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To Eligibility Post or Not to Eligibility Post?

Photo of speculative fiction writer Cat Rambo with Cinderella's Wicked Stepmother at Disneyworld.
In my position as SFWA President, sometimes I have to confer with fictional characters.
Let us begin by acknowledging that this is a rancorous period, full of clashing agendas, bewildered onlookers, and all too many innocents caught in the crossfire (although it is not the first time we’ve seen these storms, nor will it be the last.). And that right now making an eligibility post particularly mentioning Hugo Award categories like Related Work is something that some of us are circling and wondering about.

And my answer is yes. Yes, you should. Why?

Because it helps people discover the work that you’re proud of. You know what you wrote. You know what you want to make sure they see. It’s okay to say, “Hey, if you’re looking to read something by me, I would try this.”

Because it helps people read widely. Every writer in F&SF should — well, I don’t want to make it seem mandatory so I won’t say that you must do this, but you should at least feel free to make eligibility posts. So when someone’s poking around, they can find your stuff and read it.

Because you shouldn’t self-censor out of modesty when talking about your work. You are its best champion. Go ahead and help people find the best examples of it. Be humble and lovable in some other way. (Thank you to Erin M. Hartshorn for the link to the piece of self-effacement.)

And so, I’ve finally been prodded by a Twitter conversation into doing my own in part because I want to say to you, no matter where you are sited in the bizarre and incredibly wordy conflicts, that you should do it. Let’s have lots of wonderful reading lists, the more the merrier, and part of creating those is making readers aware of what you (and others, sure) have done. Please feel free to post a link if you’ve made an eligibility post. Yup, even if you think you’re not welcome. You are.

I published a bunch in 2015. You can find the full list elsewhere, but here are my best of recommendations:

  • Related work: I co-edited Ad Astra: The SFWA 50th Anniversary Cookbook with Fran Wilde. (Hard copies are available here.) I remain inordinately proud of the work, which contains recipes like Charles Brown’s Turkey Turkey Turkey and Octavia Butler’s Pineapple Fried Rice. (I think these two essays #PurpleSF and On Reading the Classics are also eligible.
  • Novel: Kevin J. Anderson’s excellent Wordfire Press published my first novel, Beasts of Tabat, the first in a fantasy quartet. SFWA members can find a copy of it up in the 2015 Fiction forum. There have been some nice Amazon reviews, but I know the book isn’t everyone’s cup of tea and there’s been some awesome awesome novels published in 2015. *goes back to read that self-deprecating piece again and quickly moves on*
  • Novella: Nothing this year, but wait till you see the one Bud Sparhawk and I have coming up in Abyss & Apex!
  • Novelette: Also nothing this year.
  • Short story: As always, plenty of stuff here. The pieces that I am proudest of are Primaflora’s Journey, which appeared in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, “The Subtler Art”, which appeared in Blackguards: Tales of Assassin,s Mercenaries, and Rogues, edited by J.M. Martin, and “Marvelous Contrivances of the Heart,” which appeared in Fiction River: Recycled Pulp, edited by John Helfers. I am glad to send a copy of the latter two to any requester.

Please feel free to comment and include a link to your own eligibility post. In this coming week, I’ll also be posting a list of my favorites from 2015, but there are so many it may take a while, plus I’m still reading a few.

Peace out,

Cat

P.S. Here are some additional eligibility posts. I’ll add more as I get them. Please note that A.C. Wise has a great post here where she’s collecting these as well as book recommendation posts.

John Joseph Adams
Mike Allen
Robin Wayne Bailey
Nicolette Barischoff
Helena Bell
Brooke Bolander
A.C. Buchanan
Beth Cato
Nino Cipri
Gwendolyn Clare
Clarkesworld
Fred Coppersmith
A.M.Dellamonica
Seth Dickinson
Andy Dudak
Scott Edelman
FantasyLiterature.com
A.J. Fitzwater
Sam Fleming
T. Frohock
Nin Harris
Maria Dahvana Headley
Kate Heartfield
Jim C. Hines
M.C.A. Hogarth
Annalee Flower Horne
Alexis A. Hunter
José Pablo Iriarte
Heather Rose Jones
Jason Kimble
Mur Lafferty
Rose Lemberg
Natalie Luhrs
J.M. McDermott
Seanan McGuire
Kris Millering
Lia Swope Mitchell
Sunny Moraine
Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Linda Nagata
Mari Ness
Daniel José Older
Carrie Patel
Sunil Patel
Laura Pearlman
Andrea Phillips
Sarah Pinsker
Adam Rakunas
Jessica Reisman
Kelly Robson
Sean R. Robinson
Merc Rustad
SF Signal
Shimmer
Skiffy and Fanty podcast
David Steffen
Penny Stirling
Bogi Takacs
Shveta Thakrar
E. Catherine Tobler
Tor.com
Uncanny Magazine
Unlikely Story
Ursula Vernon
Marlee Jane Ward
M. Darusha Wehm
Martha Wells
Fran Wilde
A.C. Wise
Alyssa Wong
Isabel Yap
Caroline M. Yoachim

75 Responses

  1. Pingback: Pixel Scroll 1/25/16 The Depixellated Man | File 770

  2. Since you ask: First Do No Harm, Strange Horizons, November 16. It’s a novelette by about 70 words.

    Not sure it deserves a Hugo, but on the other hand, I’ve always dreamed of being a Hugo Loser and getting invited to one of GRRM’s parties.

    Reply
  5. Pingback: The eligible past, the tedious present, the exciting future | Lia Swope Mitchell
  8. Pingback: Obligatory Awards Eligibility Post | Janine A. Southard – Writer & Editor

  11. For consideration: THE SYNOPSIS TREASURY. Published by WordFirePress on Feb 2015, it took me ten years to compile never-before-seen actual synopses submitted by major SF-Fantasy authors to industry, to show fans and writers how they got published. Including: H.G. Wells, Frank Herbert, Robert Heinlein, Terry Brooks, Orson Scott Card, Andre Norton, Joe Haldeman, David Brin, Connie Willis, Margaret Weis, Robert J. Sawyer, Sara Douglass, Julie E. Czerneda, Jack Williamson, Ben Bova, Kevin J. Anderson, and many others. Very diverse styles, careers, genders and tastes. Includes a foreword by former VP and Editor-in-Chief of Del Rey, Betsy Mitchell.

    Reply

    1. I think THE SYNOPSIS TREASURY would be eligible for Best Related Work. It’s a shot in the dark, considering such powerful competition, but I’m very proud of this unique book and this is probably my only shot. 🙂

      Reply
  12. Pingback: What I Wrote in 2016 and The List of Award Eligibility Posts I’ve Found | The World Remains Mysterious
  13. Pingback: Pixel Scroll 12/5/16 And They Will Know Us By The Trail Of Pixels | File 770
  16. Pingback: What I wrote in 2016 | kirabug's idea files
  17. Pingback: What I wrote in 2018 – kirabug's idea files
  18. Pingback: Round-up of Awards Posts by F&SF Writers, Editors, and Publishers for 2018 | The World Remains Mysterious
  19. Pingback: Round-up of Awards Posts by F&SF Writers, Editors, and Publishers for 2021 | The World Remains Mysterious

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Creating an Online Presence for Your Group: Some Basic Steps

Cat Rambo reports for duty!Trying to set up an online presence for your group or organization? Here’s some basics to think about.

One: Include a blog on your website that has new content on a regular basis.

This first step is key to a better social media presence, because it influences your search engine rankings. Better search engine rankings draw more traffic to your site, as do good keywords, and if your blog features information about the group, it’s pretty much guaranteed to have the appropriate keywords.

Establish realistic criteria for “regular”: daily? weekly? biweekly? What can you actually expect to do?

Figure out how you will generate such content. Some suggestions:

  • Group member announcements, interviews, and guest posts.
  • Group events and news.
  • Posts drawing on other social media, such as announcements of new videos on the Youtube channel (see point 4) or Pinterest boards (see point 5).
  • Calls for volunteer positions and interviews with volunteers.
  • Yearly best-of lists or review columns.

This blog should drive the group’s presence on social networks. Posts should automatically propagate to other networks, thereby relieving the pressure for someone to be managing and posting to individual streams, such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as presenting a more unified and consistent approach.


Two: Keep your Facebook policy simple and free.

Social networks rise and fall, but currently Facebook’s attempts to monetize itself by making you pay for messages or pay extra to reach people is making it less useful to those of us who want the most bang for the buck. Simply put, recent changes make is so not everyone who’s liked your page or followed you is seeing your posts.

Basically all you need is a public Facebook fan page to which blog posts (generated in point 1) are automatically posted and which people can “like” in order to receive news of the organization via that social network. Here’s a sample of my writerly FB fan page and one I did for a recent book. (Feel free to “like” them!)

Three: Use Google+.

As Facebook’s popularity falls, Google+’s is rising, particularly internationally. There’s space to be innovative here. Set up an open community. Certainly blog posts should get propagated to here, but make the most of Google+ technology and encourage people to use Hangouts, share documents, etc.

Four: Use Youtube.

Users like more than just text, and video is one way to get more interest, if your group is one likely to generate videos of events, gatherings, speeches, etc. Each time a video is put up, there should be a blog post with a link and brief description, thereby generating blog content.

Five: Use Pinterest.

Use Pinterest as a way to access content visually while building brand name. For example, I recently put together a board that features all the posts in a particular year’s of Aqueduct Press’s reading list series.

Six: Make it easy for your group members to connect.

Make social media information, such as Twitter or Facebook handles, available to users. Provide directories of alumni on the various networks. For example, someone joining Twitter might find a list of all group members currently on Twitter useful. Here’s my list of Codex members on Twitter.

Seven: Make it easy for your group members to create community.

Provide a way people can upload announcements to the blog for a moderator to check and post on a daily or weekly basis. Encourage people to reply to each other’s posts and pass them along on social networks by noticing and rewarding community efforts as well as by leading by example and being an active and responsive community member.

Eight: You don’t need forums or mailings.

Creating a log-in for a forum or subscribing to a newsletter is one way for people to reach you, but social media has the advantage of reaching out to new as well as established community members. It’s as easy — in some cases easier — for someone to check your group’s Facebook page as it is to log into a forum. Physical mailings are costly; e-mail lists need to be maintained.

Nine: Use the community.

Your members include people who are invested in the organization and are also social influencers. The organization should be making the most of this. Here’s some possible ways to do so.

  • Create social media posts that include calls to action, asking people to pass along information.
  • Generate guest posts for the blog from the community by calling for volunteers to write them.
  • Generate Youtube videos and Pinterest boards via the community by issuing calls to collect images or videos for a specific event or contest.

Ten: No matter what, have a succinct and coherent plan.

Figure out what the social media mission is (perhaps increase membership and establish brand). Establish (again, realistic is important) criteria for success in the various social media, such as number of website hits via Facebook each month, number of Twitter followers, etc. Check the success rate on at least yearly basis, perhaps better every six months or even three, given how fast social media can change.

Give things a unified feel. The background on the group’s Twitter page should be the same one used on Facebook or on the blog. Use the same font where possible.

Have someone who’s in charge of all this, rather than trying to do it by committee. Having someone oversee things makes sure that gaps don’t get missed.
_________________

Enjoy this advice on social media for writers and want more content like it? Check out the classes Cat gives via the Rambo Academy for Wayward Writers, which offers both on-demand and live online writing classes for fantasy and science fiction writers from Cat and other authors, including Ann Leckie, Seanan McGuire, Fran Wilde and other talents! All classes include three free slots.

Prefer to opt for weekly interaction, advice, opportunities to ask questions, and access to the Chez Rambo Discord community and critique group? Check out Cat’s Patreon. Or sample her writing here.

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