Archive for the ‘SFWA Blog’ Category

Making It Different – Pushing Genre Boundaries in Fantasy

by Martin Jenkins

One of the pleasures of genre is that it lets us identify a type of writing that we know we like. We’d feel short-changed if a crime novel didn’t feature a crime, after all, or if a romance didn’t put the travails of a relationship front and center. What we don’t want to see, however, is a mere repetition of genre tropes and clichés – it’s what is fresh and different in a work of fiction that keeps us turning the page while still being identifiably a genre work.

Negotiation Tips for Writers

by Dan Brotzel

Many writers find it difficult to talk about money, especially if it means asking for more and potentially risking turning down an offer of publication. But writing is a business as well as a passion, and the more cash you can secure for it, the more time you’ll be able to devote to your craft. Here are a few pointers on how to approach the dark art of negotiation…

A Worldbuilding Guide to Crafting Diverse Cultures

by Amelia Wiens

One of the best parts of science fiction and fantasy is the worldbuilding. A key part of creating interesting worlds is creating diverse cultures that vary in some way from our own norms. That being said, it can be so hard to get out of our own culture’s point of view and redefine elements that we unconsciously take for granted.

Writing Down Fear

by Hunter Liguore

What do you fear when you sit down to write? Fear can be the debilitating emotion that prevents us from getting into the chair in the first place. It’s the force that makes lengthy excuses for why we can’t write. Next to procrastination, fear can cause us to abandon projects, call it quits, or worse, abandon the writing completely.

Producing an Audiobook with Audible’s ACX

by Wendy Nikel

According to Forbes and other market researchers, audiobook sales are currently experiencing a major boom. With Science Fiction & Fantasy being the third-most-popular genre for this format, I decided a few months ago that I was going to try my hand at getting my books – a time travel novella series originally published in 2018-2019 by World Weaver Press – into this market. Here’s how it went.

Grant Applications 101: Finding, Troubleshooting, and Completing the Quest for Funding

by Setsu Uzumé

From Kickstarter to ko-fi to patreon, the search for funding can be a huge challenge. I recently attended a lecture provided by the St. Louis chapter of the Volunteer Lawyers and Accountants for the Arts on the subject of applying for grants. Some of the most basic hurdles include finding grants that might be a good fit for your work, and how to prepare your materials in a way to make it easy for the folks reading your submission.