Orson Scott Card

"Only fantasy writers are virtually forced to begin selling at novel length because the market is so much smaller for fantasy."

— Orson Scott Card

for Creatives  |  fantasy, novel writing, writing, reaching your audience, genre, Orson Scott Card

"One surprising result of the ghettoizing of speculative fiction, however, is that writers have enormous freedom within its walls. It's as if, having once confined us within our cage, the keepers of the zoo of literature don't much care what we do as long as we stay behind bars. What we've done is make the categories of science fiction and fantasy larger, freer, and more inclusive than any other genre of contemporary literature. We have room for everybody, and we are extraordinarily open to genuine experimentation."

— Orson Scott Card

for Creatives  |  sci-fi, fantasy, writing, genre, creative freedom, Orson Scott Card, categorization of art, TAKE RISKS

"It is not experimental but traditional work that wins Hugo and Nebula awards within the field."

— Orson Scott Card (photo by Joy Alyssa Day & B.J. Johnson)

for Creatives  |  awards, sci-fi, fantasy, writing, Orson Scott Card, Joy Alyssa Day, B.J. Johnson

"The sf reader doesn't expect to receive a complete picture of the world all at once. Rather he builds up his own picture bit by bit from clues within the text. ... This, again, is one of the protocols of reading sf. The reader is expected to extrapolate, to find the implied information contained in new words."

— Orson Scott Card

for Creatives  |  reading, sci-fi, fantasy, writer-reader relationship, Orson Scott Card

"In practical terms, you'll have a better chance selling to the [sf genre] magazines if your story is (1) short and (2) science fiction rather than fantasy. My career followed that track; so did the careers of most other science fiction writers in the field."

— Orson Scott Card

for Creatives  |  sci-fi, fantasy, the successful artist, writing, publishing, editors, Orson Scott Card

"There's a cycle in science fiction that most writers follow. They break into the field by selling short stories and novelettes to the magazines until their names and styles become familiar to book editors. Then they sign a few book contracts, get some novels under their belts, and suddenly they don't have time for those $400 stories anymore. The magazines that nurtured them and gave them their starts watch as the novels flow and the short fiction trickles in. So the magazines are forced to search constantly for new talent."

— Orson Scott Card

for Creatives  |  your 1st book, sci-fi, short stories, novel writing, writing, reaching your audience, the creative life, Orson Scott Card

"In the long run, then, whatever is published within the field of science fiction and fantasy is science fiction and fantasy, and if it doesn't resemble what science fiction and fantasy were twenty years ago or even five years ago, some readers and writers will howl, but others will hear the new voice and see the new vision with delight."

— Orson Scott Card

for Creatives  |  sci-fi, fantasy, writing, reaching your audience, publishing, genre, creative freedom, Orson Scott Card

"My experience as a reader is that the category boundaries mean very little." (artist)

— Orson Scott Card (artwork by John Jonik)

for Creatives  |  reading, books, artists, comics, Orson Scott Card, categorization of art, cartoon, drawing/illustration, John Jonik

"All these [sf genre] magazines pride themselves on publishing stories from new writers. What doesn't get told quite as often is that they survive by discovering new writers."

— Orson Scott Card

for Creatives  |  sci-fi, writing, publishing, editors, artists supporting artists, magazines, Orson Scott Card

"New writers are, if anything, even more welcome in the magazines. The appetite for new writers in the field of speculative fiction (science fiction and fantasy) is still enormous. If you write competently and if your story has any spark of life, you will sell it."

— Orson Scott Card

for Creatives  |  sci-fi, fantasy, writing, reaching your audience, magazines, Orson Scott Card

How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy

(written by Orson Scott Card)

for Creatives  |  books, sci-fi, fantasy, nonfiction, writing, writer-reader relationship, genre, Orson Scott Card

Follow Your Curiosity

"New writers are, if anything, even more welcome in the magazines."

— Orson Scott Card

for Creatives  |  writing, reaching your audience, publishing, magazines, Orson Scott Card

"The appetite for new writers in the field of speculative fiction (science fiction and fantasy) is still enormous. If you write competently and if your story has any spark of life, you will sell it."

— Orson Scott Card

for Creatives  |  sci-fi, fantasy, the successful artist, writing, reaching your audience, Orson Scott Card

"A rustic setting always suggests fantasy; to suggest science fiction, you need sheet metal and plastic. You need rivets."

— Orson Scott Card

for Creatives  |  sci-fi, fantasy, writing, Orson Scott Card

"I had discovered the first kind of boundary that marks the twin genres of fantasy and science fiction: the publishing category."

— Orson Scott Card

for Creatives  |  sci-fi, fantasy, writing, publishing, genre, Orson Scott Card, categorization of art

"The science fiction and fantasy audience ... is the best audience in the world to write for. They're open-minded and intelligent. They want to think as well as feel, understand as well as dream. Above all, they want to be led into places that no one has ever visited before. It's a privilege to tell stories to these readers, and an honor when they applaud the tales you tell."

— Orson Scott Card

for Creatives  |  sci-fi, fantasy, writing, reaching your audience, writer-reader relationship, Orson Scott Card

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