Things to Ask Your Agent
by Eva Scalzo
There are things you want to be sure you’re asking beginning on that first call, when you’re trying to see if an agent will be a good fit for you
Information Center, The SFWA Blog
Information Center
Information Center, The SFWA Blog
Seven Ways to Grow Your Resilience as a Writer
by Alex Woolf
No one enjoys being rejected. Writers, who are often a touch more sensitive than the average bear, may feel the sting even more acutely. Which is unfortunate, as the daily work of the writer involves rejection on an almost continuous basis.
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Defining Roles: Agents & Editors
by Alice Speilburg
At the pre-publication stage, as you’re drafting queries and sending off sample pages, an editor at a publishing house and a literary agent seem to serve the same purpose: to legitimize your claim as a professional author, and to set you on the path to publication.
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Age Is Just a Number
by Jeff Reynolds
When I was eight, I wrote my first short story. It was bad, as the writing of an eight-year-old tends to be, full of tropes and endless misspellings. It long ago disappeared into the trash bin of my personal history. But my teacher gave me an A on the work, and I was hooked.
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What Makes You Think Your Idea’s Even Worth Stealing?
by Dan Brotzel
Genuine idea theft and plagiarism are complete no-nos, of course. But I’m amazed how protective writers of stories, articles and posts can be about ideas that aren’t really worth stealing. Here are a few thoughts on ideation and originality…
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Writing to the Shadows
by Paul Jessup
Let’s talk about that early stage of the story, when you have that bright gleaming idea in your head, burning brightly. It wants to be born, it wants to come to life. You spend days, weeks, months doing research, laying down pages and pages and pages of notes. Enough to be a small novel in itself. And then you start writing.
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Collaboration
by Daniel Brotzel
Finishing a book sounds like hard enough work when there’s just one of you. Can working with someone else really help? Yes! says Dan Brotzel, who’s recently launched a novel he wrote with two pals. Here’s the why and the how…
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Count Your Successes
by Luna Corbden
I have turned my inner narrative around with one simple new rule: “Count your successes.”
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Sketching a Story
by Paul Jessup
Novels are hard, yo. I mean, books in general, maybe writing overall? But for me making that leap from short stories to novels was a difficult transition. I had to completely change my writerly habits, completely reinvent the ways I was doing things altogether.
SFWA Minimum Pro Rate Now in Effect
The SFWA minimum payment rate for professional short fiction markets is now eight cents per word. In accordance with our
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Grice’s Maxims and How You Can Use Them in Your Fiction
by Dan Brotzel
The philosopher of language Paul Grice (1913-88) is best known for his four conversational maxims, which describe what’s going on when people hold a conversation. I want to look at these to see how they can help us in crafting fiction.
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Lovable Predictability: The Pleasures and Challenges of Writing a Children’s Fiction Series
by Alex Woolf
“Why do we always have to reinvent the wheel?” my editor once asked me.
When a new book is launched, it’s like introducing a stranger to a largely disinterested world. Potential readers know nothing about its characters or the kind of plot they might expect. Publishers are forced to spend a great deal of money on marketing to give the book a comforting, pseudo-familiar feel. The title and cover design will be reminiscent of other, similar books that readers might already have enjoyed.