After nine years, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) has announced an update to the per-word rate that qualifies a short fiction author for membership in the organization. As of July 1, 2014, the rate will rise from five cents a word to six cents a word. On the reasoning behind the raise, the announcement states, “SFWA considers it important to urge markets to pay writers more, and we hope this increase will encourage publishers to adjust their rates accordingly.”
For the full announcement, visit the SFWA site.
IMO Nothing encourages punlishers to spend more money! The only thing that really works is to FORCE them. =^ ^=
If they keep raising the bar, I may never qualify to join.Yeah, that really shows those publishers a thing or two.
I already pay short fiction contributors to Wisdom Crieth Without 6cents/word, so…
And what about an indie author? It’s insane to think an author could sell a million dollars worth of ebooks or short stories on Kindle/iTunes/Kobo and be told by the SFWA, “Sorry, you aren’t good enough. Maybe if you sold three stories for $.06/word to a ‘proper publishing house’ we’d consider you.”
Total arrogance and resistance to change. Why would Science Fiction writers refuse to embrace the future?
I don’t know why the SFWA consistently shoots itself in the foot. I’m all for paying authors more, but the fact is that current and evolving business models mean that this ‘gold standard’ is becoming increasingly irrelevant.