alt Hacker NewsWe're pausing Asimov Press
Comments
It feels like a quick intro on what Asimov Press was in the first place would've been a good idea.
FYI: this is not Asimov's Science Fiction, the pulp sci fi magazine, found along with Analog Science Fiction and Fact at convenience stores near me, but something else.
I just started reading Asimov press. It has a weird name, I thought they were a sci-fi publishing company at first.
It had a unique blend of popular science writing that was sorely missing from the internet. Alas I hardly knew thee.
I discovered them last year on Substack and they quickly became a priority read. A sort of Quanta for biology, taking time to explain enough for a popular audience but keeping technical rigor deep into some fascinating topics.
Some highlights:
https://open.substack.com/pub/cell/p/dna-sequencing?utm_sour...
https://open.substack.com/pub/cell/p/phi80?utm_source=share&...
https://open.substack.com/pub/cell/p/antibody-design?utm_sou...
https://open.substack.com/pub/cell/p/viral-capsids?utm_sourc...
https://open.substack.com/pub/cell/p/legibility-problem?utm_...
...All in the last month! At least they went out with a bang.
Asimov has supported us for the last two years, and we’ve received generous grants from Astera Institute and Stripe
It’s not a business capable of operating without grants or support from its tech parent.
With eight people on the masthead, the outlays are significant for a publishing venture.
I see this pattern a lot -- folks start a publication, publish for a handful of years, and then shutter. I did it myself with Compelling Science Fiction magazine. This is why I settled on releasing only one book per year, it's sustainable while working full-time on other projects.
Truly sad to see this go so soon.
Maybe I am living under the rock but I never seen a .press TLD before
I doubt anyone here cared and was reading for free for years. This "pausing" post got them the highest hearts and comments on their substack.
The problem is, they are not charging when they should.
Ah, I found this particularly offensive when I heard about the naming of the parent company. Randomly nicking a famous person's name for your company is pretty rubbish behaviour IMO. The odiousness decreases as a function of time since a person's death.
https://www.asimov.press/about
>We are an editorially-independent part of [Asimov](https://www.asimov.com/).
It seems to be a vanity publication for some kind of genetic engineering company.