I have been thinking on this a great deal, and have come to a conclusion: I think we’re being TOO specific with guidelines in some ways.
Let me explain, setting down SPECIFIC dollar amounts for every single other kind of writing might be… Difficult to say the least. Not to mention, whenever industry standards may change, it’d require a vote of everyone, including those that may not knowledgable, to change them. With how guild rules are anyways.
So what if we used something like this:
- You’ve had one short story, poem, or novel published in a paying qualifying market
- You’ve had two short stories or poems published in a non-paying qualifying market
- You’ve had sustained income from a self-published work, written commissions, comics writing, visual novel or interactive fiction writing, and/or a writing-based crowdfunding presence.
This way, even if your works maybe aren’t making you lots of cash, you’re still able to access the gambit of resources the guild hopes to offer so you can use them to improve that presence. This allows us to maintain a standard for what allows membership without essentially opening it up to every single person who ever writes anything. I think it keeps a focus on people trying to advance their writing as a career, even if it’s just a hobbyist styled one.
Basically, so long as you’re making sales of your book, commissions, writing on a semi-regular basis, you’re accepted. Alongside normal publishing requirements.
Thoughts?