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Guest Post: Who Controls Your Amazon E-book Price?
While there are certainly advantages to Amazon’s program, anyone who thinks Amazon is in this to help authors is a fool. Amazon, like pretty much any other business, is in this to make money.
Why Poets Should Not Seek Literary Agents
Writer Beware hears from a fair number poets. Much of the time, they’re contacting us to ask about self-publishing, or to check the reputation of a journal or a contest. Sometimes, unfortunately, they’ve gotten mixed up with one of the…
Script Frenzy hits this April
Script Frenzy is an international writing event in which participants take on the challenge of writing 100 pages of scripted material in the month of April.
Nebula Awards Interview: Aliette de Bodard
Basically, genre is a very useful guideline for grouping together novels that share certain characteristics, but I think it can also be a trap–what Ursula Le Guin and many others referred to as the ghetto. It tends to create books…
2011 Nebula Awards Nominees Announced
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America is proud to announce the nominees for the 2011 Nebula Awards (presented 2012), the nominees for the Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation, and the nominees for the Andre Norton Award for…
Guest Post: What’s Wrong with the Cheesecake? — A Brief Introduction to Antagonists
…I’m not going to discuss the importance of goals today. Instead, I’m going to discuss how worthless they are.
Tidbits
The recent mega-success of self-epublishing authors such as Amanda Hocking, John Locke, Darcie Chan, and Kerry Wilkinson has generated a lot of media attention over the past year or so. But the mega-successes aren’t the only ones who are doing…
BookTango: Author Solutions Rolls Out Ebook Distribution Services
Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware
Just introduced from self-publishing conglomerate Author Solutions (owner of the iUniverse, Xlibris, AuthorHouse, and Trafford brands, and the power behind the outsourced self-publishing divisions of Harl…
Nebula Award Nominations Close Today, Feb. 15th
SFWA Active and Associate members, today is the last day to nominate for this year’s Nebula Awards. You may do that online with the Nebula Awards nomination ballot. Your ballot must be received by Wednesday, Feb 15th, 2012, at 11:59pm…
Nebula Awards Interview: Vylar Kaftan
Vylar Kaftan writes speculative fiction of all genres, including science fiction, fantasy, horror, and slipstream. She was nominated for a 2010 Nebula Award for her short story “I’m Alive, I Love You, I’ll See You in Reno.”
Guest Post: Clarion West Writers Worshop
What are the secrets to Clarion West’s success? How did it get to be one of the world’s premiere training grounds for authors of speculative fiction? Most likely that’s happened because of you. Here’s how.
In Memoriam: Ardath Mayhar
Ardath Mayhar (1930-2012) died on February 1. Mayhar began writing science fiction in 1979, although she had been publishing poetry since 1949.
Quick Updates for 2012-02-13
Member News for Eugie Foster, Ferrett Steinmetz, and Greg Bossert.
Publisher’s Desk: Display or Misplay?
If a display site is free, you lose nothing by signing up (as long as you’re careful about any contacts you receive). But if you have to pay a fee, you might want to think twice before pulling out your…
Guest Post: Five Simple Tricks
You don’t have to be a fanatic to use Twitter; it doesn’t have to take over your life. Just get an account, use your real name, start following some people, and post some things. You don’t have to do it…
Worldcon Participants, Tuesday Funk Wants You!
Tuesday Funk, Chicago’s eclectic monthly reading series where good writing and good beer mix, is looking for five writers to fill out a special program of speculative fiction readings on the evening of Tuesday, September 4th, 2012.
Fantasy on the Bayou Conference
The Futuristic, Fantasy & Paranormal chapter of Romance Writers of America is having it’s first conference March 2-4, 2012 in New Orleans, LA. The keynote speaker is Maggie Shayne.
Quick Updates for 2012-02-04
Member news for Matthew Johnson, Eugie Foster, Laura Anne Gilman, Keffy R. M. Kehrli, and Delia Sherman.
Review: The Late American Novel
In THE LATE AMERICAN NOVEL: WRITERS ON THE FUTURE OF BOOKS, editors Jeff Martin and C. Max Magee have collected a number of new writers* talking about the future of books, and although the word has been interpreted quite differently…
The Author’s Guild on Amazon: Publishing’s Ecosystem on the Brink
On Tuesday, the Authors Guild posted the following article on its blog. It’s a must-read for anyone interested in the ways in which the book business is changing, and how we reached the point where a single retailer has the…
Quick Updates for 2012-02-01
Resources and Member News for Stephanie Draven, Elizabeth Bear, Tony Pi, Eugie Foster, D. Walters Grintalis, and J. F. Lewis.
A Small Meditation on Art, Commerce and Impermanence
I’m going to touch on something that I’ve discussed briefly before but which I think is worth reheating into its own post. Here are the best selling books in the US from 1912, which is (for those of you for…
Report to SFWA members regarding Dorchester Publishing
Dear SFWA members: As many of you are aware, on December 10, 2010, the board of SFWA voted unanimously to place Dorchester Publishing Co, inc, on probation following an inquiry after we became aware of several instances in which Dorchester…
Guest Post: So You Have a Writer Friend…Don’t Panic
One of the first published novelists I got to know told me that it was really awkward to be friends with a writer whose stuff you don’t like.