Planetside Full Archives
Planetside: The Online Magazine of SFWA
No post found!
The SFWA Blog
Ten Classic Hard Science Fiction Novels featuring Physics and Astronomy
As a professor of astronomy, which is considered a “hard science,” I worry that the classification “hard SF” is off-putting to many readers. It makes it sound like any story labeled as such will be hard to understand,…
Authors Guild Statement on Penguin-Random House Merger
The following statement was sent by the Authors Guild to its members on Sunday. The Guild labels the proposed merger between Penguin and Random House (which would create the world’s largest publisher) “unsettling,” and urges “close scrutiny from antitrust officials…
Guest Post: Common Myths about Science
Experiments have a protocol. They are actually prepared. You just don’t show up with your new shiny equipment and start fiddling with it in the thick of the action. Otherwise, the likelihood is that it won’t work, or worse, that…
2012 World Fantasy Award Winners Announced
The World Fantasy Awards are presented annually to individuals who have demonstrated excellence in the fantasy field.
Alert: Screenplay Replay Contest
It’s right there in the logo of the Screenplay Replay Contest: the come-on.”Where Your Winning Script Gets a Publishing Deal.”
SFWA Spotlight on Pro Markets: Strange Horizons
Strange Horizons is a non-profit magazine of and about speculative fiction and related nonfiction. The magazine was founded in September 2000 by Mary Anne Mohanraj, who was Editor-in-Chief until 2003.
Raising the Curtain
These days, many authors focus more time on self-promotion through social media than on marketing their books. It’s not necessarily a bad idea, but with all the social media hype, it can be easy to forget about the fundamentals.
Alert: America’s Next Author Contest
Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware
On Thursday, I blogged about high entry fee awards schemes. Today, I’m going to discuss another potential awards trap: non-optimal entry rules.
Character Building Counts and Wise Bear Digital: Two More High-Entry Fee Book Awards
It’s Awards Week at Writer Beware! No, I’m not handing out prizes–I’m dispensing cautions. I’ve got two posts this week, both focusing on literary awards you may want to think twice about before entering.
Odyssey Writing Workshops Announces Winter 2013 Online Classes
This year, Odyssey is offering three different online courses covering some of the most critical issues for developing writers.
Video Pick of the Week: Death by Black Hole
Ever wonder what it might be like to fall into a black hole?
Guest Post: Dealing with the Dreaded Tax Audit
You stare at the stark, white envelope for several moments, afraid to touch it, like it’s radioactive. That look your mail carrier wore as she handed over the day’s mail (…there but for the Grace of God…) suddenly makes sense.
A…
Guest Post: Dear Agent — Write the Letter That Sells Your Book
Query letters. Except for the synopsis, there’s no more dreaded task a writer has to undertake.
How to boil an entire book down to a short pitch that not only provides an accurate snapshot of the work, but makes a literary…
“Fantastic Heroines of Sci-Fi and Fantasy”
On Saturday, October 27th, at 8 PM, the Baltimore Science Fiction Society (BSFS), located at 3310 East Baltimore Street, Baltimore, MD 21224, will host a roundtable discussion by four professional female authors on the topic of “Fantastic Heroines of Sci-Fi…
Judge Rules Against Authors Guild in HathiTrust Lawsuit
On the heels of several publishers’ secret settlement deal with Google in the long-running Google Books lawsuit, a judge has made a major ruling in another lawsuit over book scanning.
Guest Post: Your Secret Story
A secret story should be yours alone: about who you are, who you want to be. Who you believe yourself to be, under all the social conventions and expectations. Are you secretly a sorceress? A priestess?
Writers Slam Secrecy of Book Publishers’ Deal with Google
National writers’ organizations representing authors of books in a variety of genres believe a secret deal between Google and major book publishers may encourage Google to digitize, use, and sell copyrighted books illegally.
Define Me: The Role of Changelings in Folklore
It’s human nature to take the inexplicable things in life and try to make sense out of it. What are those eerie lights that dance around in the swamp at night?
Publishers Settle With Google–But What About Authors?
Seven years ago, the Authors Guild and several major publishers (including McGraw Hill, Penguin, and John Wiley) filed suit against Google for its unauthorized scanning of in-copyright books.
Guest Post: Enter the Dragon*Con
If you haven’t been to Dragon*Con before, here’s a little background. The convention takes place, technically, from Friday-Monday, over Labor Day weekend, in Atlanta. Most people come in on Thursday.
Guest Post: A Comet is Coming!
But there’s a promising new comet candidate that could rival the moon in brightness and be visible in the day time sky late in 2013.
Class Action Lawsuit Against PublishAmerica Dismissed
On June 11 of this year, a class action lawsuit was filed against PublishAmerica by a Baltimore, MD law firm, in association with high-profile litigators Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro.
Among other things, the complaint alleged that PA makes money off its…
One About One: Part 2
Don DeLillo wrote: “One truth is the swing of the sentence, the beat and poise, but down deeper it’s the integrity of the writer as he matches with the language.”
Can the same thing be said about a writer’s connection to…
One About One
In Silent Interviews, Samuel R. Delany said: “I begin, a sentence lover. I’m forever delighted, then delighted all over, at the things sentences can trip and trick you into saying, into seeing. I’m astonished—just plain tickled!—at the sharp turns…