Update on SFWA and the Writers of the Future Contest
On 12/10/2018, I published my blog post about SFWA and the Writers of the Future Contest. (I’ve since updated it a few times for various reasons, including an official response from the SFWA Board on 12/18/2018.)
On 12/11/2018, the SFWA Board issued an update to clarify the rule about contests:
Qualification Update: Publication Via Contests As Applicable to Rule III Sales
Short fiction and novels that are published as part of a contest, including publication in print or digital anthologies and magazines or online publication on a web site, can be used as qualifying sales under Rule III of the SFWA bylaws, provided they meet all requirements. The qualifying sales are subject to the same restrictions as sales to any other market (such as: no entry or submissions fee, no warnings by Writer Beware, no advisory by SFWA, appropriate minimum payment per word). The contract must show that the author is receiving payment for publication rights separately from any monetary contest prize that may also be received.
So, what does this mean, exactly?
A couple of years ago, SFWA added an alternative to the traditional route for qualifying for membership: Rule III. Basically, Rule III was a way to allow self-published authors to qualify by proving their earnings, since the publishing world has changed dramatically due to ebooks. The rule also allows proof of earnings from small presses and non-qualified markets. Since it requires proof of earnings, rather than just proof of publication, Rule III involves more paperwork in order to qualify, but other than that, it’s pretty much the same as far as I can tell:
For short fiction, three or more publications totaling at least 10,000 words, paid at the minimum SFWA professional rate (currently 6 cents a word).
For novels, a novel of at least 40,000 words, payment of an advance of at least $3000 (for traditional route) or earnings of at least $3000 during one year (for Rule III).
Since Writers of the Future pays 6 cents per word for publication, in addition to the prize money, that means publication in the Writers of the Future anthology could be used as a Rule III sale to qualify for SFWA, even though Writers of the Future is no longer listed as a qualifying market.
However, there are still a couple of questions unresolved:
What exactly is an “advisory by SFWA”?
What exactly are “warnings by Writer Beware”?
I was unable to find definitions for these terms on the SFWA website (which includes the Writer Beware website), nor in the bylaws or Operating Policies and Procedures Manual. Does the SFWA Board’s statement about concerns with the Writers of the Future Contest count as an “advisory”? Does Writer Beware blogging about the SFWA Board’s statement constitute a “warning”? Absent a further clarification from the Board, I think it’s reasonable to think that unless the specific terms “advisory” or “warning” are used in an official communication, those parts of the rule don’t apply.
