Can I transition my SF interest into a job in the science fiction industry?

• There are millions of fans of science fiction around the world.
• There are millions of jobs connected to science fiction.
• There are many areas in which you can pursue your interest, depending on your specific passion.

Let’s unpack those three statements a little.

If there are millions of fans of science fiction around the world it stands to reason that a percentage of those want to buy science fiction products. It doesn’t matter which science fiction stream it is – hard science fiction, soft science fiction, speculative, galactic, near future, cli-fi, first contact, TV, film, book, comic, game, there are fans out there that are interested enough and passionate enough that they want to own something connected with what they’re interested in. If you can create something or be involved in creating someone else’s science fiction creation, then there has to be someone interested in buying it.

There are millions of jobs connected to science fiction. You might need to move outside your comfort zone, though. Especially away from where you live. For example, you may wish to be involved in the production of a streamed episode. Contrary to what the sets might show, many shows are not filmed in the USA. You may need to move to another country like Canada or the UK to get involved in Doctor Who, Marvel and many other SF productions, as governments attract production companies with grants and discounts to film in their country making it much cheaper than recording in the USA. For example, Attack of the Clones was predominantly recorded in Sydney, Australia, as was The Matrix and Superman Returns.

There are many areas in which you can pursue your interest, depending on your specific passion. Keeping with the visual medium, just look at the jobs in the credits of any science fiction show you love. Simply training in those areas can get you a job that should eventually connect you with a science fiction production team, if you take the right paths. Of that list of credits, script writers will tell you that this is one of the hardest areas to break into with science fiction. Not only do you have to have a great track record and long resume showing your list of experience writing for a myriad of different kinds of successful shows, you’re also up against all the other fans who’ve done the same. Of course, it’s still possible. Great science fiction houses that create stories for shows like Doctor Who, Star Wars and Star Trek go script-writer hunting! Create something world renowned and they’ll be beating down your door to get you to write a script for them. On the other side of the coin, the BBC has a program for developing young talent: BBC Film Announces New Support for UK Producers to get you started. Start there, then move into the areas you would like to work. In fact, there are so many jobs that can be connected to the science fiction industry through game development, spin-off book series writing, club organising, convention running, product licensing, web design, advertising and many more that you could have multiple jobs in a variety of areas jumping from one to another, and some you can even do working from home.

China’s science fiction industry generated over US$15b in 2023. The USA science fiction industry generated over US$590m in books alone in 2023. Also, Grand View Research says: “The science-fiction segment contributed to the largest market share of over 35% of the comic book market revenue in 2021” They go on to say that it is expected to continue rising. These reports indicate a steadily increasing interest in science fiction worldwide. Very different to a hundred years ago when people had to go into newsagents with sunglasses on to buy their science fiction magazines which were then given to them in a brown paper bag! The science fiction industry has never been healthier.

What about academically? Can you get work teaching and studying science fiction? Yes. And there is a hybrid science fiction research convention being held in Estonia next week that includes a panel on that very idea. Science fiction scholars from all over the world will be attending the convention. I’ll be attending via Zoom. The convention program, and the book of abstracts for each event, can be downloaded from the SFRA Transitions website.

I hope to report on the Transitions convention here in the coming weeks.