SFWA posted its schedule for the Nebula Conference, and one definitely expects a program mired with social justice causes of the week, but to the extent that it’s gone for a group that’s supposed to be a professional writers’ group that’s assisting their professional authors… it looks a lot crazier than even most local conventions in the San Francisco Bay Area that are focused on SJW fans and SJW fledgling writers.
We’ll be going over it today on The Lunch Stream. Subscribe so you don’t miss it. I’d definitely say the panel highlight is “Managing a career through Mental Illness” something that is at least very useful for all of SFWA’s leadership from my experiences with them.
What shocks me though is the lack of ANY focus on real business, or anything that an actual professional writer could use. There’s a lot geared toward amateurs as if this were some convention of people who still need to learn how to write. Lots of coaching, topical how to write… if you don’t know how to write, how are you in SFWA to begin with (you don’t need to answer this 😉 )?
But then, since SFWA shuns actual professionals like me who make money at this writer thing, it makes sense they need their conference to not actually enrich the careers of professionals who are making it. After all, we wouldn’t want those types in a professional guild.
The org has pushed itself into an even more worthless category with this event. I’m going to do my best to try to go (assuming they don’t pre-ban me for my existence in an attempt to harass your favorite Hispanic writer). Definitely most interested in the “What SFWA Can Do For You” panel… from the looks oof the convention, it looks like the answer is “take your money”.
I guess the answer is the 20BooksTo50K conference that actually seems to care about building writers’ careers. It’s got useful programming on how to market, what the markets look like, and more. 20Books doesn’t waste your time like SFWA. They’re not here to sit around and braid each others’ gender-spectrum’d hair, they’re here to make money at writing.
I’d say this should be a wake up call for future SFWA leadership, but we all know what’s coming.
Back my latest crowdfund. Going to need to cover my trip down to the Nebulas for the sake of journalism, and this is the best spot to kick in.
You are an idiot.
Looking at the list of stuff they have in that link….lots of indies are doing just fine with lots of these topics they want to cover. Esp in the “Realistic Military For Fiction.” What the heck is a Quiltbag?
Plus most of these “in the know” Speakers…I don’t hardly recognize any of them. Or whatever books they write.
https://nebulaconference2019.sched.com/event/O0hu/writing-science-fiction-as-social-fiction-a-workshop-on-writing-fiction-as-a-vehicle-for-change
Any writer currently reading this response, even if you disagree with Jon on stuff, readers don’t want this. We want to exchange money for entertainment and fun.
Fun+Entertainment=Money.
If you are Frank Herbert Caliber, you can def. make readers think too but just don’t include stuff you want to beat readers over the head with. IE: Soap Boxing Mouthpieces. Throw in all sorts of philosophies. Not just stuff you agree with.
What really amuses me though….I’m a woman and I’ve always been here in these hobbies. What are they smoking? Silly Awards. Your are not the first in anything.