The SFWA approved Phobos Books as a qualifying sale! I’ve now officially made enough qualifying professional sales for Active membership! As soon as Cricket sends me the contract, I’m upgrading.
Another writing milestone! 
Actually, I wonder if the letter of acceptance would work as proof of sale? Cricket can have up to a two year lead time, and I know from my previous sale with that publisher that they won’t send the contract out until after I approve the edits. And I’m pretty sure they don’t do the edits until they’ve got the story scheduled for an issue. Hmm. I’ll ask the folks at the Rumor Mill. But I suspect I’ll have to wait for the contract.
*twitch* But in a good way.
Much coolness. 🙂
You know, I’ve recently been contemplating the value of looking into joining such an organization myself. I can (and will) check out SFWA on my own, but tell me, do you think RPG writing qualifies by their standards? And what are the advantages of membership?
“do you think RPG writing qualifies by their standards?“
Maybe. I’m pretty sure your novel will qualify, even though White Wolf isn’t expressly listed as a qualifying market. That just means no one’s asked about it yet. If you’re seriously interested, you might consider going to their site and filling out the “To Qualify a Venue” form HERE. It takes them about a month or so to meet and discuss it. But I would expect WW to be cut and dried. They’ve definitely got the circulation numbers, they’ve been around for years and years, and they pay more than the minimum qualifying rate.
As far as your previous publication credits, the non-fiction parts–game design, theory, etc.–wouldn’t qualify as the SFWA expressly states that they aren’t a non-fiction organization. But there’s plenty of fiction you’ve done in your work for WW. That ought to qualify you, I’d think.
“And what are the advantages of membership?“
Well, aside from receiving their trade publications the Bulletin and the Forum, they also have a Grievance Committee that looks into members’ complaints about illegal or unethical contracts, contract violation, plagiarism, and other related issues. They keep an attorney on retainer that specializes in writerly issues. You can submit a work for inclusion in their Random Audits to verify that you’re getting your fair royalty cut. They also keep a listing of members for speaking engagements. You also get a free account on SFF.net with your membership, access to all the members-only newsgroups and discussions, and finally there’s the Member’s Directory, which has contact information for all SFWA members. Great for networking.
They used to offer a health insurance option as well. But I seem to remember reading that their previous provider either dropped service or jacked up their prices beyond what the SFWA committee considered fair and they were looking for a replacement carrier. So I’m not sure what’s up with that currently.
Congrats on the qualification!
Thank you!
Yay!
Congrats!
Last time I asked, they wanted the anthology’s table of contents along with the contract, but I think that was because I was submitting something that appeared in a non-sf anthology. Cricket is not specifically genre, right? If you email Jane Jewell, she will tell you for sure.
Yay! Congratulations on the qualification! 😀
Congrats!