Mike Ashley, who for years has been hard at work on his multi-volume series The History of the Science Fiction Magazine—there have been four installments so far, covering 1926–1935, 1936–1945, 1946–1955, and 1956–1965—is finally into modern times, which includes Science Fiction Age, the magazine I edited from 1992-2000.

That means I spent a few weeks recently struggling to remember all I could about editing the magazine, as well as the planning that went on long before you saw the first issue, which launched at the 1992 World Science Fiction Convention in Orlando. Luckily, I didn’t have to rely entirely on memories, because when I was trying to convince Mark Hintz and Carl Gnam to choose me as the editor for their as-yet-unnamed science fiction magazine, I proactively prepared an 11-page document analyzing the periodicals market of the day and what could be our place in it, which I presented to them during our second meeting, held September 15, 1991.

I didn’t share the whole thing with Mike, nor will I share it with you—perhaps someday—but here are two excepts you might find interesting. So let’s go back more than 22 years, back to when I was hoping to persuade a couple of guys I’d only met a few days before to let me edit a new science fiction magazine for them. (A magazine which was their idea to begin with, but only a vague idea, as when they’d advertised in the Washington Post for a part-time editor they knew very little about the field, only that they perceived SF to be an underserved niche.)

Pompous, perhaps. And I know, I know, the Sturgeon quote should have reflected “crud,” not “crap.”

But it worked!