Well, I don't know. You can look at the qualifications for entry into the FWG and speculate on the ease of getting published in furry fiction--at one point I believe you could become a FWG member with two conbook publications and nothing more, and I've heard more than one conbook organizer state flatly that they would publish anything anyone sent them, because they get so few submissions. Many furry anthologies are not too far removed from that. I've talked to editors who said, "We had to accept a couple stories because we just didn't have enough submissions" for a project. And those stories' authors are eligible to be FWG members.
On the other hand, to take an extreme example, Fred Patten would not be eligible for FWG membership (barring a special dispensation), and I don't think anyone would argue that he doesn't know what goes into good writing. There are a lot of people out there who read avidly and DO know good writing even if they don't produce any themselves.
One Ursa committee member said to me off the record that his examination of the votes bears out that people vote for what they like. The process of voting is laborious enough that people don't just go to a webpage and click on a link. They have to take time to vote. They have to *care*. And most furries who take the time to vote have heard of more than one writer.
Point is, it's easy to buy into a stereotype of mindless zombies voting for Ursas and educated, refined writers voting for the Coyotls, but if you take the time to gather even a little bit of information, those stereotypes don't hold up.
Well, I don't know. You can look at the qualifications for entry into the FWG and speculate on the ease of getting published in furry fiction--at one point I believe you could become a FWG member with two conbook publications and nothing more, and I've heard more than one conbook organizer state flatly that they would publish anything anyone sent them, because they get so few submissions. Many furry anthologies are not too far removed from that. I've talked to editors who said, "We had to accept a couple stories because we just didn't have enough submissions" for a project. And those stories' authors are eligible to be FWG members.
On the other hand, to take an extreme example, Fred Patten would not be eligible for FWG membership (barring a special dispensation), and I don't think anyone would argue that he doesn't know what goes into good writing. There are a lot of people out there who read avidly and DO know good writing even if they don't produce any themselves.
One Ursa committee member said to me off the record that his examination of the votes bears out that people vote for what they like. The process of voting is laborious enough that people don't just go to a webpage and click on a link. They have to take time to vote. They have to *care*. And most furries who take the time to vote have heard of more than one writer.
Point is, it's easy to buy into a stereotype of mindless zombies voting for Ursas and educated, refined writers voting for the Coyotls, but if you take the time to gather even a little bit of information, those stereotypes don't hold up.
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