A Question You Don’t Want Your Publisher to Ask
Here are eight words you never want to hear from a publisher that is considering your manuscript for publication:
“How many books are you planning to order?”
The SFWA Blog, Writer Beware
The SFWA Blog
The SFWA Blog, Writer Beware
Thoughts on Self-Promotion
As I close in on the end of my current writing project, the issue of self-promotion is much on my mind. I don’t mind admitting that it’s a prospect I contemplate with dread. I’m one of those I-just-want-to-sit-in-my-room-with-my-laptop writers who really is not constitutionally suited for a world in which the definition of “author” also includes “huckster” (or, if you want to be a bit more diplomatic about it, “entrepreneur”).
News, Press Book, The SFWA Blog
Quick Updates for 2009-10-04
Congratulations to Donald Mead who has upgraded from Associate to Active. Kevin J. Anderson will be editing BLOOD LITE 2 for Pocket Books and Horror Writers Association. Paul Levinson interviews with former SFWA president Robert J. Sawyer.
The SFWA Blog
How semantics can help you! Part 1
Choosing the right word is critical to getting our meaning across as writers. Here are a few initial things to think about:
1. Does this word have the meaning I’m looking for?
2. Does it supply that meaning unambiguously?
3. Does it have the proper positive, negative, mysterious, or other desired connotations?
4. Does it reflect on the attitude or identity of the point of view character?
News, The SFWA Blog
Quick Updates for 2009-10-02
Welcome to SFWA’s newest Affliate member, Jennifer Brozek. She is a submissions editor for Apex.
Nalo Hopkinson has a scholarship for the mentorships she is offering.
News, The SFWA Blog
Quick Updates for 2009-10-01
Agent Janet Reid has a list of questions to ask a prospective agent. SFWA’s newest Active member, Marie-Claude Bourque. Cory Doctorow Talks About the Future of the Novel. Fiction by SFWA member Kij Johnson. Happy Book Release day to Gail Carriger. Alethea Kontis sold a short story to Shroud Publishing. Laura Anne Gilman sold audio rights to Flesh and Fire to Tantor Audiobooks. Blog Talk Radio interviewed Brandon Sanderson….
The SFWA Blog, Writer Beware
Victoria Strauss — The Perils of Searching For Publishers on the Internet
Imagine you’re a new writer. You’ve just completed your first manuscript, and are on fire to get it published. You
News, Press Book, The SFWA Blog
Leslie What nominated for Oregon Book Award
Leslie What, SFWA member, has been nominated for an Oregon Book Award for her story collection, Crazy Love! The Oregon
News, The SFWA Blog
Editors, check your slushpiles. There’s a plagiarist afoot.
If this were a case of a single plagiarized story, it would not be news.
A few days ago Shock Totem received a story called “Baboulas” by an author calling himself Richard Ridyard. John Boden, Assistant Editor of Shock Totem, read the story and immediately cried foul.
“This is plagiarism,” he said. “This is Stephen King’s ‘The Boogeyman’ from his Night Shift collection. Even the title is the same!” ‘Baboulas’ is the Greek word for ‘Boogeyman.’
News, The SFWA Blog
Quick Updates for September
Welcome new members, Sales, Videos of Google Book Settlement, Writers Digest seeks authors, and Nominate for Carl Brandon Awards.
In Memoriam, News, The SFWA Blog
RIP: Mary Hunter Schaub, 1943-2009
Mary Hunter Schaub
(June 28, 1943 – September 25, 2009)
The SFWA Blog, Writer Beware
Victoria Strauss — Google Book Search Settlement Fairness Hearing Adjourned
Last week, the U.S. Justice Department’s anti-trust division urged the court to reject the Google Book Search Settlement, citing “concerns of the United States regarding class action, copyright and antitrust law.” (The full text of the DOJ’s brief can be seen here.) However, it urged the parties to continue discussion, since “a properly structured settlement agreement in this case offers the potential for important societal benefits, [and] the United States does not want the opportunity or momentum to be lost.”