TL;DR
7/10. A useful, well-credentialed genre guide, valuable for craft instruction from a veteran SF novelist and Hugo-winning editor and, distinctively, for the editor’s-eye view of what sells. Its 1994 market guidance is dated by a transformed publishing world, but the craft fundamentals and the write-to-be-read principle endure.
The Craft of Writing Science Fiction that Sells by Ben Bova is a how-to guide from someone with the credentials to write it: Bova was a prolific SF author, a six-time Hugo winner for Best Editor, and the editor of Analog, one of the field’s most important magazines, so he writes from both sides of the desk, as a successful SF writer and as the editor who bought and rejected stories. The book covers constructing strong SF stories and novels, the major elements of the genre’s storytelling, and the practical business of researching markets and selling work.
For an aspiring science-fiction writer, that dual authority makes it a useful craft guide, with the standard caveat that the market half dates. Bova’s editorial background is the differentiator. He teaches how to write science fiction, and how to write it so an editor will buy it. Too many craft books come from people who’ve never had to say no to a manuscript, and I trust Bova’s advice more because he did it for years.
Craft from a master of the genre
The book’s core value is its craft instruction from someone who mastered the form. Bova covers the elements that make science fiction work. The construction of strong stories and novels. The genre’s distinctive demands. The storytelling fundamentals as they apply to SF. He draws on a long, successful career writing the stuff.
For an aspiring genre writer, learning the craft from a veteran SF novelist and Hugo-winning editor is exactly the kind of grounded, experience-based instruction that helps, and Bova’s clarity about what makes an SF story succeed, on the page and with an editor, gives the craft material a practical, sales-aware edge that purely theoretical guides lack.
Keep reading
Writing science fiction that works on the page: Bova’s craft instruction from a master of the genre, in the wider practice of SF.
Watch: Exploring Tomorrow - 024 What Makes Good Sci-Fi - Advice from Ben Bova and Orson Scott Card, Mikel Wisler
The editor’s perspective
What sets this apart from a pure craft book is Bova’s editorial perspective. He spent years as an editor deciding which stories to buy. That lets him tell a writer what makes the difference between a manuscript that sells and one that gets rejected. It’s practical, market-aware knowledge, and an aspiring writer almost never hears it straight from someone who has sat in that chair. That’s the most useful stuff in the book.
That insider view of what editors look for, how to research markets, and how to approach the business of selling science fiction is valuable, complementing the craft instruction with the commercial reality of getting published in the genre. It’s craft and career advice from someone who shaped the field from both sides.
Keep reading
Selling your work: the business side of writing: Bova’s market-aware, editor’s-eye guidance, in the wider business of publishing.
Is The Craft of Writing Science Fiction that Sells still current?
The standard limitation falls on the business half. The book dates from 1994, and the science-fiction publishing market has changed enormously since (the magazines, the role of editors, the rise of digital and independent publishing, the entire commercial machinery), so the specific market and submission guidance is considerably dated and a writer must verify current practice against up-to-date sources. The craft instruction, what makes an SF story work, ages far better and remains valuable, as does the general principle of writing with the reader and the market in mind.
As with any guide that mixes timeless craft with time-sensitive business, the craft endures while the market specifics expire, and following 1994 submission advice today is a damn fine way to waste a year.
Is The Craft of Writing Science Fiction that Sells worth reading?
It’s a useful, well-credentialed craft guide to writing science fiction, valuable for instruction from a veteran SF novelist and Hugo-winning editor and, distinctively, for the editor’s-eye perspective on what sells, craft and commercial sense from someone who shaped the field from both sides. It loses ground for its 1994 vintage, which dates the specific market and submission guidance significantly in a transformed publishing world, though the craft fundamentals endure.
Treat it as sound on the craft and the timeless principle of writing to be read, and a dated starting point on the business, useful to the aspiring SF writer who pairs it with current market information. A solid, authoritative genre guide. Read the craft chapters closely and skim the market chapters as history, because history is all they are now.
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