermeer’s Weird Fiction Review.
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Thanks, Johann. I must have missed others as well, because there are so many good sites!
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This definitely was sad news when it broke. But thanks for the mention–we’re not going anywhere!
Bill (from fantasyliterature.com)
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Glad to hear it!
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Thank you so much for including me in your list. I am honored, Sir!
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You are welcome, Evan!
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I run a one-person book blog at http://www.booksandtea.ca – would you be willing to add mine to your list? I review SF/F primarily, but some non-fiction and literary work too.
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Thanks for this awesome list! 😀
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A pleasure, Kellie – I hope it helps you find some new sites.
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Thanks for the kind word! I shall endeavor to up my post rate….
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Reblogged this on Dragons & Jetpacks and commented:
Nice recognition of our Blog and others 🙂
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Thank you for including The Qwillery! I’m so sad that SF Signal and MBW have closed. They were two of my favorite sites and were run by exceptional people!
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Yes to all that, Sally!
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Thank you so much for mentioning my tiny corner of the book-loving universe!
The news about the closing of SF Signal made me quite sad, because it was one of my daily stopovers, but your impressive list showed me there is so much more to explore… Thanks for sharing!
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My sentiments exactly, Maddalena – it is sad, but there are a lot of other great sites out there
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There’s also SFFWorld.com. All volunteers.
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Thanks, Nila. Embarrassing that I left them out – sorry, Dag! That’s what happens when you blog straight off the plane after midnight… .
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There’s my SF Potpourri for short story collection (thanks for the mention), but also my Tongues of Speculation for translated work.
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Thanks for adding me to this list! It means a lot, really 🙂 There are couple blogs here I haven’t actually read before, so I’ll have to check them out too.
Also, this may be weird, but you’re one of the few people who types the name of my blog correctly!!! While it is grammatically correct to have “My Life, My Books, My Escape”, or “My Life My Books My Escape” I do not like that way either of them looks XD
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Agree that your blog name is cooler the way you write it!
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The loss of SF Signal is a downer for sure. 12 years is a long time to be doing this and I’m impressed they were able to keep it going that long. Thanks to them for all their years of hard work. Thank you S.C. Flynn for including is on your list of good blogs.
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It’s up to you guys at ATG and the rest now – no pressure…
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I understand how hard it is to make time for blogging. I’ve tried to post every week for the past 2+ years. I haven’t always achieved that goal, but I’ve done pretty well, and I hope to continue for many more years. If the time committment ever gets to be too much, I hope I won’t quit — maybe I’ll slow down to posting every other week.
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Reduction of posting is fine – just don’t go closing on us, William!
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….the qualifier in the title is the thing that disturbs.
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As a just starting out aspiring fantasy fiction/non-fiction writer, I’m thankful for the work you’ve done in gathering these links in one place. I am a bit surprised that everything seems so narrowly focused on news, hype, lists, and reviews, with only occasional posts that feel more discussion-oriented. I’ve had no trouble finding places to pitch and publish thesis-driven history and context pieces on video games, but I’m not seeing much of that sort of content on these blogs. Are there sites with that kind of orientation for fantasy literature? Or does that sort of content usually just squeeze into the fiction mag non-fiction sections and personal blogs in the fantasy community?
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Thanks for adding me to the list, I already follow and read 3/4 of it, but I didn’t know about the other amazing blogs here. Thanks for putting this list together! I’m planning to do some kind of portal for curating RSS feeds of speculative fiction book blogs, but never had the time to get around to it. I think it would be nice to have a categorized portal like that.
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Sure would
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Thanks very much for mentioning my little blog!
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A pleasure
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