Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America

Archive for March, 2011

Karma’s a Bitch: Robin Price, David William Caswell

Thursday, March 31st, 2011

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware

Two individuals who exploited writers got their comeuppances recently.

Robin Price of Avalon Associates, Media Arts International, and Prospero Films

Robin Price, a fake literary agent and film producer accused of bilking writers out of more than £500,000 over a number of years, admitted in a UK court on Wednesday to six counts of theft. He was sentenced to six years in prison.

Price, who changed the name of his company several times to dodge complaints on the Internet, started out by setting himself up as a literary agent and charging relatively modest reading fees. Later, he presented himself as a film producer, convincing clients to hand over enormous sums of money to invest in non-existent film and publishing deals. He claimed extensive experience and contacts within the entertainment industry--this was a complete fabrication, but apparently Price was persuasive. One client paid him nearly £300,000, while others paid fees ranging from several hundred to many thousands of pounds.
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Tags: Writer Beware
Posted in SFWA Blog, Writer Beware | Comments Off

In Memoriam: Diana Wynne Jones (1934-2011)

Wednesday, March 30th, 2011

British author Diana Wynne Jones (1934-2011) died on March 26 after being diagnosed with lung cancer in mid-2009.  Jones is perhaps best known for her novel Howl’s Moving Castle, which was turned into an animated film by Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli.  Jones began publishing in 1970 with the novel Changeover, aimed at the adult market.  She quickly found a niche for herself writing young adult fantasies, including the Chrestomanci series, the Dalemark Quartet, and the Derkholm series.  Despite the young-adult marketing category, Jones’s works appealed to readers of all ages. In 1996, Jones published The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, a satirical look at the clichés of fantasy conceived as a tour book.  The volume earned Jones a Hugo nomination for Best Related Work. Jones won the Mythopoeic Award for The Crown of Dalemark in 1993 and Dark Lord of Derkholm in 1998, as well as the World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007.

Posted in In Memoriam, News | 1 Comment »

Top-Earning Authors of 2010

Wednesday, March 30th, 2011

Forbes magazine has released its annual list of the ten highest paid authors. The order is based on income from books, film, television, gaming, and other sources from June 2009 to June 2010.

1. James Paterson: $70 million
Over the last four years, one out of every seventeen novels sold in the United States has James Patterson’s name on the cover.

“I am not a great prose stylist. I’m a storyteller. There are thousands of people who don’t like what I do. Fortunately, there are millions who do.” (more…)

Tags: Forbes magazine, income
Posted in News, SFWA Blog | 1 Comment »

Quick Updates for 2011-03-30

Wednesday, March 30th, 2011

• Out today! SFWA member @SaraCreasy's Children of Scarabaeus, sequel to Philip K Dick Award-nominated Song of Scarabaeus http://bit.ly/eKRWg1 #
• Tomorrow, March 30th is the last day to vote for the Nebulas. http://is.gd/KmK4Ry #

Tags: twitter
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Quick Updates for 2011-03-30

Wednesday, March 30th, 2011

Member News

• Part 4 and the conclusion of SFWA member Eugie Foster‘s story, “The Princess and the Golden Fish,” is now out in the April issue of Cricket.
• Out today! SFWA member Sara Creasy‘s CHILDREN OF SCARABAEUS, sequel to Philip K Dick Award-nominated SONG OF SCARABAEUS.

Tags: Eugie Foster, Sara Creasy, twitter
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Nebula Voting ends March 30th

Tuesday, March 29th, 2011

SFWA Active members, tomorrow is the last day to vote for the Nebula Awards. You may do that online with the Nebula final ballot. Your vote must be received by Wednesday, March 30th, 2010 at 11:59pm PST in order to be counted.

Please vote, and then help us encourage other members to vote as well.

Don’t forget to register for the Nebula Awards Weekend!

If you haven’t yet, you may read the Nebula Nominated Fiction available for consideration in the members’ only Discussion Forum.

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Posted in Nebula Awards, News, SFWA Blog | 1 Comment »

Why Your Self-Publishing Service Probably Didn’t Cheat You

Tuesday, March 29th, 2011

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware

I often hear from writers who are convinced that they're being cheated by their self-publishing services because they've been vigorously promoting their books, and yet their royalty checks are tiny. Often, these angry authors offer evidence: changing Amazon rankings, listings of their books with multiple online sellers, used copies for sale, friends' reports of purchases.

There's always the possibility that some kind of skullduggery or error is involved--especially if you've used one of the many small self-publishing services set up by not-necessarily-qualified individuals. The larger self-publishing services have pretty efficient setups for record-keeping and payment--but even so, mistakes can occur, and customer service may be inadequate, making problems hard to resolve.

However, in many cases, the trouble is not malfeasance or bad record-keeping, but authors' unrealistic expectations and assumptions. They may not be fully aware of the marketing and distribution challenges that go with self-publishing, or the dire sales statistics for the average self-published book. Or they may have spent too much time at Joe Konrath's blog, or read one too many articles about Amanda Hocking, and decided that they should be able to achieve a similar level of self-publishing success. In reality, self-publishing is a tough way to go--and getting tougher every day as more and more writers rush into the field--and the successes that are currently being made much of in the media--while impressive--are not a representative sample.
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Tags: Writer Beware
Posted in SFWA Blog, Writer Beware | 4 Comments »

Quick Updates for 2011-03-29

Tuesday, March 29th, 2011

• Part 4 and the conclusion of SFWA member @eugiefoster's story, "The Princess and the Golden Fish," is now out in the April issue of Cricket. #

Tags: twitter
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Guest Post: Shorts vs. Novels—A View from the Trenches

Monday, March 28th, 2011

by Nancy Fulda

So I’ve published at Asimov’s, Apex, and Jim Baen’s Universe. At this point I’ve got a feel for what makes short stories tick. I’m also muddling through the middle of my first novel: A colonized world story in which giant roving caravans circle the planet to remain in the habitable twilight regions — and I most definitely do not yet understand what makes novels tick.

I’m starting to realize, however, that some of the habits I picked up writing short stories have become my enemies in this novel thing. Here’s what I’ve observed.

Infodumping
Every new writer knows that infodumping is the cardinal sin of the short story world. Very few magazine editors are willing to wade through three paragraphs detailing the cultural nuances of nomadic amphibious aliens. I didn’t either, when I read slush for Baen’s Universe.

Accordingly, I learned to leave out exposition wherever possible. In fact, I tend to edit out exposition subconsciously. I never even think of putting it on paper.

Turns out, that’s not such a good skill when it comes to novel writing. The books I love most immerse me in a world utterly different from my own. Arrakis, Pern, Barrayar, Chalion… I crave deep information about these planets, and fortunately the author always delivered. When I’ve critiqued novels for friends, I generally want to know more about the world they’ve created, not less.

So: Infodumping, no longer evil. I know I’ve got to be smart about it. I can’t launch into a ten-page history lesson and expect readers to go along. But I can reveal a lot more than I did when I only had a few thousand words to work with.
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Tags: Nancy Fulda
Posted in Advice for New Writers, Information Center, SFWA Blog, Tips for Beginners | Comments Off

Key Conditions for Suspense:
Part 15 – Story Cycle Action & Trouble

Saturday, March 26th, 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 my last post, I introduced the story cycle and explained the inciting incident and reaction. In this post, I’ll explain the action and trouble.

At the end of a reaction phase, the character decides to take some action. The goal or purpose of the action is to fix the problem or complete some step along the way to fixing the problem. The character will either reach that goal or she won’t.

When the goal is clear in the reader’s mind, they form a question: will the character solve the problem? It’s a clear yes or no proposition. And because the character is deserving and the problem is significant enough for the reader to care, the reader will hope the character succeeds and fear she might not.

If, however, you fail to make the decision and goal clear to the reader, then they won’t worry and hope as much as wonder what the hero is doing. Too much of that and we’re back to confusion instead of suspense. So make the decision and goal clear right up front.

If it’s a scene where the opposition is doing something to the character, then you make the opposition character’s goal clear. Think about Hitchcock’s bomb in the example (found in Part 10 of this series). The hero doesn’t know about it. But the reader does. The reader knows exactly what might happen. And because they know about the awful possibility, they can worry about it.
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Tags: John D. Brown
Posted in Advice for New Writers, Information Center, SFWA Blog, The Craft of Writing, Tips for Beginners, Writing Technique | Comments Off

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