Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America

Archive for September, 2009

Quick Updates for September

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

Member News

• Welcome to SFWA’s new Associate members, Keffy R. M. Kehrli,Linda J Daly, Ben Fransisco, Mary Lowd, and Mercedes M. Yardley
• Welcome to SFWA’s new Active members, Deborah LeBlanc,  Gail Selinger, Robin Usher, Jon Sprunk, Carolyn Dunn, and A.W. Hill
• Congratulations to Stacia Kane who has sold audio rights to the first three Downside books, to Blackstone Audio.
• Jeff VanderMeer interviewed Gail Carringer for Amazon
• Congratulations to Jay Lake. Audible.com acquired audio rights to his novel, Green.
• Congratulations to William Shunn who sold his SF story “Care and Feeding of Your Piano” to Hugo Award winning fanzine Electric Velocipede.
• Flesh and Fire by Laura Anne Gilman is Bookpage’s Fantasy Pick of the Month. The review says ‘a delightful discovery,’ ‘skillful,’ and ‘first-class’

Industry News

• Short Fiction by Writers of Color (September)
• Videos of last week’s House Judiciary Committee’s Google Books Settlement hearing now up at Open Book Alliance site.
• Writers Digest Books is actively seeking authors on very specific how-to topics.
• There’s still time to nominate works for 2008 Carl Brandon Awards.

Under normal circumstances, I would post these daily, but I was moving in September and got behind. –MRK

Tags: A. W. Hill, ben fransisco, carolyn dunn, deborah leblanc, gail selinger, Jay Lake, jon sprunk, keffy r.m. kehrli, laura anne gilman, linda j daly, mary lowd, mercedes m. yardley, new members, robin usher, twitter, william shunn
Posted in News, SFWA Blog | Comments Off

“No Cord or Cable” by Bud Sparhawk

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

“No Cord or Cable” by Bud Sparhawk
April 2009, Abyss and Apex

Tags: Bud Sparhawk, No Cord or Cable, Sparhawk
Posted in Nebula Suggested Reading, Short Stories | Comments Off

“The Price of Spring” by Daniel Abraham

Tuesday, September 29th, 2009

“The Price of Spring” by Daniel Abraham
Tor, July 2009

Tags: Abraham, Daniel Abraham, The Price of Spring
Posted in Nebula Suggested Reading, Novels | Comments Off

RIP: Mary Hunter Schaub, 1943-2009

Monday, September 28th, 2009

SFWA member Mary H. Schaub died on the morning of Friday, September 25, 2009. A lifetime resident of Apex, NC, Miss Schaub was a recognized fantasy author, whose wrote primarily about Andre Norton’s Witch World. She collaborated with Miss Norton on the Witch World novel The Magestone, and wrote another short Witch World novel, Exile, that appeared in the anthology Flight of Vengeance. Her many short stories were also primarily associated with Andre Norton’s Witch World and other fantasy universes envisioned by the late Grand Master.

A service of praise and celebration will be held 2:00 PM Sunday, October 11, 2009 at Apex Baptist Church, Apex. Inurnment will take place in the Apex Ceremony prior to the service.

Tags: mary hunter schaub
Posted in In Memoriam, News, SFWA Blog | 1 Comment »

Victoria Strauss — Google Book Search Settlement Fairness Hearing Adjourned

Monday, September 28th, 2009

I’m a bit tardy on reporting this, but what can I say–I was on vacation last week, and didn’t bring my laptop. What’s more, I didn’t miss it a bit. No email, no blogging, no Twitter–bliss! Which just goes to prove that I’m not an Internet addict. No, not me. I can quit any…time…I…want…to.

Anyway.

Last week, the U.S. Justice Department’s anti-trust division urged the court to reject the Google Book Search Settlement, citing “concerns of the United States regarding class action, copyright and antitrust law.” (The full text of the DOJ’s brief can be seen here.) However, it urged the parties to continue discussion, since “a properly structured settlement agreement in this case offers the potential for important societal benefits, [and] the United States does not want the opportunity or momentum to be lost.”

As a result, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers petitioned the court to adjourn the Fairness Hearing scheduled for 10/7, arguing that negotiations with the DOJ would substantially change the provisions of the Settlement and that, under those circumstances, it made no sense to seek approval of the current Settlement. On 9/24, Judge Denny Chin granted the petition. However, parties to the Settlement will still have to appear on 10/7, as Judge Chin has scheduled a status conference for that date.

In his adjournment order, Judge Chin noted that “the current settlement agreement raises significant issues, demonstrated not only by the number of objections, but also by the fact that the objectors include countries, states, nonprofit organizations, and prominent authors and law professors.” However, “the proposed settlement would offer many benefits to society, as recognized by supporters of the settlement as well as DOJ…if a fair and reasonable settlement can be struck, the public would benefit.”

So…it’s back to the negotiating table. Meanwhile, Google faces a challenge in France, as the AFP (France’s publishers’ association) and Society of Authors contest Google’s digitization project in a court case that opened on 9/24.

I’ll be following these stories as they unfold.

I chose to opt out of the Settlement (for my reasons for doing so, see below). Now that the Settlement is off the table as it currently stands, that choice may be moot. Given my concerns about copyright, as well as the ways in which Google seems poised to monetize its vast digital library and the impact that may have on authors’ rights, I think there’s a good chance I won’t change my mind–but in light of what are likely to be substantial changes, it seems only fair that authors be given the opportunity to reconsider their decisions. It will be interesting to see if, in fact, we get that chance.

For reference, my previous posts on the Google Book Settlement:

4/28/09: Judge Extends Google Book Search Settlement Deadline

7/3/09: DOJ Investigates Google Book Search Settlement

8/14/09: SFWA’s Statement on Google Book Search Settlement

9/1/09: Google Book Search Settlement Deadline Looming

9/4/09: Why I Opted Out

Tags: Google Book Settlement, victoria strauss, Writer Beware
Posted in SFWA Blog, Writer Beware | Comments Off

SUNBURST AWARD ANNOUNCES 2009 WINNERS

Sunday, September 27th, 2009

Toronto (September 28, 2009): The Sunburst Award Committee is pleased to announce that the winner of its 2009 adult award is The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson (Random House Canada, ISBN: 0307356779) and the winner of its 2009 young adult award is Little Brother by SFWA member Cory Doctorow (Tor, ISBN: 0765319853).

The Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic is a prized and juried award presented annually. It is based on excellence of writing and awarded to a Canadian writer who has published a speculative fiction novel or book-length collection any time during the previous calendar year. Named after the novel by Phyllis Gotlieb (1926-2009), one of the first published authors of contemporary Canadian speculative fiction, the award consists of a cash prize of $1,000 and a hand-crafted medallion which incorporates a “Sunburst” logo, designed by Marcel Gagné.

The Sunburst jury said: “An unquenchable thirst for story and a phenomenal command of his craft make Andrew Davidson’s The Gargoyle a reader’s dream. This ferociously ambitious, incendiary (at times literally) story of one man’s phoenix-like transformation at the hands of a woman, possibly mad, who claims to have known him for 700 years, is prepared to fall on its own highly charged imaginative sword at any time, but never does. Davidson manages to evoke squirm-inducing horror and abiding love with the same unblinking powers of observation and self-consciousness. As the relationship between narrator and Marianne deepens and her tale of their shared history unfolds, past and present converge in ways tragic and redemptive, and immensely satisfying.”

About Little Brother, the Sunburst jury said: “Many novels take a chapter or two to introduce the setting and protagonists and get the plot on the road. Not so Little Brother — it sings and zings from the first page, perhaps even the first line. Readers will immediately be swept up in the story of 17-year-old Marcus and his buddies, who, after a terrorist attack on not-so-far-future San Francisco, get caught in a government street-sweep simply because, well, they were there. So they must be guilty, right? After Marcus is finally let go, he decides that something needs to be done about this horrifying erosion of liberties and the scary world made scarier by the very people who are supposed to protect us. Besides, some of his friends are still, ominously, missing. Using his technogeek expertise, the Internet and every contact he has, Marcus takes on the school system, the government, Homeland Security, and anyone else standing in the way of freedoms both small and large. In anyone else’s hands this material might so easily have come off as preachy or even trite, but Doctorow’s superb handling of his protagonists and his plot turn the story into a nail-biting, heartbreaking, rollercoaster of a novel that will leave the reader anguished and sweating over the fate of its characters. Thankfully, the novel wasn’t doled out in installments, like Dickens, or we would all have been waiting on the virtual pier, begging to know what became, not of Little Nell, but of Marcus and his friends. A gem of a book — topical, well written, and not to be missed.”

This is Cory Doctorow’s second Sunburst Award; he won the 2004 Award for “A Place So Foreign and Eight More”.

The jurors for the 2009 award were Barbara Berson, John Dupuis, Ed Greenwood, Sandra Kasturi and Simon Rose. They selected five adult and five young adult shortlisted works as representing the finest of Canadian fantastic literature published during the 2008 calendar year.

The other shortlisted works for the 2009 adult award were:

Night Child by Jes Battis

The Alchemist’s Code by Dave Duncan

Things Go Flying by Shari Lapeña

Half a Crown by Jo Walton

The other shortlisted works for the 2009 young adult award were:
The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong

Dingo by Charles de Lint

Wild Talent: A Novel of the Supernatural by Eileen Kernaghan

Night Runner by Max Turner

Andrew Davidson lives in Winnipeg. Cory Doctorow lives in London, England.

The 2010 Award jurors will be Don Bassingthwaite, Gemma Files, Susie Moloney, Ursula Pflug and Ed Willett.

For additional information about the Sunburst Award, the nominees and jurors, as well as previous awards, eligibility and the selection process, please visit the website at www.sunburstaward.org.

Tags: Awards, Cory Doctorow
Posted in News, Press Book, SFWA Blog | Comments Off

“When You Reach Me” by Rebecca Stead

Sunday, September 27th, 2009

“When You Reach Me” by Rebecca Stead
July 2009, Wendy Lamb Books, Random House

Tags: Rebecca Stead, Stead, When You Reach Me
Posted in Nebula Suggested Reading, Norton Award | Comments Off

Thinking About Your Writer’s Platform? Consider Your Online Reputation First.

Saturday, September 26th, 2009

by Monica Valentinelli

If you attend as many conventions as I do, you’ve probably heard about the importance of developing a writer’s platform. There are several books and articles on the subject, including this book featured on Writer’s Digest entitled Why All Authors Need A Platform Before you start thinking about your writer’s platform, I recommend considering what your overall online reputation is first.

“Search” Matters

Through my experiences in online marketing for different companies, one of the most common forms of “discovery” for a person’s name or brand is to simply type it into a search box. (Right now, Google holds the majority of the search engine market share worldwide and in the U.S., but the search engine traffic is constantly changing.) Search engine results pages continually “breathe,” offering different results depending upon a variety of factors.

Search is often referred to as “natural” or “organic” search, and is a key component for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). For any professional, search is extraordinarily important for visibility into your online reputation, for two reasons: One, it’s widely used by many people and two, it’s a “free” way to find information about you. Keep in mind that search engines don’t “care” if you have a writer’s platform or not. In fact, there’s a good chance you already have a reputation on the internet. Do you know what yours is?

Tracking Vs. Managing Your Online Rep

Everyone who has ever posted something online has an online reputation whether they like it or not. Managing a reputation, however, is a different story. Google Alerts are a great way to help you track your current online reputation, but that tool has its limits because it doesn’t tell you a) where you rank for your own name in Google or b) what people are typing in to find you online. You can, through Google Webmaster Central, see some great data not available through Google Analytics. If you haven’t set up Google Webmaster Tools on your website, I highly recommend it.

Tracking your online reputation is only part of the story. Next, you have to figure out how you want to manage and foster it. Take a moment and think about the content you’re posting on various websites and forums. Are you comfortable with complete strangers reading what you’ve posted? What about your employer? Agent?

Online reputation management not only includes monitoring what people say about you, but also your strategy related to what, when and where you post your content.

Your “Content” Comfort Level

For a variety of reasons, I take a pretty careful approach to what I post online. Internet content can be tracked, dissected, read, copied or pasted at any time on any website, regardless of when it was posted. Because of that, I have a broad variety of topics I typically do not discuss online including: personal finances, health problems, politics, religion and family, relationship or job troubles and data related to my book sales or popularity of posts. (Mind you, I’m not perfect.) On occasion I have whined about a bad case of the flu or talked about politics, but for the most part I steer clear of these topics. Why? Here’s my reason once again: at any time, anyone, in any place, can read anything you’ve ever posted. Your “audience” may include complete strangers that live in different countries, but also past, present and future friends, employers, agents, publishers, readers, family members, teachers, colleagues, etc.

When you post content online, it’s important to understand what you’re comfortable with people knowing about you both now, but also in the future.

Tarnished Reps and Their Effects

Unfortunately, there has been a rash of writers that publicly argue with agents, bash reviewers (or delete bad reviews), talk about their “evil day job” or even beg for money. It may take years, if not months, to build an online reputation, but all it takes is one flame war to bring it down into the gutter. (For a funny take on this read my post about How to Ruin Your Online Reputation in Ten Easy Steps.) If the idea of managing your online rep isn’t complicated enough, keep in mind that popular authors may have different methods of managing their online reputation than aspiring writers, simply because the volume and quality of posted content is dramatically different.

People have been sued, accused of plagiarism, lost their jobs or publishing contracts, gotten divorces or have ended long-term relationships over poorly-worded exchanges online. The things that you write not only affect your desired readers, but also the readers you least expect. Sure, you can delete your unwanted activity, but you might find that it’s more difficult than you thought. Twitter, for example, allows you to delete Tweets but they currently still show up in their Twitter search functionality for a period of time. Depending upon when you delete blog posts or other content, it can take up to six months for your content to fall out of a search engine’s index.

With that in mind, do you know what are you comfortable with sharing publicly?

Of course, the question that every author wants to know is whether or not a bad online reputation affects the sale of your book. It’s not uncommon for buyers to research things they want to purchase online before they go to a brick-and-mortar store in their area; no amount of web analytics data will show how many people do just that. While retailers are often obsessed with conversion (e.g. How many people that visit my website buy directly from me?), selling massively-distributed products (like books) online is extraordinarily complicated. Besides a typical buyer’s behavior, there are dozens of factors that may affect online sales including: technology, seasonality, paid advertising, SEO, social media, brand awareness, trends, etc. So the short answer is, “No one knows.”

“You” Or Your Rep?

While I believe you definitely want to be genuine online (especially if you network offline as much as I do), I also think you should define what you’re comfortable sharing for public consumption. Because you don’t have control over your audience, developing your online persona can be pretty difficult. After all, different people will find you interesting for different reasons. Your “reader” could be your editor, your neighbor — even Donald Trump!

So take a minute and search for your name. Seriously. You’ll be glad you did. Ask yourself a few questions to help you make your own decisions about your online reputation. “Am I ranking for what I want to rank for?” “Is my website up-to-date?” “What are people reading about me?” “Are the claims I’m making accurate?” Taking a peek at what content ranks for your name is only one aspect of online reputation management, but it’s a good place to start. (If you have a name that’s pretty common, I recommend adding a keyword like “author” or “writer” after your surname in your content to help your readers find you more easily. Be sure to read up on how to optimize your website for more information.) Remember, the old way of thinking said that if you searched for your own name, you were being vain. The new way? It’s essential to ensure that people not only find “you,” but also that they are left with the impression you want to leave them with.

In the end, remember that the web does not distinguish between your “online” writer’s platform and your online reputation. That’s something you’re going to have to figure out how to do.

About the Author

Monica Valentinelli is the content and web analytics manager for the digital sheet music retailer and publisher Musicnotes.com and the project manager for the horror and dark fantasy webzine Flamesrising.com. Monica is an aspiring novelist working on revisions for her first novel; she has several non-fiction, short fiction and game writing credits to her name including her recent work for APEX MAGAZINE Vol. III, Issue III and FAMILY GAMES: the 100 BEST.

To read more about Monica, visit her blog located at www.mlvwrites.com.

Tags: Monica Valentinelli
Posted in Building a Career, Networking and Self-Promotion, SFWA Blog | 4 Comments »

RIP: Barbara Bova

Friday, September 25th, 2009

Mike Resnick has reported the sad news that Barbara Bova, wife of Dr. Ben Bova, has passed away Wednesday in Naples FL.  Mrs. Bova had been fighting cancer.

She was a literary agent and founded the Barbara Bova Literary Agency in 1974, remaining an active voice in the field.  Dr. Bova and their son and daughter, will continue to operate agency.

Our condolences go to Dr. Bova and their family.

Tags: Barbara Bova, Ben Bova
Posted in In Memoriam, News, SFWA Blog | 1 Comment »

SFWA increases support for AboutSF

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

CHESTERTOWN, Md. – Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America will increase its support for AboutSF for the coming year, continuing a partnership that began in 2006.

The SFWA board of directors voted unanimously Sept. 23 to fund AboutSF with a $5,000 one-year grant. SFWA has previously supported AboutSF with $3,000 annually.

“The Lessons Library, which AboutSF has put together, is a trememdous resource and is just a fraction of the work they do to bring SF to a broader audience,” said SFWA Secretary Mary Robinette Kowal. “I am delighted that SFWA is able to partner with them on this outreach.”

In addition to the Lessons Library, AboutSF also established and maintains Speculation Speakers, a speakers’ bureau resource for libraries, businesses and schools. It also serves as a press list for journalists and other media representative seeking unique perspective, commentary and insight from SF authors.

AboutSF is hosted at the University of Kansas. For additional information, visit the AboutSF website at www.AboutSF.com.

Tags: AboutSF
Posted in SFWA Blog | 1 Comment »

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