Back in April I received an email from Science Fiction World in China asking if they could reprint my “Tales of the Chinese Zodiac” stories — 12 flash pieces under 500 words each that originally ran in Strange Horizons and were then collected in a Tropism Press chapbook. I happily said yes.
Science Fiction World has a circulation of 300,000 print copies. (That’s a 3 followed by 5 zeroes, for real.) They estimate that because of the way the magazine is passed around, they have a readership of one million people. One million.
So it’s fairly safe to say that more people will read those short stories than will read everything else I write for the rest of my life combined. (Unless that hypothetical movie deal ever comes through.) I’m still trying to wrap my head around the numbers. Perhaps when I get my contributor copies in the mail, it will start to feel real.
In the meantime, you can read the “Tales of the Chinese Zodiac” online at Strange Horizons for free.
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