Reposting this from Ursula Le Guin's web site at  http://www.ursulakleguin.com/Note-OpenLetter.html (for which she gave permission to copy at will, as noted at the bottom):

I'd like to correct some misapprehensions about Cory Doctorow's unauthorized posting of my short comic piece "On Serious Literature" on his boingboing.net site.
I originally ( Read more... )

Following up on a campaign pledge, everyone's invited over to the new SFWA Skunk Works -- sff.sfwa.skunkworks on sff.net.

What is, you may ask, the SFWA Skunk Works?  Per the newsgroup charter--

Welcome to the Skunk Works. This is a business and solutions
        oriented atmosphere for SFWA writers to come. Here we'll be
        talking about ( Read more... )

I really liked cmintz's post on how writers will make a living in the future, so here's a variation:

It's the future. Novels are a paper-centric format; it's time for the Internet to spawn forms of fiction that people would be willing to consume online. What will fiction look like?

It's the future. Dead tree editions are for collectors. How will writers be making a living?

You know, I was going to take the high road and leave this alone, but the more I look at this post from current VP Howard Hendrix, the more it just really pisses me off:

I'm also opposed to the increasing presence in our organization of webscabs, who post their creations on the net for free.  A scab is someone who works for less than union wages or ( Read more... )

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 ( Read more... )