Fall 1992, I joined the Doctor Who Information Network fanclub and submitted them my first manuscript. Due to a change in editors of DWIN's fan fiction anthology, Myth Makers, I didn't receive a reply till June 1993.
The new editor, James Bow, wrote me an encouraging letter, accepting "Impostor" on the basis of a rewrite and including insightful suggestions for changes. Included with the letter was an annotated copy of story, indicating strengths and weaknesses. Fortunately, I'd already begun work on a rewrite in additon to work on the sequel story.
James was preparing the second issue of Myth Makers (his first as editor) for a fall 1993 release and planned to include my story, which I'd completed over the summer with further tweaks by James. However, due to limited space and not wanting to split the story over two issues, "Impostor" was published in its entirety with illustrations in Myth Makers 3 (1994).
The sequel story, "City of the Sun", would have seen the new Doctor and his Gallifreyan companion Athena travel between ancient and twentieth-century Egypt, fixing a rift in time caused by a war between the Cheetah People of the televised story "Survival" and their reptilian enemies, the Shly-Ka (created for this story). By 1997, I'd only written half the tale and abandoned it to write "To Go Beyond" instead, which included the Shly-Ka and hints of their backstory.
Virgin Publishing debuted the Doctor Who: The New Adventures novel series in 1991, picking up immediately after the series. Regular monthly releases didn't begin till early 1993. Summer 1994, Virgin introduced a second novel series, The Missing Adventures, featuring previous incarnations of the Doctor.
By 1995, fans were creating categorized archives of online fan fiction forum stories. Fan fiction zines still had an edge, offering illustrations, themed issues and stylish layouts using desktop publishing software.
In 1997, BBC Books took over the release of twice-a-month Who novel releases, with the Eighth Doctor Adventures and Past Doctor Advetures. Big Finish Productions then debuted the Audio Adventures in 1999, monthly radio plays distributed on CD and featuring actors from the television series. The Short Trips anthologies followed in 2002.
Not only did Who fans have access to a wide range of commercial fiction, but prominent fan authors were being commissioned as well. And with the advent of Cascading Style Sheets and Adobe Acrobat, fan authors could publish their stories online with professional-looking layouts. Bypassing the costs of printing and postage, fans now had the ability to reach an audience far larger than any fan fiction zine could muster.
Fan fiction zines, and the niche they originally filled for fans, have become obsolete. Those that do still exist have a submission criteria on par with the commercial anthologies in order to attract sales and justify their existence in print (or distributed on CD), rather than being posted online.
As Myth Makers editor from 1998-2002, I began enforcing the aforementioned stricter submission criteria to compete with the commercial Who anthologies. How ironic that I would have quickly rejected a story like "Impostor," never giving a like-minded young author a shot.