Planetside Full Archives
Planetside: The Online Magazine of SFWA
No post found!
The SFWA Blog
Pearson Buys Author Solutions
Last March, word went out that self-publishing giant Author Solutions Inc (owner of AuthorHouse, iUniverse, Xlibris, Trafford, WordClay, Palibrio, and several others, and contractor for the self-pub divisions of several major publishers) was looking for a buyer.
It Came From Riverside!
The Eaton Collection of Science Fiction & Fantasy is the largest publicly-accessible collection of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and utopian literature in the world. For an inside look, check out the YouTube video.
Call for Guest Bloggers
Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware
Would you like to be a guest blogger for Writer Beware?
To vary our subject matter and present differing points of view, we publish occasional guest blog posts on subjects relating to publishing, self-p…
Lazy Time Travel: Five Things I Wish I Knew When I Started Out
Graduation season has come and gone, but we’ve seen lots of great commencement speeches around, from Neil Gaiman’s to Aaron Sorkin’s. They made me mildly nostalgic.
Guest Post: When Did “Science Fiction” and “Apocalypse” Become Interchangeable?
Our society and technology is hardly the epitome of endeavor; to believe we’re at our pinnacle is mild hubris at best. So why should our future be worse?
Guest Post: Chasing the First Sale–Becoming a Student of the Job
Short stories are a proving ground. They let you get out there, try a bunch of things out, and make your mistakes small so you don’t have to make all of them big. When I hear an unpublished writer talking…
Guest Post: Really, Your Outline Does Not Have to Be Perfect
An outline is a roadmap. It helps you decide the overall shape of the novel. It does not lock you into that structure if you stumble upon something interesting.
Rights vs. Copyright
Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware
You may have noticed that there were no posts last week. Apologies! I’ve got a humongous workload, and have had to cut myself off from the web almost entirely in order to deal with…
Andre Norton Award Jury Announced
The 2012 Andre Norton Award committee has been chosen, and will begin accepting books for consideration. Any young adult/middle grade prose or graphic novel first published in English in 2012 is eligible.
Guest Post: Presenting the Cultural Imperialism Bingo Card
If you think colonialism is dead… think again. Globalisation has indeed made the world smaller–furthering the dominance of the West over the developing world, shrinking and devaluing local cultures, and uniformising everything to Western values and Western ways of life
Finalists for the Sunburst Award Announced
The Sunburst Awards for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic are presented annually to Canadian writers with a speculative fiction novel or book-length collection of speculative fiction published any time during the previous year.
More Money-Wasting "Opportunities" For Writers
Following on my last post about how authors can waste money on promotional strategies, here are some more cash-sucking “opportunities.”
Guest Review: Prometheus–The Horror!
PROMETHEUS is the most frightening horror movie of the past 20 years. And the horror is that this is what American science will look like after a century of teaching Creationism in our schools.
Quick Updates for 2012-06-20
Resources and Member News for Jennifer Brozek, David Brin, Robert J. Sawyer, David D. Levine, Eugie Foster, Karen Azinger, and Adam Christopher.
Author Solutions Introduces BookStub
Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware
Author Solutions has just introduced a new marketing service called BookStub, which it describes thusly:
Loyalty card-sized BookStubs display your cover on the front side and ordering instructions on t…
Guest Post: Chasing the First Sale: What a Pro Story Is
There are tons of great resources on writing fiction, and I won’t even attempt to get into all that information here. What I’m going to focus on are the macro, big-picture things I’ve learned through personal experience.
SFWA at BEA: A Recap
[SWFA’s presence at BEA] this year was an experiment, but a wildly successful one. We were able to inform, educate and engage people from all areas of the publishing world. Dozens of bloggers and librarians stopped by to talk to…
Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against PublishAmerica
I can’t count the number of questions I’ve received over the years from unhappy PublishAmerica authors, wondering whether a class action lawsuit against PA has been/might be/ever will be filed.
In Memoriam: Jim Young
Writer and fan, Jim Young, 61, died on June 12, a week after being admitted to a hospital for emergency surgery on a brain tumor.
Guest Post: Writers and Their Literary Estates: Story Reprints
Writers who do not take the time to create a will with provisions for the handling of their literary estate may help make their work more obscure than it should be, and deprive readers of great fiction for reasons unrelated…
BEA Report
As exciting as the digital transition is, I feel a bit sorry for authors of the future, whose books may never become physical objects–there really is nothing like holding your book in your hands for the first time.
RIP Ray Bradbury (1920-2012)
“Simply put, it is the end of an era. Ray was more than just an author, more than just a Grand Master. He was one of the pillars of our community.” ~John Scalzi, SFWA President
SFWA Schedule for Book Expo America
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America will, for the first time, be participating in Book Expo America, June 5-7, in New York City. We will be at Booth 3591, so come on by and say hi!
Judge Grants Class Status to Authors in Authors Guild v. Google Lawsuit
An important legal ruling was handed down yesterday by Judge Denny Chin in the five-year-old Authors Guild v. Google class action lawsuit over Google’s scanning of millions of in-copyright books.