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Little Brother had survived as an orphan on the colony planet Mother’s World by following two rules. First you grabbed anything edible before the valuables. Second, you never talked to the garbage. But then the garbage–a Pube girl named Sally–talked to him. Before he knew it, he was running to escape the attention of The Church of the Flesh and had begun a quest to learn why he alone had been born without the GeneCode tatoo that set one’s status, job and destiny.
Nebula Awards Weekend
The Forty-Seventh Nebula Awards Weekend will be held Thursday through Sunday, May 17 to May 20, 2012 at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City in Arlington, Virginia, near Reagan National Airport.
We honor Connie Willis as our Grand Master!
To register, click on “Registration” in the menu to the immediate left. Then scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the “Register” button.
Tours, workshops and panels are available for registered attendees (the number of people who can be accommodated on the tours and workshops is limited.) Active and Associate SFWA members may nominate works, until February 15th, for the awards to be presented at the May 19th Nebula Awards Weekend Banquet. Hour long interviews and readings will be recorded by Jim Freund for his Hour of the Wolf radio show broadcast on WBAI (99.5FM) in New York City.
Jon Williams is our Toastmaster (he will also conduct a half-day Writers Workshop on Friday morning.) Mike Fincke is our Keynote Speaker.
The Mass Autographing Session on Friday, May 18th will be followed by a reception to honor the nominees and other honorees.
You don’t have to be a nominee, a member of SFWA, or even a writer to participate in the weekend. Registration for the 2012 Nebula Awards Weekend is open now. The cost for the Nebula Awards Banquet is $75.00 per person. The cost to register is $50.00 for a SFWA Member and $60.00 for a non-SFWA Member until February 29, 2012. Rates for registration will be higher as the date of the event draws closer.
Results from the 2010 Nebula Awards (presented 2011).
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Archive for December, 2009
Hunting for the Home of the First Fandom
Tuesday, December 15th, 2009
W. Skeffington Higgins has a fascinating post about his quest to find the actual location where the first science fiction fan club met back in 1929.
Last week Rob Hansen pointed out, to Boingboing and Tor.com, that 11 December 1929 was the occasion of the founding meeting of the Scienceers, which seems to have been the first science fiction fan club, at least the first club where the members met in person rather than corresponded.
Science fiction fandom is still going strong after 80 years, and many of us are curious about its early history. Rob has wondered if more information can be found about Warren Fitzgerald, who hosted the first meeting at his home.
An account of the Scienceers by Allen Glasser recalls that Fitzgerald and his wife were black, and they lived somewhere in Harlem in late 1929. They hosted multiple meetings of the Scienceers at their home. Fitzgerald also joined the American Interplanetary Society in 1930; its founders included David Lasser, Nat Schachner, Fletcher Pratt, and other SF people.
Read the rest of his detective work.
Tags: fandom
Posted in SFWA Blog | Comments Off
Joe Haldeman named Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master
Tuesday, December 15th, 2009
CHESTERTOWN, Md. – Joe Haldeman will be honored as the next Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master for 2010 by Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. The Grand Master represents SFWA’s highest accolade and recognizes excellence for a lifetime of contributions to the genres of science fiction and fantasy.
SFWA President Russell Davis announced the decision after consulting with the Board of Directors and participating past presidents. The presentation of the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award will take place at the SFWA Nebula Awards® Weekend in May. The Nebula Awards weekend is available to the general public with advance registration.
“Giving the Grand Master is one of the true pleasures of serving as the President of SFWA,” said SFWA President Russell Davis. “Being able to give it to Joe Haldeman–a past SFWA president, an extraordinarily talented writer, a respected teacher and mentor in our community, and a good friend–is not just a pleasure, but a genuine honor. I can think of no one more deserving that I’d be more pleased to recognize.”
The author of 20 novels and five collections, Haldeman remains one of the most popular science fiction writers working today. His landmark novel, The Forever War, won the Nebula, Hugo and Ditmar Awards for best science fiction novel in 1975, and spawned two follow-up novels, Forever Peace and Forever Free. In total, his writings have garnered him five Nebulas, five Hugos and a host of other awards as well as numerous nominations. Other notable works include the novels Camouflage, The Accidental Time Machine and Marsbound as well as the short works “Graves,” “Tricentennial” and “The Hemingway Hoax.” His latest book, Starbound, is scheduled for a January release.
Haldeman is the 27th writer recognized by SFWA as a Grand Master. He joins Robert A. Heinlein (1974), Jack Williamson (1975), Clifford D. Simak (1976), L. Sprague de Camp (1978), Fritz Leiber (1981), Andre Norton (1983), Arthur C. Clarke (1985), Isaac Asimov (1986), Alfred Bester (1987), Ray Bradbury (1988), Lester del Rey (1990), Frederik Pohl (1992), Damon Knight (1994), A. E. van Vogt (1995), Jack Vance (1996), Poul Anderson (1997), Hal Clement (1998), Brian Aldiss (1999), Philip Jose Farmer (2000), Ursula K. Le Guin (2003), Robert Silverberg (2004), Anne McCaffrey (2005), Harlan Ellison (2006), James Gunn (2007), Michael Moorcock (2008) and Harry Harrison (2009). Until 2002 the title was simply “Grand Master.” In 2002 it was renamed in honor of SFWA’s founder, Damon Knight, who died that year.
Tags: grand master, Joe Haldeman, nebula award weekend
Posted in News, SFWA Blog | 1 Comment »
Authors Guild Statement on Random House’s Rights Grab
Tuesday, December 15th, 2009
Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware
I received the statement below this morning from the Authors Guild. I’m not happy with the Authors Guild these days, because of the debacle of the Google Book Search Settlement. But I agree with their position on Random House’s recent attempt to claim electronic rights on backlist titles whose contracts do not include a grant of those rights.
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On Friday, Random House CEO Markus Dohle sent a two-page letter to many literary agents regarding e-books. Much of the letter is devoted to Random House’s efforts and investments to market traditional and electronic books.
On the second page, Mr. Dohle gets to the point. After noting that most of Random House’s backlist titles grant the publisher electronic book rights (we agree, since most backlist titles are from the past ten years, a period in which authors have generally licensed electronic rights in tandem with their print rights), he writes that “there have been some misunderstandings concerning ebook rights in older backlist titles.” He then proceeds to argue that older contracts granting rights to publish “in book form” or “in all editions” grant electronic rights to Random House.
The misunderstandings reside entirely with Random House. Random House quite famously changed its standard contract to include e-book rights in 1994. (We remember it well — Random House tried to secure these rights for royalties of 5% of net proceeds, a pittance. We called it a “Land Grab on the Electronic Frontier” in our press release headline.) Random House felt the need to change its contract, quite plainly, because its authors did not grant those rights to it under Random House’s standard contracts prior to 1994.
A fundamental principle of book contracts is that the grant of rights is limited. Publishers acquire only the rights that they bargain for; authors retain rights they have not expressly granted to publishers. E-book rights, under older book contracts, were retained by the authors.
There’s no need to take our word for this, however. A federal court in 2001 examined this precise matter in Random House v. Rosetta Books. Judge Stein of the Southern District of New York was unequivocal in his 10-page decision: authors did not grant publishers the e-book rights in the old book contracts at issue. Judge Stein specifically dismissed notions, raised by Mr. Dohle in his letter to agents, that the non-compete clauses of these old contracts in some manner acted to grant Random House electronic rights to the works, saying that this “reasoning turns the analysis on its head.” The court pointed out that the license of rights comes solely from the contract’s grant language, not from the non-compete clause, and that non-competition clauses, to be enforceable, have to be narrowly construed. Using the non-compete clause to secure future rights is unsustainable. An appellate court affirmed Judge Stein’s decision.
We are sympathetic with the difficult position the publishing industry is in at the moment. The recession has been tough on book publishing, as it has been on many industries. And everyone with knowledge of the dynamics of the industry properly fears that Amazon’s dominance of the online markets for traditional and especially e-books will give it a chokehold on industry profits. Difficult times, however, do not justify this attempt at a retroactive rights grab.
It’s regrettable and unhelpful that Random House has chosen to try to intimidate authors and agents over these old book contracts. With such a weak legal hand, it would be well advised to stick to its strength — the advantages that its marketing muscle can provide owners of e-book rights. It should also start offering a fair royalty for those rights. Authors and publishers have traditionally split the proceeds from book sales. Most sublicenses, for example, provide for a 50/50 split of proceeds, and the standard trade book royalty of 15% of the hardcover retail price, back in the days that industry standard was established, represented about 50% of the net proceeds of the sale of the book. We’re confident that the current practice of paying 25% of net on e-books will not, in the long run, prevail. Savvy agents are well aware of this. The only reason e-book royalty rates are so low right now is that so little attention has been paid to them: sales were simply too low to scrap over. That’s beginning to change.
If you have an old book contract in which you haven’t granted e-book rights, patience is likely to pay off. The e-book industry is still young — there’s no need to jump in. And we strongly suspect e-royalty rates are at a low-water mark.
Tags: Writer Beware
Posted in SFWA Blog, Writer Beware | 1 Comment »
One Week, Two Big Pieces of Ebook News
Tuesday, December 15th, 2009
Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware
Last week, the publishing world was abuzz with news that Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and HarperCollins intend to delay the release of ebook versions of most of their hardcover titles by three or four months, rather than releasing the ebooks simultaneously with hardcovers (this delaying process is known as “windowing,” and publishers have historically used it to separate hardcover and paperback editions, allowing the more expensive and therefore more profitable hardcover to build sales before issuing the cheaper paperback). According to Carolyn Reidy of S&S, “The right place for the e-book is after the hardcover but before the paperback.” (more…)
Tags: ebooks, victoria strauss, Writer Beware
Posted in SFWA Blog, Writer Beware | 4 Comments »
Quick Updates for 2009-12-14
Monday, December 14th, 2009
Member News
- Welcome to SFWA's newest Active member, K. C. Ball. Read K.C.’s thoughts about joining SFWA.
- Special 20% discount for SFWA members at the Apex store.
- Welcome to SFWA's newest Associate member, Greg Mellor. His story "Defence of the Realm" is an Aurealis finalist.
Industry News
- Read the full text of the Random House letter regarding ebooks.
Tags: twitter
Posted in News, SFWA Blog | Comments Off
Hunting for a Literary Agent
Monday, December 14th, 2009
Written by Chuck Rothman
Index
- What is an agent and why do I need one?
- When do I need an agent?
- How are agents paid?
- Where to I find information about agents?
- How do I choose an agent?
- How do I contact an agent?
- How do I create an outline and sample chapters?
- What happens if I don’t get an agent?
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What is an agent and why do I need one?
An agent is a writer’s business representative. His job is to market your book, negotiate a deal with the publisher, keep track of rights sold, and generally handle the business end of things so that the author can concentrate on writing. (more…)
Tags: agent, Chuck Rothman, Intermediate, Rothman, writing
Posted in Agent Etiquette, How to Sell Your Novel, Information Center, SFWA Blog, The Business of Writing | 5 Comments »
Quick Updates for 2009-12-13
Sunday, December 13th, 2009
- Welcome to SFWA's newest Associate member, Greg Mellor. His story "Defence of the Realm" is an Aurealis finalist. #
- @categardner Bear in mind that the bylaws are only a draft &we are actively seeking member comment.Why do you think your chances are lower? in reply to categardner #
Tags: twitter
Posted in Excluded Categories | Comments Off
Quick Updates for 2009-12-13
Sunday, December 13th, 2009
- Welcome to SFWA's newest Associate member, Greg Mellor. His story "Defence of the Realm" is an Aurealis finalist. #
- @categardner Bear in mind that the bylaws are only a draft &we are actively seeking member comment.Why do you think your chances are lower? in reply to categardner #
Tags: twitter
Posted in Excluded Categories | Comments Off
Quick Updates for 2009-12-13
Sunday, December 13th, 2009
- Welcome to SFWA's newest Associate member, Greg Mellor. His story "Defence of the Realm" is an Aurealis finalist. #
- @categardner Bear in mind that the bylaws are only a draft &we are actively seeking member comment.Why do you think your chances are lower? in reply to categardner #
Tags: twitter
Posted in Excluded Categories | Comments Off
Quick Updates for 2009-12-13
Sunday, December 13th, 2009
- Welcome to SFWA's newest Associate member, Greg Mellor. His story "Defence of the Realm" is an Aurealis finalist. #
- @categardner Bear in mind that the bylaws are only a draft &we are actively seeking member comment.Why do you think your chances are lower? in reply to categardner #
Tags: twitter
Posted in Excluded Categories | Comments Off