Standout Author Michael Z. Williamson and I don’t exactly see eye-to-eye on everything, but he’s written a very good post on his experience with SFWA. He, too, has had a run-in with The Puppinette:
Mary Robinette Kowal, self-described professional puppeteer and part
time writer, is very upset with some of the drama going on in SFWA at
present. I sympathize with the aggravation. I spent years in SFWA, and
stopped renewing, because of the endless drama and little
accomplishment. She’s very unhappy with several members over their politics, which is an inevitability of an organization….Will Shetterly @WillShetterly 4 Jul
@schanoes @sinboy @MaryRobinette The rest of us believe diversity should be more than skin deep.Michael Z Williamson @mzmadmike 4 Jul
@WillShetterly @schanoes @sinboy @MaryRobinette And once again, SFWA demonstrates why I let my membership lapse.Mary Robinette Kowal @MaryRobinette 4 Jul
@mzmadmike @schanoes @sinboy What? Because of someone like @WillShetterly, who isn’t even a member?Michael Z Williamson @mzmadmike 4 Jul
@MaryRobinette @schanoes @sinboy @WillShetterly No, because of those who are members. Didn’t you just say as much?Mary Robinette Kowal @MaryRobinette 4 Jul
@mzmadmike @schanoes @sinboy Oh… so you’re agreeing with @WillShetterly. That’s all right then. I’m glad you’re not a member.Michael Z Williamson @mzmadmike 4 Jul
@MaryRobinette @schanoes @sinboy @WillShetterly Yup. It would be
terrible to have dissenting members. Even if they agree with you.Michael Z Williamson @mzmadmike 4 Jul
@MaryRobinette @schanoes @sinboy @WillShetterly What exactly has SFWA
accomplished in the last decade? Other than internet bitch fights?She’s glad I’m not a member. And that Will is not…. So it’s pretty damned conceited for a part time writer to look at senior full timers and say, “You shouldn’t belong.”
Meanwhile, my courageous fellow SF/F Writer of Color Larry Correia – stay strong, mi compañero (raises fist) – explains why he never joined SFWA in the first place:
A couple of years ago a SFWA officer asked me to join. I asked what was in it for me. Basically, nothing. However, she pointed out that I would be able to help new authors, and because I’m pretty successful it would give SFWA added credibility… The thing is, I help new authors now, and I can do that without giving anything related to John Scalzi any extra credibility.
For the record, his bullshit about racial difficulty settings was one of the dumbest things I’ve ever read. The real racists are the ones that believe America has a caste system. The real racists are the ones who believe people of certain skin tones are unable to make it in life unless the government is there to save them. Why the hell would I want to give that added credibility?
President Scalzi, who is a white suburbanite liberal and thus an expert on racial issues and “priviledge”, is super awesome at finding controversial issues to milk for publicity for name recognition so he can sell more books, (hey, I’m a master of controversy generated traffic, I can recognize it when I see it) runs an organization that doesn’t really do much to help its members sell books. And sometimes, SFWA is even good at helping its members do things which help them sell fewer books.
The really funny part is that an organization of SCIENCE FICTION writers has yet to really understand the concept of “internets” and the super crazy idea that you can even sell books over this internets thing! And because of that, some writers are making buckets of money more than their traditional counterparts, but even the ones that are selling tens of thousands of books aren’t “real” writers. They don’t qualify. Somebody that sold a short story to a magazine 30 years ago totally qualifies as a real writer.
Which is sort of backwards, but what do I know? I grew up without “priviledge” on a higher difficulty setting, so maybe all of these big words are just confusing me.
Do you know what would be more entertaining than all the novels published by all the SFWA authors in the last five years combined? If, instead of internet bitch fights, there was an actual Monster Hunter-style civil war between the mavericks and the SFWA members in good standing. They might have the numbers, but I’d bet Larry alone has them outgunned.
Meanwhile, @aaronpound is simply incorrect. I have absolutely nothing to do with @SFWAfascists. Didn’t create it, didn’t conceive of it, didn’t have anything to do with it. But it hasn’t escaped my attention that @SFWAfascists does tend to explode the absurd idea that @sfwaauthors is an official SFWA channel by virtue of four letters in the Twitter account name.
Aaron Pound @AaronPound
The most hilarious thing about @SFWA_fascists is that it is so clearly the creation of @voxday.