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THE INDIE FILES: Writing Through Trauma

by J. Scott Coatsworth In the middle of 2022, I broke my arm. And not just a simple fracture—my orthopedic surgeon said it looked like it had exploded. Thus began a difficult (and still in progress) recovery. I won’t go…

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Diamond in the Rough: How to Shine in the Slush Pile

A.J. Cunder As an editor, I’m tempted to say there’s a certain magic when it comes to submissions that catch my eye in the slush pile: an ethereal feeling when the story just clicks, an almost intangible quality to the…

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THE INDIE FILES: Balancing the Indie Workload

by Anthony W. Eichenlaub Your time has value. That’s it. That’s the lesson. If you’re looking to save a few minutes, you can skip the rest of this article and just keep that one thought in mind. Your minutes have…

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SAFETY DISPATCH: How to Secure Your Author Website

by the SFWA Safety Committee Numerous user-friendly options exist for authors to set up and manage their own websites, from single, static pages to actively updated blogs. They can be built with templates or custom designed, self-hosted, or placed on…

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Making Soft Magic Systems Work

by M.K. Hutchins Soft magic has been with us since humans had stories: it’s in our fairytales, our folklore, and continues to be popular today, appearing in everything from Studio Ghibli films to the writings of Terry Pratchett, to Axie…

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THE INDIE FILES: Yes, You Do Need an Editor

by Colin Alexander Almost by definition, writers love to write. We also tend to fall in love with our words. What we put on the page paints the exact picture of the idea we have in our minds, and all…

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In Memoriam: Suzy McKee Charnas

Suzy McKee Charnas (22 October 1939–02 January 2023) was a groundbreaking feminist science-fiction and horror writer and beloved Clarion West teacher. Originally from New York City, where she also studied, she lived and wrote from New Mexico for over 60…

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SFWA Market Report – January 2023

Welcome to the January edition of the SFWA Market Report. Please note: Inclusion of any venue in this report does not indicate an official endorsement by SFWA. Those included on this list pay at least $0.08/word in at least one category…

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Climate Change and Antibiotic Resistance: Facts for Fiction

by Jason P. Burnham Climate change is the top public health emergency of the twenty-first century. Naturally, you may be inclined to write a story somewhere on the dystopia-to-solarpunk spectrum that mitigates your burgeoning existential climate dread. Perhaps one of…

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Social Media Strategy for Writers

By Cat Rambo You have been told, like so many writers before you, that you must have a social media presence. That nowadays, agents and publishing houses look to see how many Twitter followers you have before opening your manuscript….

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A Brief History of Persian Sci-Fi

By Kamiab Ghorbanpour For many years in Iran, and Persian pop culture in general, science-fiction books, movies, and TV shows were often ridiculed as “testicles-fiction” (تخمی “testicles” and تخیلی “fiction” have a similar stress). This wasn’t always the case, though….

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Writing the Science Right

by Gideon P. Smith Getting the science right in SF can make the difference between writing cute stories and great science fiction. If you are a non-scientist writing SF and want to know how to do that, then this blog…

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Should I Be Using AI-Generated Cover Art?

By Jay O’Connell In the blink of an eye, AI-generated art has evolved from a disturbing oddity into stunningly crafted images mimicking every art medium. But is this content good enough for commercial use by publishers and indie authors? And…

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Spec-Fic-Fu 2: Weapons!

by Andrew K Hoe In our previous post, we examined how battling robots and aliens utilize armaments. Today, we’ll detail human arsenals further to illustrate the options for how imaginary warriors could fight. And since sci-fi armaments like lightsabers are…

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The Ecology of Worldbuilding

by J. Dianne Dotson Worldbuilding takes many forms in genre fiction. Whether a story takes place on another planet, in a mystical land, or in a hellscape of horror, adding touches of realism enhances the world for its inhabitants. Using…

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THE INDIE FILES: An Indie Approach to Series

by Anthony W. Eichenlaub Whether it’s the one-two punch of a duology or the sprawling epic of multiple loosely connected trilogies, there is no doubt that science fiction and fantasy readers love series. For an author, series can be amazing….

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