Who is a professional writer?
I completely understand why SFWA doesn't want to cope with a constant stream of "Aren't the editors MEAN?" and "If I put smiley-face stickers on my envelope, is that unprofessional?" If SFWA wants to be an organization for working writers, some line has to be drawn, and no line can be perfect.
However, what I'm hearing from the existing officers is that SFWA wants to be an organization for full-time writers, and that's a very narrow goal indeed. Publishing advances have not kept up with inflation, nor have short-fiction prices; you simply can't make a living on short fiction alone. Making a full-time living is a worthy goal for writers, but it's not the mark of a serious or indeed professional writer.
Requiring that new members be on the path to full-time writing is like requiring that new members be on the path to winning the lottery. I applaud all the people who are making a full-time living only as writers; I also applaud the excellent writers who decide that they'd rather have a job with reliable wages and health insurance.
Whether or not full-time writing is an achievable goal, it is a goal that many published writers have given up on. (I know a novelist who has nine published major-press books, several starred by Publisher's Weekly, but who is still supported by her husband.) If you listen to the voices of the people on these threads -- who are admittedly self-selected and not representative -- they aren't saying "I am not worthy of SFWA, but someday I shall be!". They're saying "Huh. SFWA isn't relevant. Let's go have coffee."
If SFWA doesn't want to talk to SFF romance writers -- who do make a living, many of them, and whom Tor dedicates a line to -- or to writers who can't make a living in genre, the organization is drawing the circle of "professional writer" so small that it is guaranteed to shrink every year.
However, what I'm hearing from the existing officers is that SFWA wants to be an organization for full-time writers, and that's a very narrow goal indeed. Publishing advances have not kept up with inflation, nor have short-fiction prices; you simply can't make a living on short fiction alone. Making a full-time living is a worthy goal for writers, but it's not the mark of a serious or indeed professional writer.
Requiring that new members be on the path to full-time writing is like requiring that new members be on the path to winning the lottery. I applaud all the people who are making a full-time living only as writers; I also applaud the excellent writers who decide that they'd rather have a job with reliable wages and health insurance.
Whether or not full-time writing is an achievable goal, it is a goal that many published writers have given up on. (I know a novelist who has nine published major-press books, several starred by Publisher's Weekly, but who is still supported by her husband.) If you listen to the voices of the people on these threads -- who are admittedly self-selected and not representative -- they aren't saying "I am not worthy of SFWA, but someday I shall be!". They're saying "Huh. SFWA isn't relevant. Let's go have coffee."
If SFWA doesn't want to talk to SFF romance writers -- who do make a living, many of them, and whom Tor dedicates a line to -- or to writers who can't make a living in genre, the organization is drawing the circle of "professional writer" so small that it is guaranteed to shrink every year.