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Archive for the ‘The SFWA Blog’ Category

Masterpiece: A Reality Show For Authors (Plus a Short, Sad, History of Similar Shows That Failed)

Literary feuds are entertaining: famous and not-so-famous authors holding grudges, slinging insults, or sabotaging one another with bad reviews (both anonymous and not).

But what about author feuding in real time? Can the spectacle of writers racing one another to finish a story, or competing to make the best elevator pitch, hold an audience riveted? Will viewers mourn as authortestants fall by the wayside, and cheer for the last author standing?

Awards Profiteering: The Book Festival Empire of JM Northern Media

If you’re a writer, I’ll bet you’ve been spammed by JM Northern Media.

Don’t recognize the name? Maybe these will ring a bell. The Los Angeles Book Festival. The Hollywood Book Festival. The Paris Book Festival. The Beach Book Festival. The Halloween Book Festival. Animals, Animals, Animals Book Festival. And at least nine other annal festivals, all owned and operated by JM Northern Media (click the Properties tab).

Nebula Nominations Open

Nominations are now open for the 2013 Nebula Awards. The nominations are open to Active, Lifetime Active, and Associate members. Voting closes February 15.

Reposting a Classic: Turkey City Lexicon – A Primer for SF Workshops

This manual is intended to focus on the special needs of the science fiction workshop. Having an accurate and descriptive critical term for a common SF problem makes it easier to recognize and discuss. This guide is intended to save workshop participants from having to “reinvent the wheel” (see section 3) at every session.

Solicitation Alert: Bloggingbooks

Have you recently been solicited by a company called Bloggingbooks that wants to publish your blog in book form?

2 Moon Press–Update

Last summer, I wrote about a police investigation of Michigan-based pay-to-play publisher 2 Moon Press, which closed its doors in May amid competing claims of wrongdoing by its former and current owners.

Tools for Writers: Rafflecopter

A long-standing practice in book promotion is giveaways, particularly since book giveaways may help drum up reviews as well. You can conduct such giveaways in a simple fashion, asking people to leave a comment on a blog post or social network page in order to be entered.

Going Out of Business, Nigerian Spam-Scam Style

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware

Back in August, I blogged about the latest effort by Cheryl Lee Nunn, owner of vanity publisher American Book Publishing Inc., to expand her author-fleecing efforts with a network of new publishers, bogus…

Odyssey Writing Workshops Online Courses Announced

All Odyssey Online courses involve live online class meetings, so students can ask questions and participate in the class. Each course is designed to provide intensive focus on a particular aspect of fiction writing and challenging homework assignments to help students improve their skills.

Changes to Nebula Award Rules

In an ongoing effort to ensure the Nebula Awards are administered to promote the best in SF literature, and to be transparent and manageable, the SFWA Board has voted to make a small change to item 12.3 and add an item 12.4 to the Nebula guidelines.