SFWA

As all of you know, I’m an aspiring SF writer. As such, it is my goal to publish and then one day joining SFWA, The Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (www.sfwa.org). It is the professional organization of SF authors and has been around since 1965.

It is a problematic organization at the moment. SFWA has recently had some serious problems with determining its role in disputes over online copyright. There are also many things that it could be doing in other areas that it simply isn’t, such as promoting SF literature in general. From the outside, it seems like a dying organization lacking in funding or enthusiasm. It is an organization of “futurists” who have a web design that is over a decade old. They are a reactionary, conservative organization that seems obsessed about how the interweb is stealing their monies, a “problem” that arguably does not yet exist. Those in charge seem to be older authors who have a sporadic publishing history.

I’ve been reading the blogs of my generation of authors, and it seems that many are being driven away from SFWA. They are not joining, or they are simply letting their memberships expire. I find this very troubling. This organization should be growing and changing. If it loses the younger members, it will die without anything there to replace it.

I hope that my generation of authors reconsiders. Change must happen from within, and the only way to do that is to have younger, more dynamic voices in the organization. The change will not come overnight, but that is the best way to initiate it. I have seen this play out in my special children’s organizations. It is nearly impossible to start a successful new organization, and it is unnecessary to do so if one already exists.

So please, be patient and loud. Eventually, SFWA will evolve into a wonderful organization like the Romance Writers of America (http://www.rwanational.org/).