I started in this racket in the early '70s, and when I was president of the Science Fiction Writers of America, of which I was like the sixth president, I was the first one nobody ever heard of. Jerry Pournelle 70samericaearly Change image and share on social
Write a lot. And finish what you write. Don't join writer's clubs and go sit around having coffee reading pieces of your manuscript to people. Write it. Finish it. I set those rules up years ago, and nothing's changed. Jerry Pournelle agochangeclub share on social
One the other hand, the publishing trend is ghastly, isn't it? Two hundred and something distributors are now down to 10 or 12? And what's the recruiting drive? Jerry Pournelle distributordriveghastly Change image and share on social
Asimov was the reason why we changed some rules in the SFWA, and I'm not convinced we changed it for the best. Jerry Pournelle asimovchangeconvince Change image and share on social
There were probably, what, 300 science-fiction members in the SFWA, of whom probably a hundred were active members in the sense that they were selling something every year, or every couple years. Jerry Pournelle activecouplefiction Change image and share on social
We do a hard fantasy as well as hard science fiction, and I think I probably single-handedly recreated military science fiction. It was dead before I started working in it. Jerry Pournelle deadfantasyfiction Change image and share on social
You see, I used to do a certain amount of market research by going to the local drugstore and seeing what the truck drivers would put up. Now it's all just copies from the latest best-seller list and damn little of anything else. Jerry Pournelle amountcopydamn share on social
You no longer have much in the way of knowing what to do in a big, epic novel about the future, because nobody knows what the hell is going to happen. Jerry Pournelle bigepicfuture Change image and share on social
I think it takes about a million words to make a writer. I mean that you're going to throw away. Jerry Pournelle makemilliontake Change image and share on social
The importance of information is directly proportional to its improbability. Jerry Pournelle directlyimportanceimprobability Change image and share on social
