The British Science Fiction Association AGM

Tomorrow is the AGM of the BSFA.  I'm a newly-rejoined member, and I'm going to the meeting.  It's around a decade since I was last a member.  Back then I did try to find something of relevance to me as a women in the journals and news, but I couldn't.  The book reviews were of men's books, and women didn't seem to figure in the genre at all.  I felt like it didn't have any place for me, so I cancelled my membership.

So what's changed in the intervening period?  Lots of things.  In the last year the issue of women's under-representation in the genre has hit the headlines.  The spat between members of the Science Fiction Writers of America gave it public focus.  When well-respected female writers cancel their memberships of that august body then something's wring.

The VIDA statistics on women's representation in literature in general out this into perspective.   Women's under-representation in the genre is part of a wider problem of us not being published as often, not being reviewed as often.  Twitter was abuzz with items relating to the SFWA, and every day I came across new blog posts that told me a little more of the history of this situation.

As I pieced the evidence together, I realised I wasn't the problem.  The problem was with that old chestnut "women don't write SF".  Some women's stories and novels were nominated for the genre's top awards.  And some of those stories won them.

There are other changes afoot.  Having exhausted the handful of agents who would handle SF in the UK a decade ago, I came to a dead end in my submissions process.  I'd run out of agents to try, and there were no publishers willing to look at unsolicited manuscripts.  Today the position has radically altered.  The rise of self-publishing has forced changes on both editors and agents,  in a recent trawl on-line, I found dozens of agents I hadn't submitted to before who now represent SF novels.  Newer publishers like Angry Robot and Jo Fletcher Books have established themselves as very successful genre publishers.  And lately it seems that just about every publisher is launching a new speculative fiction imprint.

SF is in vogue again, and it's publishing women's work, so it's time for me to re-join the fray.  At the BSFA AGM tomorrow Jo Fletcher is a guest of honour, and I'll be listening very carefully to what she has to say.  It's time to get submitting again.  And maybe one day soon we'll remove the last impediment to women writing women's SF.  We might finally get rid of kick-ass heroines and allow the women in our books to be authentic people.