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What SFWA Offers Me

Cat Rambo and Connie Willis
Here I am with one of my personal heroes, Connie Willis. In Chez Rambo, we have a frequent saying: What would Connie do? And I note that she’s a SFWA member.
One of the questions that’s come up repeatedly as a result of the recent vote to admit indie and small press published members: why join at all?

I joined as soon as I was qualified because Ann Crispin told me to, and she was a smart lady. And here’s a list of the things SFWA has provided me. I am a professional writer. I make a modest amount off writing and teaching, and have a spouse who takes care of a lot of the bills plus the health care. My hope is to continue to grow my writing income. With that in mind, here’s what I get for my dues.

What SFWA offers me:

  • The Grievance Committee. I’ve benefited from mentioning its name in the past when trying to shake payment from a magazine publisher, for example.
  • The Emergency Medical Fund, which I personally haven’t had occasion to use, but am happy to know exists.
    Similarly, the Legal Fund.
  • The SFWA suite at conventions, both for food and drink as well as for the chance to hang with other members and enjoy their conversation. I was delighted to have a chance to sit for an hour and talk with Jacqueline Lichtenburg and Jean Lorrah at Worldcon, for example.
  • Knowledge resources on the website, such as the document on formatting manuscripts or Myrtle the Manuscript.
  • Knowledge resources in the Bulletin, such as recent pieces on what conventions might be useful to me, how teaching and writing intersect, and how to write (and publish) serial fiction.
  • A chance to participate in book festivals and other events, such as the Baltimore Book Festival or the ALA.
  • The PNW SFWA Reading series, at which I’ve been both reader and frequent attendant.
  • Opportunities to publicize books through the SFWA web site, Youtube stream, and Twitter stream.
  • A sense of tradition, of belonging to an institution founded by and which has included (and continues to include) so many of my early influences and heroes in its ranks.
  • The Nebulas and the East Coast Mill and Swill.
  • Free fiction! Both the Nebula Voter packet and what gets uploaded to the boards.
  • New friends who are writers, and plenty of them. I’ve deepened earlier friendships with others and even seen some of my students enter SFWA, which delights me.
  • A opportunity for meaningful, interesting, and informative volunteer work. I’ve served on the Nebula Short Fiction and Norton juries, worked with the Copyright Committee, written for the Bulletin and the SFWA blog, sat at the SFWA table at conventions, helped moderate the discussion boards, and now serve on the SFWA Board. All of that has been rewarding and engaging.

Speaking of that last item, that’s another big plus for me of SFWA: a community that I see evolving on the discussion boards on a daily basis. I see members doing all of the following:

  • Celebrating each other’s victories and small joys
  • Promoting each other and organizational efforts
  • Teaming up on promotional efforts
  • Sharing knowledge, encouragement, and advice
  • Grieving when a member dies and supporting other members through illness or loss
  • Being silly together at some moments and serious at others
  • Discussing the issues affecting writers, the industry, and SFWA overall

So there’s my two cents worth. To my mind and as someone who’s been writing professionally (fiction and freelance) for a decade, SFWA offers me quite a bit. People are welcome to quote this post elsewhere as long as they include attribution.

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Answering More Questions About the SFWA Qualifying Process

If you have questions, or are having difficulties with the online form, you can mail them to me or the SFWA office.
If you have questions, or are having difficulties with the online form, you can mail them to me or the SFWA office.
I encourage questions — it’s how we’re compiling a FAQ — so ask away!

Here’s some stuff that’s come up:

One thing that is part of the confusion is that we have 2 entities, the SFWA Qualifying Markets list, where a publication is an auto-accept and then pretty much other markets that aren’t on that list but which meet the 6 cents a word requirement. Right now we’re looking at those on a case by case basis and trying to figure out good rules.

At the same time, crowd-funded source is eligible if it pays AND the book is delivered (because we thought that was important.) To get on the SFWA Qualifying Markets list, you must meet certain criteria, including having been around a while. On the other hand, you can qualify with a market that is not on the list, you just have to show us it’s legit.

Net versus gross: mainly we’re trying to weed anyone out who’s trying to buy their way in by spending a lot on the selfpub equivalent of a vanity press. We know there are problems with this approach; I personally hope it will be dispensed with, but that remains to be seen.

A single work: People have pointed out that for some people it’s about writing quantity, and wonder if the sales amount couldn’t be split between multiple books. It’s certainly worth discussing, but I dunno. I would need a little more convincing.

Somewhat predictably, many people think the dollar figure should be different although mileage varies as to which direction that goes in.

I’ve been watching some new members come in, and others re-join because they’re happy about this direction. I’d be among the first to apologize for it taking so long, but I will point out that we will look at crowdfunded money where other organizations, as far as I do, don’t yet.

I was thinking about doing a Google Hangout on Air to answer questions, is that something people might be interested in?

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SFWA Bulletin and Blog Submission Guidelines

IMG_0557One of the things we’ve been working on behind the scenes is getting submission guidelines for both the SFWA Bulletin and the SFWA Blog up. The former pays ten cents a word, the latter six cents. They’re looking for much the same sort of content, things of interest to professional genre writers; blog articles are a bit shorter and more informal.

Here are the SFWA Bulletin guidelines.

Here are the SFWA blog guidelines.

You do not have to be a SFWA member to write for either publication. I’ve done a number of pieces for both, most recently a series on teaching workshops that finishes up soon.

If you’re not familiar with the blog, it runs a number of articles that are useful, including tips on tools, new markets, industry news, and writing advice.

#sfwapro

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