We have passed midsummer and are stuck in the doldrums of summer. Ah… Perfect! Here are a few of my recent thoughts about writing, publishing, and bookselling!
Live Action Slush
At the Nebula Conference this year, Kat Brehm organized a live-action slush reading panel. She said this has been a dream of hers for several years and she was super excited to pull it off. She got Scott Edelman and Erin Roberts to read the openings to manuscripts (the first 500 words) and had a panel of slush readers who were to raise their hand when they were ready to reject a manuscript. And once three raised their hands, the reading stopped and she asked the slush readers to explain why they had rejected the manuscript (or why not). I decided to submit a piece to the event and attended the panel.
It was interesting to see what the slush readers liked and didn’t like. To be honest, I couldn’t always tell the difference between the things they gushingly extolled and the things they rejected out of hand. A common factor was starting the story at the wrong place: they sometimes thought a story had too much set up, but frequently were willing to tolerate (what seemed to me) like. a vast amount of set up if they liked something or were intrigued by something.
Obviously, it was about striking a balance. Some had too much worldbuilding. Some had not enough worldbuilding. Sometimes reviewers agreed and sometimes they disagreed.
Their responses were also calibrated to what kind of submission it was: short stories needed an immediate hook while they were willing to let a novel start more slowly, acknowledging there was time to let the action develop,
My piece didn’t fare very well. It wasn’t the worst (which was someone who used a mirror trope that got universally rejected within the first two sentences.) But mine was rejected before half way through.
The first reader rejected it almost before the narrator started reading. They said it was “not the type of story they vibe with.” Two or three more raised their hands at more-or-less the same moment about halfway through. Most of their comments didn’t really tell me anything I don’t already know about my writing.
The goal of my opening was to present what I thought might appear as a conventional (perhaps even cliched) scenario and then take it a different direction with a twist. But all of the slush readers simply rejected it as appearing too conventional. They never got to the twist because they didn’t give it a chance. That’s really useful for me to know about slush readers. I’ve been a slush reader before (though not very much) and one of my goals was to try to actually get through a story unless it was really intolerably bad. But that was my privilege, since I don’t have to do it very often.
Another comment they made was that the language was too ordinary or matter-of-fact. This is an intentional stylistic choice I make. I hate flowery, literary writing. It gets in the way of me being able to enjoy a story. So I strive for relatively simple, prosaic prose. But I can see that, at least these, slush readers would prefer something that sounds less ordinary.
Finally, one or two slush readers pointed out that they want to know more about the protagonist’s feelings — to have more interiority. Again, this is a stylistic choice I make (which I’ve described elsewhere). Since we can’t get inside other people’s heads and only ever hear our own thoughts, Unless I’m writing in first person, I much prefer to write about things are observable: people’s words and actions. But it’s obviously out of step with what these slush readers were expecting. Or, rather, what they were looking for. They probably expect most manuscripts to be terrible, which is why they don’t bother to read more than a few sentences before rejecting them.
This isn’t really a surprise to me. I know that the stuff I write isn’t what a lot of editors are looking for. But I like it. And I was disappointed that people didn’t even get to the twist to see where the story was going. It’s given me some useful perspective to figure out what to consider going forward. But it leaves me with a question.
How much should I try to change my writing to satisfy others? If they’d read the whole story, I expect they’d have a bunch of other complaints about my writing. I don’t like a traditional three-act story structure either. I’m not big on the whole “dark night of the soul” thing. I like more episodic fiction with different kinds of pacing and stakes.
I really appreciated John Wiswell’s comments in his Nebula acceptance speech. He described being rejected again and again and again until he gave up. Then he really doubled down, quit trying to satisfy editors or agents, and wrote something as “weird and neurodivergent” as himself. Thanks, John.
SFWA Strategic Retreat
Although I had attended the SFWA Nebula Conference previously as a virtual attendee, 2025 was the first year I went to the face-to-face conference. For me, it was the capstone of a three-week-long road trip with my son. We attended a wedding, then visited my brother for week, and finally continued onto the Nebulas in Kansas City. We had a great time.
Before the conference, the SFWA Board had a two-day retreat to talk about strategic planning. This has been a priority of mine as a new board member. Until the Nebulas, we’d been largely in crisis management mode, after the loss of the leadership and staff last summer. This retreat gave us the opportunity to dedicate enough time for some extended discussions about where we think the organization should go
It was also my first opportunity to meet most of the principals of SFWA. I had only met one of the other board members previously, other than via Zoom. Zoom is great for meetings, but it doesn’t provide much opportunity for side-conversations. I also got to meet the staff, including the new executive director that we just hired. More about that below
Note: this is not any kind of official report and represents only my personal impressions of what we did over the two days of meetings.
We began broadly by reviewing SFWA’s mission statement. Then we cast a broad net and began to consider how to more concisely sum up what we want SFWA to be. After an hour and a half, we had a working statement to use as the basis for further discussion to start developing our strategic plan.
SFWA does a lot of things. From the estates and legacy program to the writing dates. From the givers grant to the emergency medical fund. From the contract committee to griefcom. We tried to list out all of the programs that SFWA currently manages. It’s a long list. Then we tried to put the activities in categories: development, membership, communications, internal support, and programming. Finally, we tried to develop a set of priorities to help us understand what we want to accomplish in the coming year.
In the afternoon, we focused primarily on discussing the membership program, so we could talk about the other aspects (development, communications, and internal support) with the staff that would be attending the following day. We identified three areas to prioritize and then split up into breakout groups to develop plans for each of the three areas with action steps. After we shared out the results, we adjourned for the day.
On the second day, the board met again, this time together with all of the staff and volunteers for introductions. Unlike the Board, where we had been meeting via Zoom, I mostly hadn’t interacted with others except via email or Discord, so it was nice to be able to associate a face with a name. We had a brief discussion with the new executive director to describe what we had accomplished during the strategic planning. Finally, we had a brief official board meeting and, among other things, voted to accept a proposal for the proposal for the location of next year’s Nebula conference.
When I got home after the conference, I had a one-on-one onboarding meeting with the new executive director. I had an opportunity to discuss what my goals are for SFWA. We had a frank discussion where I had a chance to share my perspective. I’m really impressed by her acumen and approach. I think she’s going to be a great addition to the organization.
I’m very encouraged for the coming year. We developed some good, concrete plans for improving the organization. We are fully staffed with great people. The leadership team looks to be stable for the coming year with fantastic new people coming in board in July. I think we have successfully weathered the crisis and the sky’s the limit going forward.
I’ve already signed up to attend the Nebula Conference in 2026. It’s going to be in the Chicago area. Through June 30, early bird registration is available at a reduced rate. Since it’s in the midwest, I can probably combine it with a visit to my brother again. I hope to see you next year in Chicago!
Selling Books at the Queer Artisan Market and First Amherst Pride Parade
I spent the weekend of June 21 and 22 selling books at two events. I had applied and been accepted to participate in the Queer Artisan Market back in late May. But then in the middle of June, there was was a flurry of activity to organize the first Amherst pride parade in just a couple of weeks. I volunteered to sell books at the rally after the parade and got accepted to that as well.
Before I went, I checked the books I had on hand. I had copies of my own books, Revin’s Heart and Better Angels: Tour de Force plus two or three copies of six other titles — Water Dragon has an extensive selection of LGBTQIA+ books in their pride collection. I reached out to see if I could get a few more titles. Unfortunately, he wanted to hold back the stock he had for BayCon, so I just went with what I had.
I also printed out a bunch of extra copies of my Islands of Revin’s Heart and Better Angels ‘zines. I spent the time in the booth, after I set up but before things got busy, folding them up. It’s a nice, relaxing thing to do. And people really seem to enjoy taking copies of the ‘zines with them. I don’t know how many people actually buy the books after taking one, but I figure they can’t hurt.
The very first time I sold books was at the 2022 Queer Pop-up Market at the Mill District in North Amherst (just down the street from my home). I only had the first two novelettes of Revin’s Heart, with the third (of seven) about to come out. I didn’t have any of the kit for selling books yet. But I had a great time meeting potential readers and sold enough to be encouraged. Now, I’ve got everything I need and have become an old hand at loading in and setting up.
Over the years, the market has evolved into an artisan market. It was canceled in 2023 (due to weather, I think) and I was declined a spot in 2024. But this year, I had booth number 1. They have gotten their organization down to a fine art. Everything was laid out nicely for my arrival. I was able to back my car up to my spot and got my son to help me unload everything and set up in just a few minutes.
The market was lively in spite of hot weather. The booth next to me sold crocheted animals, including a lot of molluscs. There were jewelry makers, a booth with fancy lemonade, printmakers, and many other awesome booths. I was the only bookseller.
It took me a few tries to develop an effective tour of the table that let me pitch the books most effectively. I sold out of one of the books before noon. But I still had at least one copy of all the rest at the end of the day.
Over night, it rained very hard and was still raining in the morning in advance of the Pride Parade. I watched the radar, trying to decide whether to go. Books don’t do well in the rain. But there was a message from the organizers saying that the rain was predicted to end at 9:30. Sure enough, the rain ended and I headed to common to set up.
I was a little worried because it was the first time they’d run the event. Information about setting up had been sketchy. They didn’t have assigned locations. But I pulled up, grabbed the spot closest to where I was parked, and — after spreading a plastic drop-cloth on the grass— I was able to set up.
It was quiet for the first couple of hours until the parade arrived at the common. Then it got super busy. I ended up selling about twice as many books as I had the previous day in a much shorter period of time. I still had a few books left at the end of the day, but I had sold out of several things and what was left fit in a single box.
I should look into other pride events around the region to sell books at. I like the community and excitement of pride events. They’re fun and welcoming.
Junely Begends
June was super busy, with the Nebula Conference and the two Pride bookselling events. July looks to be quieter. There are a bunch of events I could have attended, but I’m currently only scheduled to go to Readercon. Look for me in the dealer room where I will, again, be running the tables for Water Dragon and Small Publishing in a Big Universe.
If you’re an author planning to attend Readercon and you don’t have a place to sell books, there is probably still time to request a spot at the Small Publishing in a Big Universe table. It costs very little and gives you a place to tell people to buy your books. Plus you can stand behind the table yourself to meet with readers and sign copies. It doesn’t work so well for authors who are not in attendance but, if you’re there in person, you can really make a lot of sales that way.
I was so busy in June, I didn’t get much writing done at all. Some people can snatch moments here and there to write. For me that can work alright for the little story fragments that I write for #wss366, but it doesn’t work for making progress on my serious writing projects. I did, finally, get back to writing in the past week and wrote the final, climactic scene of one of the storylines in The Ground Never Lies. I had been putting it off for months. Now I only have one or two world-building scenes left to write and then I can try to merge the two storylines. After that, I hope to pass it off to my trusty beta readers to see if the whole thing hangs together. It will need a lot of revising, but July should be perfect for that.
In August, I will be attending Worldcon in Seattle. The schedule has not been finalized, but my draft schedule looks great. I’m currently scheduled for seven panels (serving as moderator on one) and a reading. The reading is from my forthcoming book A Familiar Problem which has been delayed since January. I’m really hopeful it will be out in time for Worldcon. (Of course, I also really hoped it would be out for Boskone and Watch City and the Nebula Conference and Readercon, but… Well… Sigh…)
I finally bought our plane tickets. The most convenient airport for us is Bradley, in between Hartford and Springfield. It’s nice because it’s a somewhat smaller airport and only half the distance to Boston. But Boston tends to have more direct flights. When I fly to Europe, I’ve usually flown out of Boston. I did a search and found that there were no non-stop flights to Seattle from Bradley. There were two from Boston. When I checked, however, they were operated by Alaska Airlines and the cost was nearly twice as much as having one stop. So, we’re flying out of Bradley.
After Worldcon, I will be busy with family and then getting ready for the fall. The fall… Sigh… I have to teach the writing class two more times (in Fall and Spring) and then I will finally be able to retire and be done with working. Then I can dedicate myself to writing full time. I’m really glad I did the phased retirement, but I’m looking forward to wrapping it up.
