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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.

Good for Your Career? Evaluating Events for Writers

by Catherine Lundoff

“You should go to this – it’ll be good for your career” is a phrase that you’ll hear more than once as you start getting published. The phrase gets applied to conventions, conferences, writing workshops, book festivals and classes, just to name a few things. The “good for your career part” can refer to networking opportunities, the chance to meet editors and agents, some opportunity to gain new readership like doing a reading or being on a panel, or honing your craft.

SFWA Market Report For June

Welcome to the June edition of the SFWA Market Report. Please note: Inclusion of any market in the report below does not indicate an official endorsement by SFWA.

Crowdpublishing

by Diane Morrison

Everyone says that indie publishing is the wave of the future. Avoiding gatekeepers, who are often prejudiced against particular ideas or demographics, and putting your work out there to see if it will sink or swim on its own, puts the power (and the money) back in the hands of the writers. I had an unusual idea and format that I realized would have difficulty finding a home because of its experimental nature, so I though I would give it a try.

Words Out of Time: Building a Better World Through Etymology

by Ken Pelham

Your stiff-upper-lipped hero, Professor Jenkins, frustrated with the chicanery of Air Captain Hamm, pounds the table and shouts, “Good heavens, man! The scoundrel has hatched yet another outrageous boondoggle!”

Boondoggle. This is where your narrative gets stuck in the etymological weeds.

An Appreciation of Eleanor Wood

by Michael Capobianco

SFWA thanks Eleanor Wood and Spectrum Literary Agency for more than twenty years of service to the organization.

Rebound Novels

by Paul Jessup

Novels are like long, committed relationships. They take months to years of your life, and they require complete and utter devotion to their singular purpose. Certainly, there is something to living inside of a novel, breathing inside of it, thinking about it every moment of your day. It’s an all-consuming thing, as exhausting as it is rewarding.

Camp Writerhaven Announced

News from Middle Tennessee State University: MTSU Write is proud to announce Camp Writerhaven, a new writers’ retreat for wordsmiths in all genres at Rockvale Writers’ Colony June 20-23 and July 14-20. Camp Writerhaven provides writers time and space to grease their creative engines and produce the literary fruits of focused productivity during two sessions […]

Neukom Institute Literary Arts Awards Announces 2019 Book Shortlist

News from Dartmouth University: Ten books that dare to imagine how society collides with the future have been named to the shortlist of the 2019 Neukom Institute Literary Arts Awards.

SFWA Market Report For May

Welcome to the May edition of the SFWA Market Report. Please note: Inclusion of any market in the report below does not indicate an official endorsement by SFWA.