I have two pieces of SFWA-related news to share today.
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Members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) have voted to open membership to self-published and small press authors. From the official statement:
Specific details will be posted at sfwa.org by the first of March, but the basic standards are $3,000 for novel, or a total of 10,000 words of short fiction paid at 6 cents a word for Active membership. A single story of at least 1,000 words paid at 6 cents a word will be required for Associate membership. Affiliate, Estate, and Institutional membership requirements remain unchanged.
Self-published and small-press works were already eligible for the Nebula and Norton Awards, SFWA’s member-voted genre award, and will remain so.
SFWA will open to applications from small press and independent publishing qualifying members on March 1, 2015. Further information will be available at that time at SFWA’s Membership Requirements page.
Voting members supported the change 6 to 1. This has been a long time coming, and I am thrilled that it’s here at last.
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SFWA’s Contracts Committee has issued the following announcement:
Several months ago, a number of members of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) raised questions with the SFWA Contracts Committee about the contract then in use by The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (F&SF).
The SFWA Contracts Committee and Gordon Van Gelder, Publisher of F&SF, have worked together over the past several months to resolve problems with the contract. As a result of the discussions, the contract has been revised to address issues involving the length of exclusivity requested and the registration of copyright. The Committee will continue to follow implementation of the new contract.
Mr. Van Gelder was offered an opportunity to make a statement, but declined. We would like to thank him for his professionalism and courtesy in working with the Committee.
Michael Armstrong, Chairperson
SFWA Contracts Committee
The Contracts Committee consists of Michael Armstrong, chairperson, Michael Capobianco, Victoria Strauss, Ken Liu, Jim Fiscus, and Michael Stackpole.
