On Saturday, August 1st, the website team will bring SFWA’s new website out of the extended beta-test we’ve been in. This post is intended to be an overview of what to expect during the transition. Because there is a lot of information to convey, we will be sending SFWA members four emails between now and Tuesday, August 4th, as different parts of the new system come online.
First off, definition: an exclusive means just what it sounds like. You are giving an agent the opportunity to consider your work exclusively and you are agreeing that you will not submit to another agent until you’ve heard “yea” or “nay” from that agent. Sometimes exclusives are open-ended, sometimes there’s a time period attached.
This week I’ve gotten several questions aWriter Bewarebout something called the Emerging Writer Awards. Writers of poetry, short stories, and unpublished book length fiction may enter to compete for two grand prizes: $2,000 and a possible publishing contract from Triom Publishing for book manuscripts, $1,000 for short subjects. Both prizes include “national promotion through Emerging Writer Magazine.” The deadline for entries is August 31, 2009.
Our sister-site, NebulaAwards.com, interviews Gwyneth Jones about her Nebula-nominated short story “The Tomb Wife”.
We’re still looking for help at the SFWA Table and Suite at Montreal and have autographing slots at the table. Please volunteer by signing up at the Volunteer website
Today the board of directors of SFWA unanimously voted to add Tor.com to the list of SFWA qualifying markets. Just celebrating its first year online, this extension of Tor Books features science-fiction and fantasy fiction as well as art, non-fiction, essays, and book reviews.
McLean, Va. (July 22, 2009) – Beginning tomorrow USA TODAY’s Best-Selling Books List will include Amazon Kindle book sales in overall sales rankings. USA TODAY is the first major book list to include Kindle book sales and in doing so will provide a much more robust ranking for our bestseller list. This list will run in Thursday’s edition of USA TODAY and online at booklist.usatoday.com.
From our sister site, NebulaAwards.com, comes an appealing interview with James Alan Gardner. It covers writing his Nebula nominated novelette “The Ray-Gun: A Love Story,” applied mathematics, publishing hurdles and interstellar travel
The words “online marketing” are fairly generic, since there are quite a few components involved with this business practice. Marketers (like myself) often utilize web analytics, social media, blogging, natural and paid search, online advertising, etc. For authors, online marketing may be a little more targeted to our writing and publishing efforts via social media and blogging platforms.
The New York Times Magazine has a glowing tribute to SFWA lifetime member, Jack Vance. If you haven’t read his work before, this article will make you want to do so now. It’s nice to see one of our best recognized.
If you are writing fiction that’s set at any point in the real world’s history, the subject of research can take up countless hours of time. The nitty details can tie up you up while writing anything from alternate history to urban fantasy. Sometimes though, you just need to know a quick date to set the background of your story.
Check out the Google News Timeline, as a quick place to start your search.
With the publishing industry shifting so rapidly now, it’s always interesting to see what people think the new paradigm will be. Bernard Lunn takes a look at it in a two part article at ReadWriteWeb. As with any set of predictions it’s just guesswork, but guesses worth reading.
