I've been subscribing for a little over two years now. It's been like that the entire time. Every other magazine I've ever subscribed to (quite a few in the last 25 years or so!) has always come out a month ahead (November's issue in October, for instance)....but Reptiles has always been two months ahead...almost three, because it comes out at the beginning of the month. It's weird and I have no idea why they do that.