Will Shetterly ([info]willshetterly) wrote in [info]sfwa,
2007-04-01 22:31:00
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free fiction by SFWAns

If you visit SFWA Members' Online Fiction, you can find a lot of free stories. The page needs updating—I just sent a note to SFWA's webmaster saying that it would be really nice to be able to select "View free stories" instead of having to look through the list and check for a "$" symbol to see which stories are free and which aren't.

As you might expect, Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross have offered many free stories. They're not alone. Just looking quickly, I spotted free fiction by Joanna Russ, Karen Joy Fowler, Gregory Frost, Eileen Gunn, Ellen Klages, William Sanders, Geoff Ryman, and Cecilia Tan. By posting this, I hope more SFWAns will join them. I just submitted URLs for my online stories.

You'll also find at least one bizarre entry. Note: H. G. Wells? Not a SFWAn. And the link to buy two of his stories? Really, try Project Gutenberg instead.

It'll probably take a while to update the page. Some of the links are currently broken. It's still worth a visit. Pretend you're sorting through a musty library. You'll find a treasure or two.

For people who don't have time to read the comments: [info]jenwrites says, "I'm the person who currently maintains this page, so please, send in your links, and check the ones you currently have up there to make sure they still all work. If they don't, I'll gladly pull them down for you."

I worry about [info]jenwrites being swamped by people helpfully pointing out broken links, so if you spot a broken link to someone else's story, it would be nice to remind the writer, not jenwrites. The writer might have new preferred links for the SFWA fiction page.
Tags: fiction, free

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  • 18 comments

[info]rachel_swirsky

April 2 2007, 06:08:16 UTC 5 years ago

Well, that's *awesome.*

Meet the extra credit archive for my next science fiction class. "Go read stuff! Write to me about it! Love it!"

[info]timprov

April 2 2007, 07:08:35 UTC 5 years ago

Clearly desperately in need of revision; see Eric Flint (SFWA) which listss six pay-for short stories vs. Eric Flint (Baen) which lists 26 free books.

[info]jenwrites

April 2 2007, 11:40:21 UTC 5 years ago

And this is the kind of thing I fix...when people email me and tell me to. Alas, when they asked me if I wanted to maintain the page, they didn't test me to see if I was psychic first.

[info]sraun

April 2 2007, 15:47:35 UTC 5 years ago

Gee, I remember that! I used to maintain our club phone directory, and still do our monthly newsletter, and I was/am always getting 'didn't you know about?' complaints.
Is there any kind of regular mailing that a reminder could be added to? 'Please send your on-line fiction updates to ...'?

[info]jenwrites

April 2 2007, 16:18:34 UTC 5 years ago

Is there any kind of regular mailing that a reminder could be added to? 'Please send your on-line fiction updates to ...'?

None that I'm in charge of, alas.

[info]sraun

April 2 2007, 16:28:43 UTC 5 years ago

I'm told there's this magic thing called the SFWA Directory - is there an admin page in it that you could put such an announcement on?

[info]jenwrites

April 2 2007, 16:39:10 UTC 5 years ago

The directory? That's the membership list. I don't think that's necessarily the right place for it.

Deleted comment

[info]jenwrites

April 2 2007, 16:39:55 UTC 5 years ago

My only concern is that the link will get lost in the footers. But it might not hurt to see if she's willing to include it.

[info]jenwrites

April 2 2007, 11:38:50 UTC 5 years ago

I'm the person who currently maintains this page, so please, send in your links, and check the ones you currently have up there to make sure they still all work. If they don't, I'll gladly pull them down for you.

Deleted comment

[info]jenwrites

April 2 2007, 16:19:03 UTC 5 years ago

Thanks! Oh, and I did get your email. I'll be making those updates when I get home from work tonight.

[info]johnjosephadams

April 2 2007, 12:33:24 UTC 5 years ago

I think you should be able to sort the entries by whether or not they're free. Some people might just want to browse through the stuff that's online and free to read, without having to pick through all the pay-to-read links (many of which go to something called www.alexlit.com, which seems to be defunct now). Also, I like the "ten random works" idea, but I think that should be setup as the default or something so that there will be a number of works displayed on the page when a visitor arrives. That way something might catch their eye that they might not otherwise notice.

Right now, there's so MANY things listed there, it's a bit daunting to even sift through, unless you were looking for something specific. There doesn't seem to be a good way to browse, and even if you do poke around, there's nothing to recommend one story over another--an excerpt of the first couple paragraphs or a plot synopsis might hook people into reading the stories--which would be good, especially for the pay-to-read stuff (as at Fictionwise).

[info]haikujaguar

April 2 2007, 14:02:45 UTC 5 years ago

I like the excerpt/plot synopsis idea. :)

[info]jenwrites

April 2 2007, 16:20:11 UTC 5 years ago

There doesn't seem to be a good way to browse, and even if you do poke around, there's nothing to recommend one story over another--an excerpt of the first couple paragraphs or a plot synopsis might hook people into reading the stories--which would be good, especially for the pay-to-read stuff (as at Fictionwise).

An interesting idea, but one that would require the authors to write them and submit them to us. And for us to add another field in the database to support it.

As for the sorting idea, it's also interesting, but I'm not sure how technically feasible it is.

[info]asterling

April 3 2007, 13:42:45 UTC 5 years ago

NAR Section

Jen also has a section of stories that have been recommended on the Nebula list. I don't know the URL for that, but it is in the members' area.
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