by Caren Gussoff
We’re on the front lines of the changing publishing industry, and for all the insecurities that encompasses, we have a growing number of tools that help reach out and sell directly to fans. Of these tools, perhaps the one most successful has been the online crowd funding platforms.
In an industry where success is difficult to quantify, there are certain writing benchmarks that denote achievement and validate your work to your peers and your readers. Becoming SFWA-qualified is one of them.
by Caren Gussoff
I wanted to find services that acted like Google Alerts did in its healthy heyday: rounding up every mention across the web, without guessing that mention’s possible relevance, and sending to me on a regular basis.
by Caren Gussoff Note: Part One appears here: Lit Fic Mags for Spec Fic Writers 101. Part Two appears here: Lit Fic Mags for Spec Fic Writers 102: Is It Literary? ••• Now, you’ve decided to submit to a literary market for a particular story. You’re hip to the fundamental differences between lit mags and SFF mags […]
by Caren Gussoff Note: Part One appears here: Lit Fic Mags for Spec Fic Writers 101 This may seem totally obvious, but is actually worth a deeper dive: if you want to market your speculative fiction to literary markets, it has to be significantly literary. Literary markets, though they may protest that they do not like/accept/read […]
In celebration of the legacy of Octavia E. Butler, Pacific Northwest writers Vonda N. McIntyre, Nisi Shawl, Dennis Y. Ginoza, Erik Owomoyela, Caren Gussoff, and Rashida Smith will read work inspired by their relationships with Octavia Butler, or stories included in Bloodchildren: Stories by the Octavia E. Butler Scholars.
When my first novel came out – in 2000 – by all weights and measures, I had “made it” as a mid-list fiction writer. I’d secured a two book deal (the second: a collection of short stories, the most elusive prey on the planet), a tidy first-timers advance, and a round of positive reviews from all the usual suspects.
Here, I’d like to list out my last five of ten truths about professional jealousy (as I see it), which concern how you can deal with the green-eyed monster when it will not simply be slayed.
I knew I’d found a keeper when my boyfriend-at-the-time barely flinched the first time he saw one of our fights, word-for-word, in print. “You writers,” he said. “You air your dirty laundry. That’s how it is.”
I’ve found that editing other writers’ work often forces me to articulate my philosophy of writing, which helps me then turn around and apply it to my own. When you’re telling people to avoid adverbs, for instance, it’s worthwhile to go look at your own and see how many you have of your own.
Completely reliant on automation and artificial intelligence to manage their lives, desperate human beings learn to survive, bond, and unlock the power of their minds when a war destroys all the world’s power grids. “An Enthralling Page-Turner!”
Nicole M. Wolverton writes (mostly) YA and adult horror. Her debut YA novel A Misfortune of Lake Monsters, horror with a scifi twist, will be released in July 2024 (CamCat Books). She grew up in the rural PA hinterlands and now lives in Philadelphia.
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