As of 2 March 2008, Speculations is no longer in the business of publishing market information for writers.
You'll continue to receive exactly what you ordered from Speculations directly from Cynthia Ward, the Market Maven herself. All paid subscriptions have already been transferred and will be honored. If you have ever been an e-mail suscriber to Speculations and the address we have on file from you is still good, The Market Maven--containing the January and February market news, plus the very last Ego Shelf and a goodbye message from us--should be in your e-mail now.
Yes, absolutely. A free taste of The Market Maven is available right here.
All future correspondence, including PayPal subscriptions--same price, $20 per year--should go to:
market.maven.subscriptions@gmail.com
Please update your filters to expect mail from this address. If your subscription suddenly stops, check your spam filters and your Junk box.
The California address will close shortly; please take a moment to update your address books now.
Over the years, we gave out many "lifetime" subscriptions to Speculations contributors, in exchange for the right to publish their articles online in perpetuity. Since those articles have all been removed from the site, these agreements are no longer in force. All contributor subscriptions have been reset to one-year gift subscriptions to The Market Maven, and will expire in March of 2009.
Shutting down The Rumor Mill was not done lightly. The main contributing factor was the advanced age and questionable provenance of many of the postings. Although anonymous action was a cherished and important difference about The Rumor Mill, it was very difficult to maintain. We had a ton of spam, much trolling and flaming, and many instances where material was posted anonymously, clearly identified with a byline, and caused trouble for its author (or someone else with the same name) years later.
In the end, we couldn't maintain The Rumor Mill without breaking the promise we made in 1996: not to ever retroactively change the moderation policy.
Many vibrant communities for writers remain. We strongly recommend Absolute Write, Teresa and Patrick Nielsen Hayden's Making Light, and the writers' newsgroups at sff.net. And keep an eye on SFWA's Writer Beware page; it will save you much heartache.
Like a radio station after a format change, Speculations will go dormant long enough for everyone to get used to the fact that it's no longer broadcasting to its former audience. And then ... plans are afoot.
Here's your only hint: you'll hear about it first from The Market Maven.