I’ve been thinking about the cost of Mormon journals lately and wondering how much I’d pay per year to receive every short story and poem published during that year by Irreantum, Dialogue, Sunstone, Segullah and BYU Studies. I’m not sure, so I’m going to ask all of you. Now, ignore the fact that this is incredibly unlikely to happen for a variety of reasons — not to mention that it could cannibalize full subscriptions (although that’s debatable). Here’s what I want to know: considering the number of well-edited Mormon-themed (or at least written by LDS authors) short stories, plays and poems that are published in the venues mentioned above each year, how much would you be willing to pay receive all of them in electronic form (iPhone/iPad, Android app and/or periodic [once per quarter] e-book download)?
[poll id=”2″]
I’m going to guess that the market for the whole set of stories and poems is probably quite small. But since the thought occurred to me and AMV does have a (never before used) poll function, I thought I’d ask.
A Motley Vision 
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I’m not sure. Until I get an ereader and really get a sense of how much things are worth to me, I just don’t know. But yes, I would be willing to pay something, certainly.
I paid $15 for my iPhone Scriptures App. It has a fairly extensive library (scriptures, manuals, a number of books, etc.) and automatically downloads the Church magazines every month. I’d be willing to pay at least that much on a yearly basis for access to Mormon fiction/poetry.
FWIW, I looked at the subscription cost of each: BYU Studies $25, Dialogue $25, Irreantum $25, Segullah $12, Sunstone $45.
Total $142
Of course, its not like you can substitute the anthology William describes for all these subscriptions. The rest of the material in the journals also have value.
Nor is it true that this would give you ALL the fiction published during the year — there are other venues that would publish a Mormon story or poem.
I should add, FWIW, that in my case this would likely be in addition to the journals themselves. I think I’m more likely to keep the journals (at least those I subscribe to) and add this publication, than replace the journals with this publication.
Others may have a different view.
All good points, Kent — and thanks for doing my research for me. I was about to look all that up.
See there’s no way that I would subscribe to all of them. At most I’d spring for 2. But I’d be willing to pay for Irreantum and Dialogue and then pay $20-30 for a fiction/poetry package. That’s still $80. But $80 is less than $142 — and in the years where I may have to drop down to one or no subscriptions, I’d still find the $30 so at least the journals would be getting *something* from me.
But I should stop talking about this as a possibility. Mainly what I’m interested in is how much a large set of Mormon short fiction and poetry is worth to me (and the rest of you).
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Although this might result in me cancelling the subscriptions I now have, that’s only because I’m now subscribing to more total. And if other people have the same reaction, it could be a net gain.
Right now I have a subscription to Irreantum only. I’ve come close to subscribing to the others now and then (or have subscribed to them in the past), but right now just the one. So if I switched to this package, all five would get a piece of my action. And if six someone elses who weren’t subscribing to Irreantum did the same, it could mean a net gain.
Could. It would be a risk for them.
But then again…..
I think it would be worth the experiment.
Not that I think the logistics make it likely….
For the most part, I take Dialogue, Sunstone and Irreantum for the fiction. I rarely have time to read the other stuff (though my hubbie does read other articles, particularly those related to the scientific). I have taken BYU Studies, but never Segullah. (Why is that?) That places my cost at $95 to read what would, if it came out in a book length form, only cost me about $15-20. Gosh. I really wish you guys hadn’t drawn this out for me. It looks like a really bad investment.
But we need these journal forms–all of them–and so I support three of them financially. Occasionally I have even donated. This is why I really like the Best of Mormonism series that Stephen Carter has begun. It may not pick up everything pertaining to LDS short fiction, but it has the potential to pick up the best stuff from these listed journals and, more importantly, from journals other than these familiar ones.