by Sara Ryan
Whatever your situation as a writer, I’d like to encourage you to try writing in the comics format. I keep using the word “format” to emphasize that, as advocates of comics have often been compelled to repeat, “It’s a format, not a genre.” Comics are not just about superheroes, or crime, or memoir, or humor, or romance, or journalism, or realism, or surrealism, or science fiction, or fantasy. Comics can be all those things and more.
If you’re going to be at MidAmeriCon II on Aug 20th, be sure to check out the SFWA’s Meet-and-Greet with Margot Atwell, Kickstarter’s Publishing Lead.
by Susan Forest
I like seeing a passage, whether my own or someone else’s, improve with a changed word choice, a question answered, or an idea clarified or extended. To create an entirety—a book—from the discrete stories that make it up, by juxtaposing ideas, styles and emotional content, was a satisfying and creative process that was new to me.
Steam Press, a New Zealand publisher, is running a world-wide competition for short-short science fiction stories. All stories will be considered for possible publication and the winning entry is awarded a prize of USD$500.00.
by Russell Galen
Have an agent. If you feel you don’t need one, find another human being to whom you have no emotional attachments, who knows a lot about the IP business, will tell you the truth, will be a sounding board for your literary and business questions, and will speak to the buyers of your work so that you can keep some distance from them.
by Mary Rosenblum
So you can publish on Amazon.com, but if you’re successful they’ll yank your book? What kind of catch 22 is this? Ah, oh yes, all you authors who are trading reviews? Amazon.com, according to that helpful associate Brad spoke to, is ‘looking at’ Goodreads, too. Their own company! They’re looking at authors who connect up to swap reviews… If most of your reviews come from other authors, you might want to think about this.
Welcome to the July Market Report for SF/F. Magazine News: Deep Magic is a bi-monthly electronic magazine that publishes clean short
by K. Tempest Bradford
I use the Diigo Outliner, a versatile online tool that I recommend to teachers and writers who want to arrange collections of links and text in an easy to scan and understand way.
by Megan Leigh
When it comes to equal representation in fiction, women have a long way to go. There simply aren’t enough female characters in books and that’s counting those that appear only as romantic interests, victims to be saved, or someone’s mother. Is it really so much to ask for an equal number and variety of well-written, three-dimensional female characters?
Welcome to the Junec Market Report for SF/F.
Deadlines and Closures to Note:
Pro anthology Sunvault: Stories of Solarpunk and Eco-Speculation is open to submissions of fiction and poetry until June 4 and submissions of line art and coloring pages until June 30, 2016.
Info about the organization’s new member experience, game writer criteria, the state of SFWA finances, volunteer opportunities, Worldcon plans, the 2017 Nebulas, awards for anthologies, what they’re reading, and more.
by Aidan Doyle
Text expansion tools are a way to save time by using shortcuts for text you commonly type. For example, on my computer I type -em and it’s automatically replaced by my email address. When submitting short stories I have a standard cover letter template. I type -pubs and modify the template according to the market. If you’re an editor sending many similar emails, text expansion tools can save you a lot of time.
