A chance to hang out with interesting people is one perk of SFWA membership.
It seemed to me it’d be useful to have something that people can point to. I’ve added a couple of things suggested on the SFWA discussion forums, but I know I’m overlooking some. If you have suggestions, glad to hear them.
What SFWA Membership Offers
Informs you by:
- Hosting the website and discussion forums
- Distributing the Forum, SFWA’s members-only publication
- Publishing The Bulletin, SFWA’s public publication
- Providing model contracts and other useful information on the SFWA blog
- Providing sample contracts for SFWA qualifying and other markets in the members-only section of the website
- Maintaining the SFWA Member directory
- Supplying a wealth of reading in the SFWA Fiction forums, as well as some guidance from fellow members in the Nebula Recommended Reading List.
Supports you by:
- Administering the The Emergency Medical Fund
- Providing networking opportunities, like the annual NY reception, events at conventions, and the Nebula Weekend
- Working to support diversity and anti-harassment efforts
- Supplying and stocking the SWFA suite at Worldcon
- Providing a SFWA table or booth at events like the Baltimore Booth Festival where members can distribute promotional material, sell and sign books, and participate in programming
- Letting you recommend, nominate, and vote for the Nebula and Norton Awards
- Providing a community of fellow professional genre writers
- Presenting an opportunity for interesting and useful volunteer work
Promotes you by:
- Offering the Featured Author and Featured Book slots on the SFWA website, which has over 50,000 unique visitors each month
- Providing the SFWA Authors Twitter feed, which can automatically tweet about your blog posts
- Administering the SFWA Youtube channel, with playlists that include member’s book trailers
- Allowing you to post your fiction for Nebula consideration on the private discussion forums
- Publishing the SFWA New Release newsletter
- Supplying access to members interested in co-promotion
- Funding the various SFWA reading series
- Curating a member Kickstarter page
Defends you by:
- Providing Griefcom
- Hosting Writer Beware
- Making sure you are aware of potential issues
- Supplying the opportunity to request advice/information from your peers
- Administering the Estate Project
- Organizing The Legal Fund
Advocates for you by:
- Making recommendations to government on copyright and other publishing issues
- Providing a presence at STEM events
- Raising the profile of the genre with the yearly Nebula, Norton, Solstice, and Grandmaster Awards
