Official Member of the Insect Army

[swan_tower]

As of about ten minutes ago, I am (finally) a member of SFWA.

I’ve been eligible to join since 2004, when I sold my first novel. But back then I was a starving graduate student, for whom the membership fee was a non-trivial expense . . . and soon thereafter, SFWA began shooting itself very publicly and head-deskingly in the foot, not just once, but several times in a row. Its forums were legendary for their toxicity, the org as a whole was run by people who hadn’t been working professionals in the field for years, and while some may have had good intentions, SFWA was not doing a very effective job of coping with the realities of modern publishing. Why should I pay money I didn’t really have to call myself one of them? The answers people gave me basically fell into two categories: 1) “Griefcom and the EMF are good things and worth supporting!” and 2) “Join and be the change you want to see!” While I had no disagreement with #1 (the Grievance Committee advocates for authors in disputes with their publishers or agents, and the Emergency Medical Fund assists writers without health insurance), #2 got up my nose something fierce. Oh, yes, let me give you money for the privilege of trying to reform a group that shows no signs of wanting to reform. Where do I sign up?

But things got better. Actual working novelists and short story writers stepped up to run for election and, well, did what I wasn’t willing to do: dragged the org kicking and screaming toward a better future. Members who weren’t toxic layabouts raised their heads and went “oh, thank god, I’m not alone.” SFWA’s officers did yeoman work during the whole business with Night Shade’s ongoing implosion. Incidents that would have been allowed to slide ten years ago started to be called out.

It still isn’t perfect. SFWA has its share of dinosaurs and reactionaries, and they don’t always get rebuked as fast or as effectively as they should. But it’s improving, and then there was this thing, and I said to myself, “Self, I want to be one of those people Scalzi et al. brought in.” He isn’t president anymore, but the truth is that he and his cohort — people like Mary Robinette Kowal and Rachel Swirsky — are the ones who changed my thinking about SFWA. I actually meant to join after that happened . . . but I got busy, and I forgot. Fortunately (for suitably flexible values of “fortunately”), the sexist racist homophobic assholes of the speculative fiction field are the gift that keeps on giving. Two weeks ago, when John C. Wright was spreading his revisionist history around the web and various people were debunking him as he deserved, I got off my posterior and joined.

So there you have it: I am officially a member of the Insect Army — which is to say, SFWA, The 21st Century Edition. I will try to use my newfound powers for good.

Originally published at Swan Tower. You can comment here or there.

Comments

[jimhines.livejournal.com]

Yay, and welcome! :-)

[ken-schneyer.livejournal.com]

Welcome! Come take a look at these pods I have over in the corner...

[elialshadowpine.livejournal.com]

Unless I make some short story sales or SFWA decides to recognize self publishing (which is probably where I'm headed, just because my health can't handle the stress of NY and my multiple experiences with digital first small presses are that they are so not worth the drama when I can do the damn thing myself at this point), I'm not eligible, but...

... if I ever am...

The work that I have seen over the past year, the changes, the actively trying to change (and I know the work has been going on longer; it's just with all the various SFWA drama over the past year, it's been very publicly visible that there are a lot of people who are Fed Up with this BS)... this seriously makes me rethink my "oh fuck no" attitude about SFWA, which started back in the early 00s when SL Viehl (I think she writes exclusively romance now, under Lynn Viehl) talked about the harassment she got for writing SF novels with *gasp* a romance plot! and then Tammy Pierce talking about how she was shouted down by old men and harassed when she was trying to encourage SFWA to reach out to young writers and readers, because the organization was greying and new people weren't coming in.

And many of the new people (especially women) left; most of the UF authors I know stick with RWA at this point because of the treatment they received when UF started to hit popularity in the mid 00s (several UF authors have talked about this over the years). Their books usually have strong romantic arcs and can arguably be called romance; Linnea Sinclair, who is published as SFF, won the RITA one year for I believe Futuristic Romance. I'm not a member there because I have a very good, free romance writer's forum I co-admin, and the info and community I get there is far better than what RWA offered online (I cannot physically commit to the monthly RWA meetings, which is generally acknowledged as the "point" of being in RWA unless you go to the conference, which I do not).

So, to see that there are now people -- a LOT of people -- actively working to try to change things, and in a way starting to drown out the assholes... yeah, I think I'd join, because at this point, it's starting to feel that it might actually be SAFE for me. Whereas before, I didn't see the point; why should I join a professional organization where members are going to discriminate me because I'm female and write books where the romantic plot is just as important as the external? It's not TOTALLY safe, but I feel at least like I'd have others at my side, and that wasn't the case until recently.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

For what it's worth, I know at least some portions of SFWA are interested in opening the doors so that writers without traditional contracts can also join. Figuring out appropriate criteria for that is tricky, and I'm sure there will be pushback from a different segment of the membership on the day such a change gets formally proposed, but I do believe it will happen eventually.

And when it does, I hope the culture will have changed enough that the people who were alienated in the past consider joining.

[teleidoplex]

And now we get to be newbies together!*

*I am one of those 'be the change you want to see' types. Sorry if I ever ended up in your nose?

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

No, you didn't. The ones who bothered me fell into one of two camps:

1) Those who seemed to think that if I didn't join, I forfeited the right to complain or criticize.

2) Those who didn't acknowledge that joining constituted support of SFWA. Not necessarily support of its every action -- but aligning myself with the org. And at the time, I was not willing to reward SFWA's bad behavior by giving them that. I still worked for change, but withholding my money and support was one of the ways I wished to express my disapproval for their behavior.