If I did want a professional organization in my corner, SFWA in its current form might not be the right one.

At the moment, SFWA is an embarassment. If it shows signs of reforming then I’ll consider joining in the future, but I suspect true reform will take years and commitment from the very kind of people SFWA seems hell-bent on excluding or offending. And yes, I should put my money where my mouth is and work to bring about that reform, if I care so much. The thing is — I *don’t* care anymore. Hopefully one day that will change.

I have to admit the recent bad press didn’t make me eager to join soon either.

But, laughing really really hard at the pirate talk in the comments. If only I had me some dubloons. Arrr the scallywags! Prepare to be boarded!

Snort, snicker. Thanks for the laugh. Best of luck with the info-gathering.

I joined SFWA at the same time I joined the Authors’ Guild, and for the same reason: it was an organization for professional book writers, and joining seemed like an appropriate thing to do at that stage of my career. I remain a member of SFWA, as I remain a member of the Authors’ Guild, because I feel it’s an organization that does good work, and helps me keep informed about what’s going on in the publishing industry. (SFWA also enables me to do volunteer work that I feel is of great value–but even without this, I’d remain a member.)

Reading through the comments here, there are many nods to the “good” things SFWA does, but for many people these don’t seem to outweigh the negative perception of SFWA’s “conduct”. This makes me think of the Europeans I’ve met who treat the United States as a monolithic entity in which all Americans are assumed to hold the same right-wing attitudes and can thus be blamed for the election of George Bush. Pointing out the existence of Democrats doesn’t change their minds. I think it’s very much the same with SFWA. The behavior identified as negative–specifically, the feuding and the flamewars–is engaged in by a tiny fraction of members and volunteers; yeah, it’s obnoxious, and unfortunately has been highly visible lately, but it doesn’t represent SFWA as a whole any more than Republicans represent the USA as a whole. Besides, this kind of volatility seems to be a characteristic of the SF/fantasy community in general. No one should be surprised that a professional organization of SF/fantasy writers reflects it to some degree.

And not for nothin’, but it seems to me that in the past couple of contretemps, people who aren’t part of SFWA have behaved quite as badly as people who are.

I was initially put off by the vitriol in the discussion groups, even the spill-over to sff.net was bad. But I was even more disgusted by behavior I saw in a SFWA suite.

I’m suppose it’s a decent organization, but at least the old guard tolerates (or even encourages) stuff I can’t get along with. My conscience wouldn’t let me pay to further it.

I tend to view SFWA more in the abstract, than to get embroiled in its day to day politics. I’ve met some great people through SFWA, and while I might have met them anyway, I doubt I’d have done so so soon in my career.

I don’t participateo n hte message boards, and I’m unhappy with a lot of the organizations public presence. I will probably hang around for another couple years, and then assess whether it’s worth it for me to continue.

I want SFWA to be a helpful organization that writers are proud to be a part of, but several recent actions and opinions displayed by SFWA leaders have made me skeptical (e.g. Scribd and DMCA, as well as the Techno-scab incident) have made me wonder if it is actually fulfilling that role. I may wait for reforms before considering joining the organization

I am not yet eligible, but will likely join when I can. I’ve seen alot of negative feedback, but that speaks more to the need for reform to me– I think specfic writers need a centralized professional community and I’m not aware of any alternatives right now. If SFWA sucks, we should work to make it worthwhile. RWA does an awful lot for the romance community, I don’t see why SFWA couldn’t provide similar services.

I’m eligible for whatever author membership is, and I was a briefly member of SFWA in 1999 before I resigned during the fumbling of the WotC copyright debacle. I will never rejoin.

Stayed because SFWA does do some good work, because (who knows?) I may need the Grievance Committee some day, and because I don’t want to give the haters the satisfaction of seeing me quit.

I’ll probably wait until I qualify for pro.

I’ve since re-sold the story to a reprint market.

No organization is ever ideal, but I’ve wanted to be a SFWA member for so long (decades), I’m definitely going to become a life member when I’m eligible.

That said, there’s reasons why Sara Paretsky decided that MWA wasn’t fulfilling her needs and the needs of other female authors, thus Sisters in Crime got started. Both organizations seem vibrant from the outside.

And yes, I’ll pass this on. I hope it helps.

The main benefit for me (so far) is that I have access to the Directory and to some interesting information. I don’t spend time listening to the spats, though. I’m one of those ‘can’t we just get along?’ sorts. ;o)

I am in no great rush to join SFWA. While there are advantages, and the reported flame wars going on inside would be fun to watch, I see very little direct benefit to myself. If this was a place of learning and support, where more experienced writers would help the juniors, it would be beneficial. As only a means of entertainment, there are a lot of flame boards I can join for free. The emergency medical fund is nice as is the legal fund, but it appears there is a lot of horsing around to go through to get those benefits.

I’m Canadian, so the Emergency Medical Fund isn’t something I’d need. I’ve been under the impression that there are some anthology market listings available only to SFWA members and it’s those I’m interested in.

In 2003, I left DAW, and had my first sf story published. I decided to upgrade to Associate, because even though I was still going to be operating as a rights agent for authors, I intended to continue writing and selling. Everything I’d learned about being a writer came from SFWA, and it was time to pay forward with my feet firmly in the authors’ court. I continue in that fashion to this day, as I seek that elusive third qualifying sale for Active membership.

There a many benefits of SFWA membership that others have mentioned in these comments. Note that SFWA does a great deal that benefits non-members as well. We’ve made publishers and editors (and one major internet bookseller) give authors better terms in their contracts. We were the only writers organization to put a comprehensive plan before the Copyright Office to improve their handling of “orphan works”. Not just for SFWA members — these are not secret handshake arrangements — but all authors benefit, from the person making their first sale to a Tekno Books anthology or Dell magazine, to Stephen King himself.

Now, one could say, “Hey, great! I can get SFWA benefits without being a member.” But, really, what kind of moocher wants to be like that, when they can become a member of the only professional organization for sff genre writers. No one has to go into the SFWA forums if the person doesn’t want to. Most of the real nitty-gritty work of SFWA is not done in those forums. They are places to post questions, provide answers, and occasionally blow off steam. SFWA does a great deal for writers that does not get effectively publicized (speaking as SFWA’s former Public Relations Chair, I know full well the failing of our publicity programs). Check out the SFWA Pressbook, which disseminates members’ press releases for them. We are working on fixing the thing which look bad to the general public, but we can’t do it alone. If writers with the proper credentials feel that they have the skills, desire and time to start a brand new writers organization, then they could better devote those skills and time to make SFWA better.

As stated above – it seems like there are always people who want to sit on the sidelines and bitch. If they were in the majority, then they could take over the organization – but then we’d see them for what the are – cracked and empty vessels. Which is not to say there shouldn’t be discussion and debate – but some people get personal and that shouldn’t be allowed.

It just doesn’t do enough to reach the community that should be actively participating in SF, in my opinion, and the recent incidents seem to be ticking off far too many of the people we should be attracting to the genre.

the way I want to see it is like athletes training for the Olympics, or college kids making a bid for the NFL (kind of) – you work hard and attain success and become part of something bigger; not part of an elite gentlemen’s club that sits around puffing cigars and congratulating themselves on their own brilliance and having a chuckle at the plebs.

The questions for me comes down to a couple of crucial things (fighting and arguing will always be there, in some ways it’s healthy actually):

1) what is the value for money? what can the SFWA do that a writer cannot get somewhere else, probably for free?
2) administrative incompetence – enough has been said on this one, and it is a big stumbling block;
3) exclusionist and elitist culture – two parts:
a) is the SFWA open and supportive to genre on a global scale or not? not really clear here, it still feels like it’s primarily an American-British club. Maybe it truly is, don’t know.
b) I have no problem with membership qualifications, is supposed to be something you strive for. What I dislike is a sense of elitism that creeps in (no, it’s hard to point to specifics, a kind of undertone), where the impression is that SFWA exists to protect and preserve their own/themselves/ their mates, not to promote genre as a whole, and don’t really give a fek about anyone not a member. In other words, SFWA appears to do little to actually help new writers in general to attain membership. This is a hard one and could probably go on for some time; I’ll just leave it at the main point that bugs me which is that SFWA appears to be concerned not with the health and furtherment of the genre, but the protection of their members.

I like SFWA’s programs such as the Grievance Committee, the Emergency Medical Fund and active work to get markets to offer better basic contracts for writers.

As a community, I’m not at all comfortable in it. I’m considering looking at non-genre professional writer’s organizations since the things I like best about SFWA aren’t related to genre but to things that are important to any writer.

Joined despite the frequent feuds and stupidities — which only ever involve a small, overly-noisy, overly-ego-filled, fraction of the membership.

[Note that SF writers have been having never-speak-to-each-other-again feuds for decades. Reportedly, they used to manage this via snail-mail!

That many of these feuds now take place, in part, on an electronic forum sponsored by SFWA hardly makes them an aspect of SFWA itself.

(Of course, dubious official actions or public statements by SFWA committees or officials are a different matter.)]

At this point I feel no motivation to learn more about the SFWA or to join it. I do not feel the organization is supportive of all ‘genre’ writers but chooses to recognize the value of only those at the top.

In my opinion the writers NEEDING the most assistance are the writers they are ignoring. These are the writers who could use direct assistance in networking for agents, publishing assistance and a better understanding of the industry.