What Do Indie Authors Want From a Professional Organization?

[jeriendhal]

Apparently haikujaguar has been selected by the Science Fiction Writers of America to serve on a committee examining the benefits SFWA membership can offer to independently published authors. This is a very big step on the SFWA's part, acknowledging the strides the self-publishing industry has taken with the advent of e-readers and the rise of Smashwords and Amazon KDP. Right now she's holding an open discussion on the matter, trying to find out what indie authors would want, and I encourage everyone with a stake in the matter to head over there and take a look.

Personally I have some reservations about the whole thing, as I detailed in my reply to the discussion (re-printed below)

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Been thinking more about this. Looking at the SFWA website, I can see they offer for members...

The Featured Author and Book Program: Looks like a typical news feed there.

The Grievance Committee: Helps with contract disputes. Well, I'm self-published, so contract disputes aren't a big issue, unless Amazon or Smashwords gets picky about paying in a timely manner. OTOH Your own publishing efforts benefited from The SFWA's advocacy during the "Spots" dispute IIRC.

Emergency Medical Fund: Actually a very good thing, if one is trying to make a living through self-publishing, or doesn't have a job that offers it. In my case I get my health insurance through my wife's work, so it's not an issue with me.

Private Discussion Forums: There are forums aplenty out there on the Interwebs. $90 to hobknob with Real Authors (tm) doesn't make sense to me. Others may disagree.

"The SFWA offers a sense of community...": Er, a bit vague there.


A lot of what I'm seeing so far in this discussion is a wish for concrete aid in marketing, which is traditionally handled by an author's publisher. SFWA appears to offer advice on self-promotion, but is it going to $90 worth of advice? I can get your own "From Spark to Finish" for $7.99 on my Kindle.

Another balancing factor is, let's be frank about this, the screaming fit that a significant fraction of the current SFWA membership is going to have over a bunch of indie authors invading "their" territory. Arguing our case for legitimacy is a battle I don't have the time or the strength for. :(

All that said, I'm going to have a wait and see attitude about this. If the SFWA can come up with more concrete reasons for me to join than the ones I mentioned above, or others missed can be pointed out to me, I'll consider what they offer. Right now I'm just not seeing the benefits.

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I really have to think about this, especially given this is the organization that tolerated Vox Day as a member for entirely too long.

Comments

[sraun]

I'll toss another potential plus at you - depending on what they end up using for a qualification process, being able to add SFWA member to your bio may increase your credentials / salability. It's possible - not necessarily likely, but possible - that the bar for membership could end up including a certain guarantee of ... let's call it technical workmanship? If the SFWA requirements include a 'you can reliably spell, and produce coherent sentences and paragraphs', that would be a plus.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

The kind of validation that traditional publishing is supposed to give? I'm not sure that a) readers would think of it that way, or b) that it would actually be any sort of guarantee in the first place (I seriously doubt SFWA or any other writing organization will have a committee reading each novel to make sure it meets their standards).

[sraun]

I don't think it's likely, just possible. It's something to watch for in their qualifications.

As more authors go the independent publishing route, there's got to be a rise in - for lack of a better term - gatekeepers. It happens with fanfic now - there are people who read lots of it, and then recommend 'the good stuff'. The advantage of gatekeepers over traditional publishers is that they're more analogous to movie reviewers - find some that you can map their likes & dislikes to yours, and go from there.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm not arguing with the gatekeeper concept, or the dire need for it in the realm of indie publishing.

What I'm disagreeing with is the concept of writers' organizations, especially ones that charge the writer to belong, becoming even just some of those gatekeepers.

It makes it feel like even if you're the best writer since sliced bread, you won't get past the gate without paying to become a member, and if you pay to become a member, you may get gated through without being all that good. Which sort of defeats the purpose. And readers will figure it out, too.

Gatekeepers need to be both independent of writers and advocates for the reader.

[selenite.livejournal.com]

Saw that. I may be tossing a novel up on Amazon in a year or three myself so I have some interest in the question. SFWA . . . doesn't seem to do anything useful as far as I can see. In the pre-internet era it was a useful way to make connections. Now we're all overconnected and I flinch at the prospect of another forum I'd have to stay caught up on.

As far as Vox Day . . . while I agree he's deliberately outrageously offensive, I don't see much point in joining an outfit that may decide to boot me for offenses outside their affairs.