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alanajoliI've been hoping for the last few years to work up the kind of portfolio needed to join the SFWA. They have recommended markets for publishing, particularly periodicals, but also publishers, and I've been trying to focus on submitting to the folks on their list.
So it always surprises me when I hear that the SFWA is making a fuss about e-books and the like (them being familiar with technology as part of sci-fi, right?), particularly when they're doing something like misusing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to get non-fraudulent e-books removed from places like Scribd, a file sharing network. I do understand protecting copyright, but I don't understand what looks like blind fear of the platform/medium. (Doctorow's article gets into what actually happened quite a bit. It's just adding onto the Pixel-stained technopeasant wretches debacle in April.)
I'm still holding out hope that by the time I'm officially eligible to join, this sort of thing will be long in the past and the attitude will have swayed. (Based on the number of celebrants of the first International Pixel-stained Technopeasant Wretch day, I think it's possible.) In the meantime... hrm.
So it always surprises me when I hear that the SFWA is making a fuss about e-books and the like (them being familiar with technology as part of sci-fi, right?), particularly when they're doing something like misusing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to get non-fraudulent e-books removed from places like Scribd, a file sharing network. I do understand protecting copyright, but I don't understand what looks like blind fear of the platform/medium. (Doctorow's article gets into what actually happened quite a bit. It's just adding onto the Pixel-stained technopeasant wretches debacle in April.)
I'm still holding out hope that by the time I'm officially eligible to join, this sort of thing will be long in the past and the attitude will have swayed. (Based on the number of celebrants of the first International Pixel-stained Technopeasant Wretch day, I think it's possible.) In the meantime... hrm.
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Date: 2007-09-02 02:41 pm (UTC)I've looked at the SFWA membership guidelines and I'll admit, I'd like to join in. I know that (reading most of those pages from before), that it is the plans of higher ranks who may not survive a vote and every organization has their little quirks; yeah, its must be frustrating that this happens but I can only hope they learn copyright law a bit better and not use a shotgun approach to handling these problems.
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Date: 2007-09-02 10:31 pm (UTC)I suspect that by the time I'm qualified (or within a few terms), most of the luddite faction will have been voted out. Or, at least, this is what I'm telling myself. ;)
Which is not to say that I think every author needs to have a website or a blog, either. But shying away from technology that will help you sell books seems to be blaming the medium for those who abuse it. (I'd hate to see the SFWA go the way of the RIAA!)