Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America

Archive for January, 2011

Quick Updates for 2011-01-18

Tuesday, January 18th, 2011

• SFWA members, don't forget to nominate for the Nebulas. Nominations close on February 15. http://is.gd/V1t3jC #

Tags: twitter
Posted in Excluded Categories | Comments Off

Contest Alert: First One Publishing’s Writing Contest

Monday, January 17th, 2011

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware

I'm behind the eight ball with this post, because home renovation insanity has kept me more or less offline for the past few days. Many other bloggers have beaten me to the punch with commentary on this contest, so there's already quite a bit of information out there. Apologies if what follows is repetitive of stuff you've already seen.

First One Publishing, a new digital publishing venture, has announced a contest to promote its launch. Entries must be novels of up to 65,000 words, and prizes include publication.

(more...)

Tags: Writer Beware
Posted in SFWA Blog, Writer Beware | 1 Comment »

Guest Post: Your Business Model Is Not Your Neighbor’s

Monday, January 17th, 2011

by Monica Valentinelli

I’ve been in a lot of discussions recently with other authors and a few game designers about pricing. Over and over again, I hear comparisons to the iTunes model or whatever Amazon is doing. If “free” is not the golden calf, then ninety-nine cents is the deal of the decade.

From my perspective, pricing right now is being determined not based on the content that is being created, but by its ease of distribution and the potential market reach a website has. The iTunes model worked for music, and now it’s being applied to fiction and games, too. While I understand why this is happening, I’m disappointed that the pricing is based on availability rather than its intrinsic value. Impulse buy? Sure, but in my opinion, some things are worth paying more than ninety-nine cents for.

Just for the sake of argument, say that it takes a composer as much time to write a good song as it does an author to write a short story. Should they be priced the same? From a consumer standpoint, you listen to a song, regardless of what you’re doing. You can consume this song over and over again, and don’t have to drop your activities to listen to it.
(more…)

Tags: Jason Sizemore, Monica Valentinelli
Posted in SFWA Blog, The Business of Writing | Comments Off

Key Conditions for Reader Suspense:
Part 5 – Character troubles

Saturday, January 15th, 2011

by John D. Brown

The following is part of a continuing series. If you wish to start at the beginning, head to It’s All About The Reader.

In previous posts we discussed the idea that readers don’t want your characters to be happy. They want them to hunted, stressed, threatened, freaked, and nigh unto some horrible fate for 90% of the novel. At that point, after all that trouble, readers want the characters to pull victory out of the jaws of defeat, exhale a big sigh of relief, and enjoy a Slurpee . . . until the next book in the series.

All through the big worry, readers don’t want to know what WILL happen. They want to know or suspect what MIGHT happen and HOPE and FEAR about those possibilities. And then they want a cathartic resolution of all that hope and fear, all that dramatic tension they have felt.
(more…)

Tags: John D. Brown
Posted in Advice for New Writers, Information Center, SFWA Blog, The Craft of Writing, Writing Technique | 2 Comments »

How to be a Writer and Have a Life: or, Livin’ the Dream

Friday, January 14th, 2011

by Kelly Swails

Writing is a rewarding and fun gig, but finding the time to write can be a challenge. The only commodity an author has are her words, and the only way to produce that commodity is to get some quality butt-in-chair action. Contrary to urban legend, stories don’t write themselves or grow on Novel Trees. So how do you find the time to make the magic happen? Perhaps a few of the strategies outlined below might work for you.

Find your sweet spot.

What time of day are you most productive? All hours in the day are not equal. This will take several rounds of trial and error. Some folks are morning people while others are night owls. One writer can spit out 1500 words per hour at six a.m. while another writer will only produce 250 words during that same time period. If you have the luxury of taking several days off of work, try to find your best writing time. Sleep in and write in the afternoon. Stay up late and write during Conan. Try to get in a few pages as the sun rises. Which time period produces the most usable words? Writing 2000 words every night at midnight means nothing if you consistently have to scrap 1800 of them. Once you find the best time of day for your creativity, exploit it. Get up an hour before everyone else to squeeze in some writing time. Find a quiet spot after dinner and let the words flow. Or fire up the coffeemaker and burn the midnight oil. Once you discover when you produce the most and best words, you’ll need less BIC time to produce the same amount of product. This is crucial to having a life outside of writing.
(more…)

Tags: Kelly Swails, writing advice
Posted in Advice for New Writers, Information Center, SFWA Blog, The Craft of Writing, Tips for Beginners | 1 Comment »

Quick Updates for 2011-01-14

Friday, January 14th, 2011

Member News

• Congratulations to SFWA member Paolo Bacigalupi, whose YA novel SHIP BREAKER won the Printz Award.
• Welcome to SFWA’s newest Affiliate member, Laurie Mann, Worldcon Program Liaison for Renovation – World Science Fiction Convention 2011.
• Welcome to SFWA’s newest Associate member Patty Jansen. Read one of her qualifying stories at Grantville Gazette.
• Welcome to SFWA’s newest Active member Jenny Moss, author of SHADOW (Scholastic, 2010).
• Part 1 of SFWA member Eugie Foster‘s story, “The Princes and the Golden Fish,” is now out in the January issue of Cricket.
• SFWA member Eugie Foster sold short story “Beneath the Silent Bell, the Autumn Sky Turns to Spring” to DAW anthology Human for a Day.
• “Sympathy for Salieri” – SFWA member Lou Antonelli is interviewed by author Tracy Morris.
• SFWA member Vonda N. McIntyre‘s novelette “Little Faces” is a Book View Cafe ebook.

Resources

• SFWA member Mike Shevdon on writing for your five other senses.

Tags: Eugie Foster, Jenny Moss, Laurie Mann, Lou Antonelli, Paolo Bacigalupi, Patty Jansen, twitter, Vonda N. McIntyre
Posted in News, SFWA Blog | Comments Off

Quick Updates for 2011-01-13

Thursday, January 13th, 2011

• "Sympathy for Salieri" – SFWA member Lou Antonelli interviewed by author Tracy Morris: http://is.gd/kBvbc #
• SFWA member @vondanmcintyre's novelette "Little Faces" is a Book View Cafe ebook – http://is.gd/Gu2pP0 #

Tags: twitter
Posted in Excluded Categories | Comments Off

Nebula Awards Interview: Eugie Foster by Charles Tan

Wednesday, January 12th, 2011

Eugie Foster won the Nebula Award for her novelette “Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast”.

Hi! Thanks for agreeing to do the interview. What’s the appeal of speculative fiction for you?

SF is the stuff that fires the imagination and leaves you wandering around in a cloud of “what if” and “ooo” for the whole day: the magic, the sense of wonder, the ideas, the fantastical worlds, the optimism and the admonitions. The same fascination and love that draws me as a reader of speculative fiction is what attracts me to it as a writer.

What made you decide to become a writer?

I honestly can’t remember a time when I didn’t want to be a writer.  My mother was a librarian at the University of Illinois (in Champaign-Urbana), so I was ensconced in library stacks and immersed in one book or other throughout my childhood.  There were the obligatory ballerina-veterinarian-jockey stages growing up, but they were always “I wanna be a ballerina. And a writer” or “I wanna be a veterinarian. And a writer.”
(more…)

Tags: Eugie Foster, interviews, Nebula Awards
Posted in Nebula Awards, SFWA Blog | 2 Comments »

The Mail I Get

Tuesday, January 11th, 2011

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware

Received in email this morning via Google Alerts: this press release from an outfit called 3L Publishing, announcing publication of a book called Vanity Circus: A Smart Girl's Guide to Avoid Publishing Crap.

A manual on how to avoid bad writing? Not exactly. "Vanity Circus is an entertaining, funny and insightful book that guides readers through the complex, sometimes frustrating but always interesting world of publishing."

As it happens, the book's authors are co-owners of 3L Publishing, and 3L publishing is a book producer--or, if you want to be less polite about it, a vanity publisher. I don't whether to laugh at the press release's opening line ("Business owners and individuals who have lost their jobs or seek new ways to supplement their income are turning to book publishing as a way to make money"), or cry at the fact that anyone would advocate paying a lot of dough to a book producer as a way of beating one's economic woes ("People are out of work and reinventing their lives. Many people just have stories to tell yet need help from a ghostwriter or editor. They don't know anything about the business. We wanted to help these people through the process").

Think I'm being too mean? Check out 3L's "Publishing Service Sheet," which promotes their "New Hybrid - Pay for Play" business model by contrasting it with fake facts about "traditional" publishing.

Tags: Writer Beware
Posted in SFWA Blog, Writer Beware | Comments Off

Quick Updates for 2011-01-11

Tuesday, January 11th, 2011

• Congratulations to SFWA member @paolobacigalupi whose YA novel SHIP BREAKER just won the Printz Award. http://is.gd/kvfd6 #
• Welcome to SFWA's newest Affiliate member, Laurie Mann, Worldcon Program Liaison for Renovation – World Science Fiction Convention 2011. #
• Welcome to SFWA's newest Associate member @pattyjansen. Read one of her qualifying stories at Grantville Gazette. http://is.gd/kvvgl #
• Welcome to SFWA's newest Active member Jenny Moss (@jennymckmoss), author of SHADOW (Scholastic, 2010) http://jenny-moss.com/ #
• Part 1 of SFWA member @eugiefoster's story, "The Princes and the Golden Fish," is now out in the January issue of Cricket. #
• SFWA member @eugiefoster sold short story "Beneath the Silent Bell, the Autumn Sky Turns to Spring" to DAW anthology Human for a Day. #
• @jennymckmoss We are happy to have you. If you need anything retweeted, just let me know. http://is.gd/kwrJE #

Tags: twitter
Posted in Excluded Categories | Comments Off

• « Older Entries
• Newer Entries »