this is letter from hj mag:Farewell, So Long
For nearly 24 years, it has been a pleasure to bring you Handjobs every month. Sadly, this issue is the last issue of Handjobs we are publishing.
We first published Handjobs in April of 1991. We only made twelve copies of that first issue, and with butterflies in our stomachs, took them to A Different Light Bookstore in San Francisco. To our surprise, the magazine buyer bought them on the spot and a week later called to order more.
Every month since then, we have published Handjobs, 283 issues in all. However, with bookstores closing at a steady clip, and the number of subscribers waning, there are no longer sufficient readers to keep this magazine going.
At one time we were hoping that we could keep Handjobs going as an online magazine. A few years ago, it seemed like a very promising venture. However, as the internet has exploded, it has become a medium where only a few people are willing to pay for anything. Within hours of posting a new issue of Handjobs on our site, readers are copying and sharing it and making it available for free to anyone. As a result, very few of the people who are currently reading Handjobs are paying for Handjobs, and without revenue coming in, we are unable to keep buying artwork and hosting our web servers.
We will be closing our doors and our website on October 31, 2014. To purchase any of our many back issues, Handjobs Anthologies, Dad's Bedtime Tales, and any of our other publications, please place your orders as soon as possible.
It truly has been an honor to serve you these many years. We wish we could keep publishing for many more years, but unfortunately, that's no longer feasible. Best wishes to you all, and we wish you all much joy and happiness.:thinking:X_X