Planetside Full Archives

Welcome to the June edition of the SFWA Market Report. Please note: Inclusion of any market in the report below does not indicate an official endorsement by SFWA. New Markets Muddy Paw Press Contest Opulent Syntax: Irish Speculative Fiction Shadow…

by Julie Nováková   SF authors are accustomed to creating intelligent spaceships, spinning space stations, flying cars or super-advanced robots, but what real-world technology can’t they live without in their everyday life, especially with relation to their writing process? Authors…

by Alice Speilburg Nearly every summer, I bring on an intern for the agency, and each week we cover a different publishing topic, focusing on traditional publishing paths in the US. When we get to author payment structures—advances and royalties—I…

by Matthew Broberg-Moffitt   If you are a writer and an avid Twitter user, you may be familiar with the term #OwnVoices and pitch events such as #PitMad and #DVPit. There is some measure of controversy in the writing community…

Welcome to the May edition of the SFWA Market Report. Please note: Inclusion of any market in the report below does not indicate an official endorsement by SFWA. New Markets Friends Journal: Quaker Speculative Fiction Special Issue Inclusive Future Magazine…

by J.D. Harlock Sometimes, outlining is a never-ending struggle. Too much? Too little? You can never really tell until you finally start writing that first draft. That may seem like a stretch, but keep in mind that for a good…

Thank you to everyone who took the time to vote in the SFWA Board elections. The results as certified by the Elections Committee and the Executive Director are as follows:   President: Jeffe Kennedy Secretary: Adam Rakunas  Director-at-Large through 2023…

by Andrew Hoe Human martial arts styles are biased: they’re specifically designed to fight other humans. Of course, watching Neo trade Kung Fu blows with Agent Smith is awesome, but perhaps our focus on human fighting systems in sci-fi affects…

by Holly Schofield As a published writer beginning to get some attention, I hear it over and over: How many books have you written?  Are your short stories set in the world of your novel?  When will you advance beyond…

Welcome to the April edition of the SFWA Market Report. Please note: Inclusion of any market in the report below does not indicate an official endorsement by SFWA. New Markets Africa Risen Blood Knife The Needle Drops… Anthology Series Currently…

by Melanie Ashford Choosing to include characters with disabilities in your speculative fiction is an excellent thing to do, but you’ll need to do your research. A poorly written hard-of-hearing character will do much more harm than good, and you…

by Aigner Loren Wilson Like many writers, when I first started out writing speculative fiction, I felt lost when it came to who to talk to or where to “hang out” with the other cool kids. I knew there were…

by Navarre Bartz   If you pick up a book or movie about Artificial Intelligence (AI), there’s a good chance you’ll find a story where robots or AI have subjugated humanity. The Terminator, the robots in The Matrix, and the…

Welcome to the March edition of the SFWA Market Report. Please note: Inclusion of any market in the report below does not indicate an official endorsement by SFWA. New Markets Darkness Blooms Orion’s Belt Currently Open Al Blanchard Award Analog…

by L.A. Young Humanity tends to bury whatever history those in charge deem “inappropriate” or “pointless” for posterity. However, this erasure was only effective on the written word. Oral tradition allowed many civilizations and societies to pass down these stories…

by Priya Chand   All narrators are unreliable. If you’re reading this thinking “hey, you’re misusing the term; ‘unreliable narrator’ refers to a specific convention”–well, I’m narrating this post, so what follows is all my interpretation! I do, though, genuinely…

by C.K. Larsen   Surely, nothing screams sexy like a bisexual+ woman asking, “How does it feel to kill someone?” Cue the eye roll. Sharon Stone’s persona in Basic Instinct depicts an openly bisexual+ character who is revealed as a…

Welcome to the January/February edition of the SFWA Market Report. Please note: Inclusion of any market in the report below does not indicate an official endorsement by SFWA. New Markets It Gets Even Better Mermaids Monthly Mike Resnick Memorial Award…

by Gillian Polack   It’s suddenly harder to make a living as a writer. It was never easy. Setsu Uzumé recently wrote on the possibility of obtaining grants from regional or local governments. This article will walk you through some…

by Arkady Martine Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in The SFWA Bulletin #215. On the dining-room table which has become my desk during the endless time-is-a-flat-circle of this pandemic, is a book called Cities that Think Like Planets, by…

by Karintha Parker (This article originally appeared in The SFWA Bulletin #215.)   Like so many others connected to this [small-yet-all-consuming] publishing industry, books were my first love. Legend has it that a tiny version of me set eyes on my…

by Rosemary Claire Smith ‘Tis the season when many writers blog and tweet lists of what they’ve published this year in hopes of generating reader interest and consideration for awards. Full stop. Does the prospect of preparing a social media…

by Noah K. Sturdevant   It seems fair to say that authors are constantly scrambling for time to write. I previously wrote about managing this with a baby, and I thought I had things covered. Now I have a two…

by Henry Lien (This article originally appeared in The SFWA Bulletin #215.)   Something I’ve noticed repeatedly in my author appearances, conference panels, and lectures is that discussions about representation and diversity in the arts today focus on the importance of…