Astounding SF: Sale Date vs. Cover Date

Extollager

Extollager

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Can someone help me? ...I am interested in knowing when a given issue of Astounding would have been on sale. Let's say the issue with a cover date of Jan. 1943. My guess is that the magazine was actually on sale in November 1942. Can anyone pin this topic down? Thanks. Specifically I want to know what issue(s) would be on sale in November of 1942.
 
I subscribed to Analog (Astounding's successor) and Asimov's for decades. Subscribers received our issues two, maybe three weeks before the first day of the cover-month. I don't believe that they were intended to be put to retail display more than a day or two before the first day of the month.
 
Alex and Jo, thank you for these comments -- however really I was after something more specialized, namely the question of cover date vs sale date in the 1940s. For an article I'm writing, it would be nice to know which issue(s) of Astounding were on the newsstands in November 1942. My inclination is to guess that the January issue was, with "Nothing but Gingerbread Left," etc. I can just guess and say I'm guessing -- this isn't a key element in the proposed artice; but I'd be happy to be able to be more exact.
 
Extollager said:
Alex and Jo, thank you for these comments -- however really I was after something more specialized, namely the question of cover date vs sale date in the 1940s. For an article I'm writing, it would be nice to know which issue(s) of Astounding were on the newsstands in November 1942. My inclination is to guess that the January issue was, with "Nothing but Gingerbread Left," etc. I can just guess and say I'm guessing -- this isn't a key element in the proposed artice; but I'd be happy to be able to be more exact.
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If you can find an old newsagent they may still have their ledgers - we used to use books where the title and received/on sale date were recorded. It’s a long shot but I can’t think where else would have a record
 
And thanks, Vince and (again) Jo.

I might be able to find out about this if I trawled through a bunch of scanned fanzines at the fanac.org site (which hasn't been updated since Nov. 2 -- I wonder what's up over there).
 
Vince W said:
Taking a quick look at Archive.org it seems that the November issue of Astounding was Vol. 30 Issue 3 and was published on November 1 by Penny Publications.

Astounding Science Fiction 1942-11: Vol 30 Iss 3 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

I think it's entirely possible that the November 1942 issue was printed and distributed during that month. I'm not sure that current publishing practices would apply.
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On flip-page 4 of 133, in a small box in the lower-left corner it says: 'Out Second Friday Each Month' -- 'Next issue on sale Nov. 13.' Nov. 13, 1942 was indeed a Friday. In small print it also states, 'Monthly publications issued by Street and Smith Publications, Inc.' (NYC).

On flip-page 130 under Classified Advertising it also states: Coming Up! Moving up in the month, henceforth, Astounding Science-Fiction's publication date moves forward from the third Friday to the Second Friday next month. Watch for the December Astounding one week earlier. Out November 13, 1942.

I would check the same spots in the October and December issues to confirm that.

October's issue has similar notes as follows: 'Out Third Friday Each Month' -- 'Next issue on sale Oct. 16.'

December's issue states: 'Out Second Friday Each Month' -- 'Next issue on sale Dec. 11.'

K2
 
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