Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) - Nerds protecting nonces

[Krokodil Overdose]

Not for their writing, but there are other reasons for them to be remembered.

I can see Wendig's writing being remembered. Bulwer-Lytton wants company.

 

[Mola Ram]

I can see Wendig's writing being remembered. Bulwer-Lytton wants company.

Chuck Wendig, the William Topaz McGonagall of science fiction writers.

 

[BIG BILL HELL'S]

I can see Wendig's writing being remembered. Bulwer-Lytton wants company.

"It was dark and stormy higgeldy-piggeldy..."

 

[JJLiautaud]

Bulwer-Lytton

I've never understood why that opener was considered so bad yeah its a little cliche some 200 years later but its not the worst opener.

 

[Henri Barbusse]

I've never understood why that opener was considered so bad yeah its a little cliche some 200 years later but its not the worst opener.

Outsized critical influence of early 20th century modernist writers who hated anyone who managed to actually sell books or who wrote for a living.

 

[JJLiautaud]

I've never understood why that opener was considered so bad yeah its a little cliche some 200 years later but its not the worst opener.

I'm posting a little comparison:

It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents—except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”

About thirty years ago Miss Maria Ward, of Huntingdon, with only seven thousand pounds, had the good luck to captivate Sir Thomas Bertram, of Mansfield Park, in the county of Northampton, and to be thereby raised to the rank of a baronet's lady, with all the comforts and consequences of an handsome house and large income."

I mean in comparison of roughly contemporaneous novels the opening really doesn't stand out much, does it?

 

[Mellorine]

"It was a dark ... night" is a pretty asinine statement. Nights usually are, and they were even darker 200 years ago when street lamps had to be lit by hand.

 

[Mikoyan]

"It was a dark ... night" is a pretty asinine statement. Nights usually are, and they were even darker 200 years ago when street lamps had to be lit by hand.

Arguably, there was greater variability night to night back then since the moon had a bigger influence on ambient light without all the skyglow around.

 

[teriyakiburns]

The reason it's considered cliché and trite now is because it was thought to be such a stand-out opener at the time. Every half-witted wannabe author either aped it or outright stole it, until it became a sign of uncreative hackery.

 

[Fandom Pulse]

I've not been able to get any more info on the SFWA situation. They're so closed-mouthed about it, and everyone's in fear there about running afoul of the club. However several even lefty authors have DMed me privately saying they noped out of SFWA years ago because it's $100/yr for a message board social club online of wannabe authors so it's completely useless these days.

On the mainstream publishing front though, I found a story here where Publisher's Weekly tried to destroy Tom Kratman, who was one of the Sad Puppies nominees back in 2015. These establishment publications don't seem to have any juice to do anything anymore either. It's fun watching all of this collapse.

 

[Gingervitis]

Are there any alternatives to the SFWA? Preferably one that’s not cucked to shit and not filled with creeps.

 

[JJLiautaud]

On the mainstream publishing front though, I found a story here where Publisher's Weekly tried to destroy Tom Kratman

Funnily enough he has a thread here:

https://kiwifarms.st/threads/thomas-kratman.25437/

Its deader than god and the OP sucks but still pretty funny.

 

[Sargon's wife's son]

Back in 1990, Orson Scott Card published a book called How To Write Science Fiction And Fantasy. Here's how he describes the SFWA of the era:

View attachment 6267496
View attachment 6267497

That kind of organization used to have an important role in standing up to bad publishing practices and warning authors away from shady deals. The RWA used to do similar good work, often being the one entity that could pressure small presses into paying funds owed to authors. The networking opportunities were gold too: writing is solitary af and good writing groups are hard to find, and even harder when you've gone pro. Such a shame.

He became persona non grata in those circles due to the fact that he doesn't like fag and he is an extremely conservative Mormon.
Actually met him at a book signing that he was doing in my town I have all of my Ender's Game novels signed by him Adam sign address to me though so they're not worth anything had a nice conversation with him about writing and Christian theology nice guy.
I met George RR Martin at a book signing as well he was a nice guy but he does seem like a sex pest from the small amount of conversation I had with him not like someone who'd raped someone but more someone who's a bit too touchy with the ladies

 

[Dr. Butt]

he does seem like a sex pest

THANK YOU. I felt like I was taking crazy pills, the way his work took off. The man's got an excellent grift, making millions off his personal fap stash, but jfc he's creepy.

 

[Elwood P. Dowd]

Are there any alternatives to the SFWA? Preferably one that’s not cucked to shit and not filled with creeps.

Nope. The march through institutions has been remarkably successful. The Horror Writers of America and the Mystery Writers of America are perhaps not quite as bad as the SFWA, but I wouldn't count on it. Especially with the HWA re-doing the icky pooh Lovecraft statue to some sort of dildo looking thing. Oddly, the Romance Writers of America were possibly the last to fall.

On a lighter note:

4 Overrated Sci-Fi Classics (and 4 to Read Instead)

https://archive.is/XDOHE

"Don't read Dune, read N.K. Jemisin instead," the article.

 

[Dagobert]

Nope. The march through institutions has been remarkably successful. The Horror Writers of America and the Mystery Writers of America are perhaps not quite as bad as the SFWA, but I wouldn't count on it. Especially with the HWA re-doing the icky pooh Lovecraft statue to some sort of dildo looking thing. Oddly, the Romance Writers of America were possibly the last to fall.

On a lighter note:

4 Overrated Sci-Fi Classics (and 4 to Read Instead)

https://archive.is/XDOHE

"Don't read Dune, read N.K. Jemisin instead," the article.

The author should be rendered down into centipede food for takes this bad. Especially demeaning Dune. I'll be the first to say it's hard to read, and it took a midwit like myself multiple cracks to get it, but I honestly don't think it can be, nor should be, dismissed as easily as the author of this trash did.

 

[Second Missing Primarch]

The author should be rendered down into centipede food for takes this bad. Especially demeaning Dune. I'll be the first to say it's hard to read, and it took a midwit like myself multiple cracks to get it, but I honestly don't think it can be, nor should be, dismissed as easily as the author of this trash did.

It seems like there's a whole new cottage industry of shitting on Dune these days thanks to the Villeneuve movies, as opposed to the people who hate everything past  Messiah or God-Emperor and/or loathe Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson for turning the series into a soulless cash-grab. These people tend to fixate on Frank Herbert being an old dead white guy who hated the gays and whine about how he wrote a "white savior" narrative because their YouTube/Tiktok-fried attention spans apparently couldn't be assed to finish the book, let alone read Messiah or the rest of the series where Herbert makes it clear what he thinks of savior narratives and great heroes.

I don't mind people who take a few tries to get into the book, nor the people who feel like Frank lost his way, but I do mind the idiots who blow it off as irrelevant or overrated when it's one of the cornerstones of science fiction as a genre and one of the best fictional worlds ever created.

 

[40 Year Old Boomer]

On a lighter note:

4 Overrated Sci-Fi Classics (and 4 to Read Instead)

https://archive.is/XDOHE

"Don't read Dune, read N.K. Jemisin instead," the article.

Goddamn those brainlet tier takes are even dumber than I anticipated.

 

[Big Nasty]

I've read Dune three times.

 

[Fandom Pulse]

Are there any alternatives to the SFWA? Preferably one that’s not cucked to shit and not filled with creeps.

There's one by the 20Booksto50K guy Craige Martellle called IASFA. They run random email promos for books and are just a facebook group, mostly. But then, SFWA isn't much more than just a facebook group at this point except you pay $100 a year for it.

Truth is these professional associations don't really matter anymore because anyone who does the math realizes it makes way more money to publish yourself than go through some middleman system. 99% of the books these days are sold on Amazon, so ironically "Getting into bookstores" is just a vanity press thing. It's the same for comic books I always tell it to people like this:

Your book is $14.99
Barnes and Noble bought that from a distributor for $7.99
The distributor bought it from the publisher for $3.99
After the $2 / printing costs you then get 30% of that for $0.60 royalty for the sale on the book.

On average they put out one book a year by a random author you're going to have to sell 130,000 to make a reasonable $80K a year living. That's an absurd number.

Publish yourself for $4.99 ebook on Amazon, take $3.70, you only gotta sell 21,000 books a year to do that which is very doable especially if you write fast and put out multiple books a year.

SFWA isn't renegotiating amazon contracts so what are they doing for anyone? Seems like they're just taking people's money to help Patrick Tomlinson sue alogs online and provide a forum to fret about how hard it is to write and make no money for people who have only made $1,000 in royalties in their fake careers.

If you want a group of writer friends to hang out with and keep each other on track for writing or talk about books you like together might as well just start a discord server with a few friends.