Membership

Transfer Orbit is a newsletter about science fiction, writing, and the future of reading, and it's largely written by Andrew Liptak.

I'm a journalist who's covered entertainment and fandom for more than a decade for places like io9, OneZero, Polygon, Tor.com, and others, and this newsletter is a way for me to continue that work independently. While largely free, a small contingent of readers help supports this work.

Transfer Orbit has garnered praise from members of the SF/F community, who've called it an "indispensable resource" and a "great combination of commentary, reporting, and analysis" of the SF world. It's been featured in The Washington Post and Vulture, and has been reprinted in places like Slate and Lifehacker.

Public vs. Readers vs. Supporters

Public

These are posts that everybody can read:

• A weekly-ish "Roundup" message (which pulls out a couple of key pieces of news about the science fiction and fantasy world, links to long reads that might be of interest, and a roundup of what I've been reading lately)
• Book reviews
• Monthly roundup of new SF/F books each month.

Readers

Readers are free subscribers who get all free messages that I send out, but who aren't paid supporters.

• They'll sometimes get some additional commentary, above and beyond the Public tier.

Supporters

Supporters are paying members of Transfer Orbit, and thus get additional posts in addition to the free posts.

• These posts feature in-depth reporting, features, or additional commentary about the news of the week.
• Dedicated Slack group to chat with their fellow readers.
• The occasional short story that I finish.

Why Support Transfer Orbit?

Freelancing is hard: outlets have cut back on their freelance budgets, and it's sometimes difficult to get a lengthy, in-depth piece put together quickly when it's most relevant. Writing a newsletter gives me a direct line to you, the reader.

Subscribing helps support my writing, in which I look to explore and explain the mechanics of the SF/F world and why it matters to you, a reader, viewer, or listener. Subscribers also help support the publication for the larger subscription base by allowing me to devote time and resources (like transcription, images, editing, hosting, etc.) to tell these stories, round up the news, and highlight what might next appear on your TBR pile.