My SFWA Dilemma

[blairmacg]

I've a decision to make-multiple decisions, in truth-about where and when I want to devote my non-writing energies as a professional writer. It might seem easy, choosing to join or not join SFWA. It would indeed be so if I'd opted against self-publishing, if I didn't tend to plow into organizational upheavals, if I didn't have strong opinions, and

Comments

[queenoftheskies]

This is probably a loaded question and I certainly don't mean it that way or as a disrespect to anyone, but...do you think ALL self-published writers should be able to join SFWA just because they've self-published? Or do you think there should be some other determining criteria?

I know people who still self-publish because they don't want to develop their writing skills and put up less than stellar work.

I also know people like you who are true professionals, very talented and skilled writers who publish beautiful stories.

Do you feel that both categories are the same?

[blairmacg]

I think it's perfectly valid for SFWA to institute membership eligibility standards. I'd prefer those standards be on equal footing with those for trade-published writers. (Forex, if a sale needs a $2000 advance to qualify, should a self-published work be required to show $10000 in sales to qualify? I'd say no

[queenoftheskies]

Whew. I was worried the question sounded inappropriate.

I sure wouldn't want to be the one to determine eliigibility requirements and I could see that it could be a time-consuming process to set requirements that would be fair to all.

[blairmacg]

I think it could be simple:
A sale to a qualifying market must be for a minimum advance of $2000. So... require a self-published title of over 20K to hit $2000 of author income (as opposed to sales) in twelve months, or three self-published titles of less than 20K to hit whatever the five-cents-a-word would come out to be. Ta-da! :)

[cathschaffstump]

I'm gonna be writing about this panel as well, and I hope to have more cogent thoughts about your article once I get there.

[blairmacg]

I'll be very interested in reading your take on things!