Tips for Beginners

Advice for New Writers, Building a Career, Information Center, The Business of Writing, The SFWA Blog, Tips for Beginners

Story Cake

by Sylvia Spruck Wrigley

The popular advice for writers is to write your first draft for just one person and then to revise for the world. Your voice, they say, should be personal and true and deep but the story itself must have mass-market appeal. This is a rainbow I chased for a long time. Lately, though, I’m starting to question the simple assumption that success is measured by the number of readers.

Advice for New Writers, Building a Career, Information Center, Networking and Self-Promotion, The Business of Writing, The SFWA Blog, Tips for Beginners

We Are All Allies

by Dan Koboldt

In some ways, publishing is a zero-sum game. There are only so many slots in the schedule of traditional publishers. Only ten books can occupy the top ten list, and only one can win the Hugo. Yet the most dangerous and pervasive threat to the aspiring author is not another author, nor is it a big bad publisher. Nor is it a certain online store. No, the biggest threat is the ever-shrinking reading time the average person has in our modern world.

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