I blogged about Nightshade last week, and since then there’s been a number of developments, including modification of the contracts that were so crappy. Authors should be feeling a little happier, at least.
But, I wanted to point to another group that’s involved in this and which is getting worse treatment than the authors, which is the production crew.
Marty Halpern says:
…all the focus online this past week has been the deal that Skyhorse and Start are offering the Night Shade authors. Authors. Authors.
There has been absolutely no mention, nor commitment made, to all the artists, designers, editors (including myself), and others who are owed tens of thousands of dollars — and seem to have been forgotten in all this “discussion” over the authors’ deal.
And now that NS is essentially closed and in “escrow” for this potential sale, the money that is owed to me (for invoices dating back to October of last year) — and all the other production people — may never get paid.
There would be no books to speak of if there weren’t editors, artists, and designers willing to work continuously for Night Shade for just the promise of pay. We are a dedicated lot and deserve to have our story told — and responded to — as well.
I’m afraid that when all is said and done, and the authors make their decisions — some will join S/S, others will not — those of us production people who helped put Night Shade books on the shelves and in ereaders, may be left holding a lot of empty invoices and bills.
Better than nothing, sure. And Start and Skyhorse have been both communicative and willing to listen to authors, despite the deluge of “shame on you” comments on their Facebook wall. Still, finding this out is disappointing, particularly since production crew aren’t usually particularly well paid in the first place.
Thanks, Cat; your support in this is greatly appreciated. As I mentioned on Rose Fox’s blog post: that “30-50%” statement is just that, a statement. I don’t wish to imply that anyone is not being truthful, it’s just that I’ve seen nothing in writing (even though I have asked, and been ignored); I don’t even know if there is some legal/contractual obligation in this deal in which Night Shade must pay the freelancers — and if so, when?
-martyh
I was a lowly freelance book jacket designer. I have unpaid invoices from as far back as last summer. I didn’t even know Night Shade was being sold until I started looking around on the internet after I started getting a continual busy signal at the billing department. I can’t imagine I will ever see that money, considering how far down on the priority list I am. It’s sad, too because I really enjoyed the work, and I don’t imagine I’ll see more of that either.
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How to Apply for SFWA Membership with Small Press or Self-Published Credentials
Preparing to take on even more challenges ahead.As you may know, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, (aka SFWA) had a membership vote and changed their membership criteria pretty drastically, admitting self-published and small press members to apply if they can prove they’re making an amount of money equivalent to the advance a writer would make from a traditional publisher and qualify for SFWA: three thousand dollars over the course of a year. The year does not need to be Jan-Dec, and it can be any period after January 1, 2013.
Income can come from crowdfunding, but in that case, the book must have been delivered to the funders in a timely fashion. You can combine advance and royalties, but they must fall in the same twelve months.
The income is net, not gross. If you spend ten thousand bucks printing books and then sell them for three thousand dollars, that would not count. Mainly this is there to keep people from faking their way in and I’m not too worried about small publishing expenses counting here, myself.
How do you prove income? Right now, we’ll look at whatever people think is reasonable. As the month progresses, we’ll start knowing what is and isn’t reasonable.
This is all very new, and I know we’ll be deciding many cases as we go along. I also expect there will be delays at first as we get the process working and people flowing through the pipeline.
You can find out more on the SFWA site. The application form is there. I apologize for the fact that it’s not entirely suited to self-pub apps so far – we’re working on that, and I’d be glad to hear your suggestions.
Got questions? I can answer them here if you like.
Note from a question that arose in this morning’s e-mail: Active members CAN qualify through self-published short fiction; that got left out of the official webpage and I’ve got a request in to add it.
SFWA Admits Gamewriters, All Heck Breaks Loose, Film at 11
So this morning one of the items that’s been hovering in the wings for a couple of weeks now finally went out, which was the announcement of the game writing qualifications. Since there there’s been a lot of stir and some questions about it. So here’s some answers.
Q: Hey, I’m a SFWA member! Why didn’t I know about this earlier?
A: I’m not sure. We publicized the vote before and when it happened, we had a SFWA chat hour devoted to it, and we’ve been talking about it on the discussion forums for over a year, I think, including calls for people to serve on the committee and make recommendations.
Q: Where did these qualifications come from?
A. From the Game Writing Committee, which researched the question first of whether or not we should put the issue to vote and then what form the qualifications might take. We included some game writers on the committee (its members are Jennifer Brozek, Steve Jackson, Richard Dansky, Rosemary Jones, Noah Falstein, and Jim Johnson with Matthew Johnson as the Board Liaison); the SFWA Board used their overall recommendations as the starting point.
Q: What are the qualifications?
A: Here you go. You can find them here too.
Games in any medium may be used for qualification so long as the game has a narrative element, is in English, and in the science fiction, fantasy, horror or related genres.
Prospective members working on games may qualify by showing a sale or income in one of three ways:
By making at least one paid sale of a minimum of 40,000 words to a qualified market, or three paid sales to qualified markets totaling at least 10,000 words. Game publishers may be designated as qualified markets using the already established process and criteria used to qualify fiction markets.
By showing they have earned a net income of at least $3,000 from a game that includes at least 40,000 words of text (not including game mechanics) over the course of a 12-month period since January 1, 2013. Income can be in the form of advance, royalties, or some combination of the three.
If no word count is possible, such as work done for a video game, prospective members can qualify based on one professionally produced full-length game for which they were paid at least $3,000, and with credits to no more than two writers clearly shown on the work.
Note that money from crowd-funding campaigns can be used as part or all of the required income once the game has been delivered to backers, but the amount that can be claimed cannot be more than the net income from the number of games produced and delivered to backers (calculated by the number of backers multiplied by the minimum tier which receives a copy of the game.) Work done for salary is not eligible.
For membership questions not answered above, please contact Kate Baker, SFWA Director of Operations, at operations@sfwa.org.
Q: Why don’t game instructions and mechanics count?
A: Because we consider them nonfiction.
Q. Why don’t multi-book contracts count?
A. Actually, they do. They are not considered “salaried” but often given with contracts w/ advances.
Q: Why have you excluded work done for salary?
A: That was built into the original set of requirements and in talking to the committee, it seems to me to be an oversight. Looking back through discussions, the original thinking was in practice salaried writers are unlikely to qualify because of the rule against works by more than two authors.
So are we re-examining this in light of the many people pointing out the issues with it? Yep! The Game Writing Committee, the SFWA board, and a couple of staff members have all been mailing and talking back and forth about it most of the day.
Do I think it will get changed? *shakes magic 8-ball* All signs point to Yes — but I cannot say definitively. We’re discussing things right now, and I’m pushing to tweak that part.
Q: Why did you put this out if it wasn’t perfect?
A: Because this is how we make it perfect, by putting it into action, seeing how it works, and adjusting accordingly. It’s what we did last year when admitting indies and that also remains an ongoing process. If you’re a SFWA member who wants to help with that process or a non-member who wants to provide useful feedback, mail me at president@sfwa.org.
Q: Will there be a gamewriting Nebula Award?
A: Not at the 2017 Award ceremony, but stay tuned for further developments…
Q: Do you, personally, support gamewriters joining?
A. Dude. I’ve been playing D&D since I was 11 and that was the ancient, original set that came out right after Chainmail. I worked in a book/game store for close to ten years. My bachelorette party was a Call of Cthulhu scenario that turned out to be Paranoia by the end. Of course I support this. I love gaming, and a good game is a work of art. I’m really looking forward to what this change brings.
ETA: I tweaked a couple things to make them clearer. I cannot say what the Board discussion will result in, but we are certainly paying attention.
I blogged about Nightshade last week, and since then there’s been a number of developments, including modification of the contracts that were so crappy. Authors should be feeling a little happier, at least.
So this morning one of the items that’s been hovering in the wings for a couple of weeks now finally went out, which was the announcement of the game writing qualifications. Since there there’s been a lot of stir and some questions about it. So here’s some answers.
3 Responses
Thanks, Cat; your support in this is greatly appreciated. As I mentioned on Rose Fox’s blog post: that “30-50%” statement is just that, a statement. I don’t wish to imply that anyone is not being truthful, it’s just that I’ve seen nothing in writing (even though I have asked, and been ignored); I don’t even know if there is some legal/contractual obligation in this deal in which Night Shade must pay the freelancers — and if so, when?
-martyh
I was a lowly freelance book jacket designer. I have unpaid invoices from as far back as last summer. I didn’t even know Night Shade was being sold until I started looking around on the internet after I started getting a continual busy signal at the billing department. I can’t imagine I will ever see that money, considering how far down on the priority list I am. It’s sad, too because I really enjoyed the work, and I don’t imagine I’ll see more of that either.
Martha – that is really shitty. I hope you see at least some of the money. 🙁