If you didn’t watch my Periscope this morning, it was a lot of fun. I played a little song for my viewers (of which I’m very rusty specially at singing but I think I did ok!), and, as the title of this post suggests, I filled out my SFWA Application.
I 100% qualify with the three stories I put on my application:
“Monster Mingle & Kris Kringle” – I was paid 6 cents per word on 3,770 words by Evil Girlfriend Media, editor was Jennifer Brozek – who was on SFWA’s board last year and is very reputable with them. SFWA President Cat Rambo herself also appeared in this same anthology with me, so she can verify payments were sent on that. We are peers, Cat Rambo. We are peers. Some respec plz.
“Deconstruction” – A Setting for the Tiny Frontiers RPG. This book came out through Gallant Knight Games, who merged with Ragnarok Publishing. Alan Bahr, editor, designer, and CEO is very well respected. In fact, he was going to do a follow up volume with my good friend Paul Weimer of B&N and Tor.com, who called me “the greatest Hispanic writer on Patreon.” I was paid 10 cents per word on 1,497 words for this very fun space opera RPG setting.
“Lost And Found” – this appeared in the Fistful of Credits anthology earlier this year, clocking in at a full 9,996 words. Nearly the word requirement by itself. Chris Kennedy, the publisher, is a SFWA member in good standing. This one gives me royalties (so if you want to support one, buy this one cuz it continues to pay me — it’s also my best short fiction piece I’ve written by far). It’s long, so it was tough on royalties to get to this level, but this antho sells like hotcakes cuz of how good it is. To date, it’s paid me 6.1 cents per word on the story — with more to come!
SFWA requires three pieces, totalling atl east 10k words. I have that. It’s turned in. It’s very public. Now we wait for their “influx of application reviews” as they stated on their site.
To SFWA’s leadership: You can check with all these people listed to verify payment, they are all members of your club. If you try some funky stuff to disqualify me, 10,000+ people who read this blog see it, that’s 5x the amount of members you have. I know you’ll play fair.
And here’s some of the demographic details of my app I put in. They’d better respect my identified gender too:
To support my further efforts in SFWA and out, do read my book For Steam And Country. Everyone loves it. Including SFWA members. SFWA President Cat Rambo even has a copy!
Anthony says
You’ll be denied access due to “code of conduct” foolery or other such rubbish.
otomo says
I saw no code of conduct on the application and I have violated no rules to my knowledge.
Anthony says
And? Neither did Vox.
otomo says
True. And their president Cat Rambo violated the same rules in which Vox supposedly violated, to which nothing was done about it.
James Palmer says
Vox was harassing fellow members. You’re not a member (yet). No judgement here. Them’s the facts.
otomo says
Vox used the official twitter account to wage a personal vendetta was the official line. Cat literally did the same thing. The first point of contention was “improper use of SFWA channels.” that happened here. I didn’t even get an apology.
Anthony says
Incidentally, I read both sides of the case, both the side against Vox and his defense.
The case against Vox was a crock of horseshit. I see no reason they can’t cook one up for you, though I’m certainly rooting for you!
Richard Paolinelli says
Come on SFWA, I dare you to move the goalposts on Jon like did to me back in 2007.
Ryan says
Assuming you submitted requests to qualify those markets first?
otomo says
There’s provisions on indie publishing that as long as it’s verifiable on the skrillaz it’s all good. The world is indie now. The old guard markets mean nothing, so at least they’re adapting somewhat to the way the world works now. I have ideas to help them expand that further once I’m in 🙂
Yeah, not putting my name on this. says
As long as you have proof of payment, you should be golden:
“For work(s) of fiction submitted as credentials for membership that have been published by a non-qualifying market or by the individual author acting independently and not by any company or any entity, the author must show Proof of Earnings for one written work of fiction of a minimum of 40,000 words, or at least three different written works of fiction which total a minimum of 10,000 words. The Proof of Earnings must meet the minimum rate of pay and accounting standards as set by the Board (or a selected committee thereof).”
otomo says
I got paypal receipts
Sarah says
Yes it should be fine on that score. I joined earlier this year; not all of my qualifying sales were to official SFWA markets, but I just sent a copy of the contract (and PayPal statement) with my application, and there was no problem at all.
otomo says
Yes but I’m a political target.