Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America

Archive for July, 2009

SFWA® Contracts Committee Mission Statement

Friday, July 31st, 2009

Purpose

To provide expert advice on contractual matters that affect significant numbers of SFWA® members, and to provide a clearinghouse for new developments or issue alerts to SFWA® members regarding those contractual matters.

Typical Functions

1. Evaluating standard contracts from new publishers with a view to improving their model forms.
2. Notifying members about questionable or contentious contractual provisions about which they should be aware.
3. Developing Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) and responses to issues that commonly arise in contract negotiations.
4. Continuing exploration of the contractual issues inherent in new forms of publishing, especially electronic publishing.
5. Referring individual matters to the Grievance Committee.

Functions Typically Not Performed

1. Reviewing individual contracts. The contracts committee is not counsel for individual SFWA® members.
2. Granting an “imprimatur,” “certification,” or any other form of SFWA® “seal of approval” to any contract.
3. Resolving grievances between authors and publishers. Responsibility here lies with the Grievance Committee.

To Contact the Contracts Committee

Send email to contracts@sfwa.org.

Tags: contracts, mission
Posted in Contracts and Copyrights, Information Center | Comments Off

Announcement: Moving the new site to sfwa.org on Saturday

Friday, July 31st, 2009

On Saturday, August 1st, the website team will bring SFWA’s new website out of the extended beta-test we’ve been in.  This post is intended to be an overview of what to expect during the transition.  Because there is a lot of information to convey, we will be sending SFWA members four emails between now and Tuesday, August 4th, as different parts of the new system come online.

1. General overview — This went out Friday, July 31, 2009. If you have not received it, please let us know.
2. Log-in information for the new site.
3. Log-in information for the discussion forums
4. A list of the new services and links to instructions on how to use them.

This weekend

Once they flick the switch to change the DNS servers, it could take up to 72 hours for the new site to propagate throughout the internet. What does this mean for you?  It means that when you go to http://sfwa.org over the weekend, you might get the old site, or you might get the new one.

How will you know the difference? The new site looks very, very different from the old site.

What happens to the old website?

The old website contains a lot of wonderful information.  It is archived on the new site and we will continue to transfer information to the new format.  This will take time, but if we waited until we had everything added to the new site, it would be another year.

The last thing I’d like to ask for is your patience. Our volunteers have worked very hard to make this site for you, but  we fully expect there to be mistakes and learning curves as we transition into using the new site.  As hard as we’ve tried, I’m sure that there are still things we’ve forgotten or overlooked.  Please bearing with us through the growing pains.

Tags: beta
Posted in SFWA Blog | Comments Off

Exclusives and Literary Agents

Friday, July 31st, 2009

Reprinted with permission from Nathan Bransford’s Blog

Becca asked an interesting question about exclusives in the comments section of a post a few days ago, and it occurred to me that I’d never really blogged about these slippery devils. So consider this niche filled, and the FAQs will be amended accordingly.

First off, definition: an exclusive means just what it sounds like. You are giving an agent the opportunity to consider your work exclusively and you are agreeing that you will not submit to another agent until you’ve heard “yea” or “nay” from that agent. Sometimes exclusives are open-ended, sometimes there’s a time period attached.

Feelings about exclusives vary wildly among agents, so please take my feelings as my own and not as any kind of industry standard. There is no standard when it comes to exclusives. It’s a veritable Wild West run by nonconformist anarchists.

I’m going to break down my thoughts on exclusives based on the different stages when they might arise and give you some dos and don’ts along the way:

Query stage: Agents expect that you’re querying simultaneously and widely, and frankly, if they don’t, they should. If you’re querying agents one-by-one I hope you plan to live as long as Methuselah because that’s how long you’re going to be querying. Remember to target your agent search, personalize your queries, and don’t query the entire agent world all at once, but also don’t needlessly slow down your search by waiting on exclusive queries.

Now, you might give your first-pick agent first crack, say…. oh, I don’t know, a certain agent who will get back to you within 24 hours if you submit on a weekday, and you might mention that you’re querying them first, but mentioning that it’s an exclusive is not necessary, and don’t give them forever to get back to you before you move on to the other agents you plan to query.

Partial or full manuscript request stage: Some agents will ask you for an exclusive when they ask for your partial or full. Whether you choose to grant this is up to you, but I would strongly, strongly advise against granting an open-ended exclusive that ties you up forever. 30 days is a reasonable time period for an agent to consider a partial or full exclusively, after which you should feel free to send your manuscript to any agents who have inquired in the meantime (and keep in mind that submitting your partial exclusively does not preclude you from continuing to query other agents, although it does mean that you have to put any agents who ask for a partial on hold until the period of exclusivity is up).

You are within your rights to (politely) decline their request for an exclusive, in which case you may simply write that you would prefer to continue sending your manuscript to interested agents but hope they will still consider your work. Or you can decide to grant it. Up to you. But keep in mind a few things: 1) You can’t grant an exclusive if another agent is already considering your partial or full manuscript (and you should let the inquiring agent know this.) 2) Some agents feel that if they are going to take the time to read a manuscript they want to do so with the understanding that the author is not going to be swept away by another agent in the meantime (thus wasting the time they spent reading that partial), and they may well decline to consider your partial on a nonexclusive basis.

So when faced with an exclusive request, you have a decision to make: possibly alienate the agent or try and keep your options open? That’s a decision only you can make. No matter what you decide though, be exceedingly polite, and always notify any agent considering your work when you have an offer of representation.

Revisions: I don’t generally ask for exclusives at the partial or even full manuscript request phase. But there is one situation when I often will. And that’s during a revision.

It’s very time consuming for an agent to read partials and fulls, although I see it as going with the territory. But a revision with a prospective client takes time-consuming to a whole new level. It means a serious commitment on the part of the agent without a sure prospect of success, it means committing to reading a manuscript multiple times, taking notes, thinking about the manuscript during most waking hours, and for me it means writing 10-20 page e-mails full of suggestions on each draft.

I don’t know if there would be anything more gut-wrenching than to embark on a time-consuming revision to improve the manuscript only to have an author take that improved manuscript to a different agent who gets to benefit from my hours of hard work. Quel horreur! The mere thought of this happening gives me dry heaves.

Fortunately this hasn’t actually happened to me, but just to make sure we’re all clear what a full manuscript revision means, I often ask for an exclusive before embarking on a revision, and I think this is fair. When the author is done, if either of us aren’t happy with the manuscript or how we’ve worked together in the process then we’re still free to go our separate ways, but while we’re working on that revision we’re going steady, pinning each other, and any other serious dating metaphor you can find. If we are happy with the manuscript at the end, then it’s time to move on to formal representation and submissions.

Ultimately, the thing to remember about exclusives is that agents mainly ask for them for peace of mind and efficiency. Agents are busy and they want to know that when they are reading something they don’t have to worry about having an author swept out from under them and having that time wasted. But they aren’t always advantageous for an author because they can limit an author’s choice and stall the process.

Be selective about how you grant exclusives, and make sure there’s a time limit affixed.

Tags: agent
Posted in Agent Etiquette, Information Center, SFWA Blog, The Business of Writing | 1 Comment »

Emerging Writer Awards

Thursday, July 30th, 2009

by Victoria Strauss

This week I’ve gotten several questions about something called the Emerging Writer Awards. Writers of poetry, short stories, and unpublished book length fiction may enter to compete for two grand prizes: $2,000 and a possible publishing contract from Triom Publishing for book manuscripts, $1,000 for short subjects. Both prizes include “national promotion through Emerging Writer Magazine.” The deadline for entries is August 31, 2009.

(Obligatory pedantic aside: “emerging writer,” a term that is often used instead of or interchangeably with the odious “pre-published,” is one of my euphemism pet peeves. You are an emerging writer if you’ve published a couple of books and are getting increasing sales and attention. You are not an emerging writer if you merely aspire to publication–just an unpublished one.)

Why wouldn’t you want to enter this contest? Sure, you’ve never heard of Triom Publishing or Emerging Writer Magazine, but the prizes are rich and the website is slick (well, sort of). The Awards even have their own logo. What’s not to like?

For a start, the entry fee. It’s $40. That’s steep even for a book manuscript contest. For short stories or poems, it’s way too high. Check out the number of eligible categories, also. There are more than 50 of them. Granted, the fees must fund the prizes–but if there were just two entries in each category, the contest sponsor would make a cool $1,000 profit.

There’s also the fine print of the rules. Accepted entrants must grant “one-time serial rights” (for book manuscripts–defined, not quite accurately, as “rights to print excerpts of a book before publication”) and “one-time publication rights” (for short works) to the Award’s sponsors, Emerging Writer Magazine and Triom Publishing. These entities are “under no obligation” to publish, yet there are no provisions for releasing the rights of works they don’t use. While an active claim on serial rights by an obscure publisher and ezine is unlikely to prevent you from marketing your book manuscript elsewhere, the grant of one-time publication rights for short works takes other publication off the table. In other words, if you enter your short story or poem in this competition, you won’t be able to sell it elsewhere.

Let’s take a closer look at the Awards’ two sponsors. Emerging Writer Magazine doesn’t seem to have yet published any issues. In fact, it’s so new that it doesn’t have its own website, merely a placeholder on the website of its parent company, Triom Publishing–which makes one wonder how effective that “national promotion” will actually be. Triom also seems very new–as yet, it has published just one book, Children of the Anunnaki, the start of a fantasy series by author Mark Barnette. Who is Mark Barnette? Well, for one thing, he’s the owner of Triom’s URL–which strongly suggests that Triom is an expansion of a self-publishing endeavor, and raises the question of how much of a prize a publishing contract from this company would be.

Whether the Emerging Writer Awards are a moneymaking venture, an effort to promote a brand-new micropress, or a genuine attempt to establish a writers’ award, a win is unlikely to carry any prestige for future publishing purposes. And while the cash prizes would certainly be nice, you must also factor in the size of the entry fee, and the less-than-desirable provisions of the contest rules.

Just another example of why I believe that in most cases, writers’ time is better spent submitting for publication than contest-chasing.

Tags: Writer Beware
Posted in Writer Beware | Comments Off

Interview: Gwyneth Jones

Wednesday, July 29th, 2009

Our sister-site, NebulaAwards.com, interviews Gwyneth Jones about her Nebula-nominated short story “The Tomb Wife”.

First off, what’s the appeal of science fiction for you?

It’s a way of thinking: basically, I’m insatiably curious. What is sex for? What do scientific revolutions look like? Why do human societies develop the way they do? What would be the consequences of a change that seems desirable? Or undesirable? Reading and thinking about (or otherwise consuming and creating) science fiction seems to tell me more about the world around me than any other art form.

Tags: Gwyneth Jones, interview, Nebula
Posted in Nebula Awards, SFWA Blog | Comments Off

Reminder: Volunteers needed for SFWA at Worldcon

Wednesday, July 29th, 2009

We’re still looking for help at the SFWA Table and Suite at Montreal and have autographing slots at the table. Please volunteer by signing up at the Volunteer website

Dealers Table — http://tinyurl.com/sfwadealers
Autographing — http://tinyurl.com/sfwaautographs
SFWA Suite — http://tinyurl.com/sfwasuite

We’re also happy to have drop in help.

Tags: volunteer, Worldcon
Posted in SFWA Blog | 2 Comments »

Tor.com is SFWA’s newest qualifying short fiction market

Monday, July 27th, 2009

Today the board of directors of SFWA unanimously voted to add Tor.com to the list of SFWA qualifying markets. Just celebrating its first year online, this extension of Tor Books features science-fiction and fantasy fiction as well as art, non-fiction, essays, and book reviews.

They have published SFWA authors such as Ken Scholes, Steven Gould , and Kij Johnson.

Congratulations to the entire editorial staff at Tor.com and their writers!

UPDATE, 10 May 2010: Tor.com now has actual submission guidelines, posted here.

Tags: qualifying market, Tor.com
Posted in SFWA Blog | 4 Comments »

USA TODAY to include Amazon Kindle on best-seller list

Thursday, July 23rd, 2009

McLean, Va. (July 22, 2009) – Beginning tomorrow USA TODAY’s Best-Selling Books List will include Amazon Kindle book sales in overall sales rankings. USA TODAY is the first major book list to include Kindle book sales and in doing so will provide a much more robust ranking for our bestseller list. This list will run in Thursday’s edition of USA TODAY and online at booklist.usatoday.com.

“Since October of 1993, USA TODAY’s Best-Selling Books List has provided our readers with a complete picture of sales in the publishing industry,” said Susan Weiss, managing editor of the Life section. “With the addition of sales figures from Kindle, we have created a more robust list which reflects the new platforms consumers and readers are using to purchase books.”

“We are thrilled to be contributing Kindle book sales information to USA TODAY for their comprehensive bestseller list for books customers,” said Laura Porco, director of Kindle books. “Given the great overlap of taste between Kindle customers and physical book buyers, the USA TODAY Best-Selling Books List is truly reflective of what customers are buying regardless of format.”

Rankings for USA TODAY’s Best-Selling Books List are based on retail sales data collected each week that include more than 2.5 million volumes from about 7,000 physical retail outlets in addition to books sold online. USA TODAY’s list ranks titles regardless of genre or format, providing one of the best assessments of which books are most popular among readers and consumers each week. USA TODAY’s Best-Selling Books list has been published each Thursday in the newspaper’s Life section since October 28, 1993.

USA TODAY was founded in 1982 with a mission to serve as a forum for better understanding and unity to help make the USA truly one nation. Through its flagship newspaper and popular Web site, USA TODAY engages the national conversation and connects readers online through social media applications. USA TODAY, the nation’s top-selling newspaper with a total average daily circulation of more than 2.1 million, and USATODAY.com, an award-winning newspaper Web site which launched in 1995, reach a combined 5.8 million readers daily. The USA TODAY news and information brand also includes: USA TODAY Education, USA TODAY LIVE, USA TODAY Mobile, Open Air magazine and USA TODAY Sports Weekly. USA TODAY is owned by Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI).

Tags: Kindle
Posted in SFWA Blog | 1 Comment »

Interview: James Alan Gardner

Thursday, July 23rd, 2009

From our sister site, NebulaAwards.com, comes an appealing interview with James Alan Gardner. It covers writing his Nebula nominated novelette “The Ray-Gun: A Love Story,” applied mathematics, publishing hurdles and interstellar travel

First off, what’s the appeal of science fiction for you?

Science fiction seems to be the only genre interested in large-scale events. I don’t just mean intergalactic wars and blowing up suns (although that stuff can be fun); I mean anything that leads to substantial changes in the world.

Consider, for example, how conventional literature would treat Einstein. It might talk about his home life or his relationships with other scientists; it might try to analyze what made him so brilliant; it might examine the psychological consequences of being idolized as the smartest man on Earth. What conventional literature *can’t* do is say, “This guy changed the world! This guy significantly altered how we look at ourselves and the universe.” Other genres of literature ignore everything but the personal.

Science fiction can and does do the personal—not always with nuance—but it also has bigger fish to fry. Its perennial message is, “The world of today is fleeting; it wasn’t here yesterday and won’t be here tomorrow.” Science fiction says the world can and will be changed by individuals, by societies, and by impersonal forces. That’s an enormously important message that other genres barely seem to notice, let alone address.

Tags: interview, James Alan Gardner, Nebula
Posted in Nebula Awards, SFWA Blog | Comments Off

Get Personal with your Marketing Efforts

Thursday, July 23rd, 2009

In recent years, the topic of online marketing has become more of a focal point for several authors. Coupled with the changes in the publishing industry and advances in technology, I seem to have more discussions about online marketing than I do about writing fiction, in part because I’ve been involved in online marketing professionally for the past few years.

The words “online marketing” are fairly generic, since there are quite a few components involved with this business practice. Marketers (like myself) often utilize web analytics, social media, blogging, natural and paid search, online advertising, etc. For authors, online marketing may be a little more targeted to our writing and publishing efforts via social media and blogging platforms.

Since online marketing is part and parcel to my career, I don’t think twice about leveraging my knowledge for my fiction efforts. Not every author has my experiences, though, which is why I turned to a few authors to find out what they thought. Alex Bledsoe, author of Blood Groove and The Sword-Edged Blonde, had this to say on the subject:

“It used to be that a writer could simply write, and the publisher had a whole marketing structure there to take care of him or her.  Back then it was feasible to be a recluse and still be a best-seller.  It’s the romantic ideal of being a “writer.”  Now, though, those structures are long gone, and the writer has to work in partnership with the publisher, or in some cases entirely on his or her own, to publicize books.  The money simply isn’t there unless you’re on the level of a cottage-industry author.  That said, there’s also unprecedented ways for authors to find readers and vice-versa.”

Just like an online merchant targets their efforts to their customers, any author can focus their actions to attract, retain and reach their readers. Some authors, like Pat Rothfuss, author of The Name of the Wind, chose a more blended approach to attracting readers:

“I maintain a blog, but I also really enjoy getting out and meeting people face-to-face at signings and conventions. It’s a real trade-off. The blog is more work, but it’s available to everyone with a computer. I make jokes, keep people informed about signings, and occasionally answer questions or give advice. Talking at a convention or a library is easier in many ways. You get to talk to people face-to-face and make a real connection. The audience is smaller, but connection is more personal, dynamic, and real.”

Pat’s approach works for him because, as he outlined in his quote, he feels comfortable making those face-to-face connections. Unfortunately, not every author may not have as much time to blog or go to conventions as Pat does, which means that their marketing efforts have to be structured differently. Does that mean that there’s “one way” to structure an online marketing plan? No, absolutely not. Often, the best online marketing plans are the most customized ones. For your work, that might mean you need to incorporate feedback from your agent or your publisher; another author might set up a content management plan (e.g. blogging schedule) to help them save time.

Unfortunately, time is a factor for online marketing because creating content can be time-consuming. Is it worth it? Lilith Saintcrow, author of the new release Redemption Alley, had this to offer:

“Fans want a personal relationship–that’s why they’re fans. A professional interactive presence online helps fans feel recognized and provides an emotional value to them, over and above the cost of a book. Fans are the people providing my paycheck; my professional online presence is a way for me to find out how well I’m earning that paycheck. It’s value added for the fans, and the best parts of a performance review for me, all rolled into one.

Developing a personal relationship with your readers does provide intrinsic value to them, because fans do enjoy connecting with the authors they admire. In online marketing, we cultivate that personal attachment through something called “personalization.” From creating personalized newsletters to writing about your editing process, personalization is about touching a reader in a place where they identify with you and subsequently, your work. By using personalization techniques, you’re fostering another form of advertising called “word-of-mouth.” 

The easiest way to personalize your readers experience with your writing is to simply be online to engage your readers. The key to personalization is not “selling a book to an individual,” it means that you might field questions about your writing or talk about your hobbies or charities you support. It means, simply, that you’re both a professional author and someone interesting to talk to. How will you know when your efforts are successful? While there are multiple ways to track your actions, often the strangest things will start to occur. You’ll find yourself networking not only with readers, but with other authors and professionals, too. 

Another good example of how an author effectively uses personalization is Yasmine Galenorn author of the New York Times bestselling Otherworld series. Yasmine is very active on social media, but she also blogs and offers a newsletter for her fans, too.

“I find that it’s important to establish a certain presence with readers, especially in today’s cyber-focused world.  Because of the internet, authors have the ability to reach out to readers in ways like never before. However, there is a balance that must be reached.  It can be dangerous to become over friendly with strangers who think they know you because of your books, and social networking can be time-consuming and tiring.  But when kept in perspective, the net can also be a wonderful way to connect with readers and other writers.  We can give our audience a glimpse behind the mask.  While we ideally want our books to be the central focus—for writers of series, this can be an invaluable tool.  Readers become heavily invested in our worlds. They want to know a little more about the person behind the cover, the creator of their favorite characters whom become beloved friends to them. And online networking can give them a hint of who we are.”

Yasmine is not alone in her experiences with her readers, for there is a challenge with becoming too accessible. Since the internet provides instant gratification with long-lasting effects, you’ll need to set up clear guidelines for yourself to manage your time and your communication. Regardless, if you do decide to engage your readers keep in mind that you’ll need to monitor the conversation. Unlike writing for a print medium, if you have a set-and-forget mentality for the internet, you may find yourself either completely removed from the conversation, or the subject of a delicate one.

Because the bulk of my published work has either been short fiction or game design, I’ve been able to experiment with the concept of personalization. One example of how I’m experimenting with different tools is my website for an urban fantasy novel called “Argentum.” Offering a portion of the first draft for a limited time, I’ve been able to connect with fans interested in watching the novel’s journey. Even though I’ve made mistakes, I’ve been honest and upfront about everything I’m doing, which has offered my readers an intimate look at the process of writing (and marketing) a novel online.

Just like my experiences with personalization might be a little different from the authors I listed above, yours will no doubt be different, too. Don’t be afraid to customize your marketing plan to your personality, because in the end “getting personal” means your readers will get to know “you.” What you want them to see is entirely up to you.

About the Author

Monica Valentinelli is the content and web analytics manager for the digital sheet music retailer http://www.musicnotes.com and the project manager for the horror and dark fantasy webzine www.flamesrising.com. In her spare time, Monica enjoys writing fiction, and has over a dozen game and fiction credits to her name including: “Pie,“ a short story found in the “Buried Tales of Pinebox, Texas,” her recent novella “Twin Designs” which was part of the collection Tales of the Seven Dogs Society, her flash fiction piece “Prey” on Pseudopod.org with more works on the way.

To read more about Monica, visit her urban fantasy novel located at www.violetwar.com or her blog located at www.mlvwrites.com.

Tags: business, Monica Valentinelli, Publishing
Posted in Information Center, Networking and Self-Promotion, SFWA Blog, The Business of Writing | 3 Comments »

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