Hugo voting

[phi]

I stumbled upon this LJ Post about the Hugo Awards, and well, let me just copy/paste what ferret said (emphasis mine):

I’m going to tell you how to get cheap e-books, influence the future of science fiction for the better, and read some of the best science fiction writing of the calendar year. It will only cost you fifty bucks – and might be free, with a little effort. Listen, for I am about to reveal one of the most hidden bargains in all of science fiction.

Interested? Read on.

Okay. So every year, science fiction (well, and fantasy) has the Hugo Awards – one of the biggest awards it’s possible to get as a sci-fi/fantasy writer. And every year, once the nominations come out, there are the usual accusations that the nominations are representative of a graying, largely-white fan base, and the phenomenal work of new authors are getting shoved aside in favor of old workhorses.

But here’s the thing: for $50, anybody can nominate works for, and vote for, the Hugo awards. All you need is a supporting membership for ChiCon 2012. So you can help boost your favorite fiction types, new or old, classic or cutting-edge. And a Hugo award really boosts an author’s career, keeping them writing the kind of thing that you enjoy.

Admittedly, that $50 seems like a lot – except as a voter, once the finalists are announced, you get a voters’ packet containing every nominated book, short story, and graphic novel.* It’s all electronic, of course, and if your favorite authors are very lucky all of of the books you nominated will already be in it… but that leaves you with several very quality novels, graphic and otherwise, for a bargain price.

So what you get for $50 is the ability to potentially boost your favorite authors’ careers, and then a basket full of randomly good books at cheaper price than what you can get them for on Amazon.

* – Most likely. The voter packet is not contractually guaranteed, and they may decide not to do it this year, but the publishers have every reason to want to woo you – so I can’t believe they’d suddenly stop. They might, since organizations can be astonishingly silly, but I think it’ll happen again, so much so that I’m risking my own money to promote it.

So, go ahead and hop over to ferret's blog and enter to win a membership for free.

Also, I'm putting up some cash for this as well. I'm offering to buy a membership for one non-white/PoC/chromatic member of dark_agenda. Drop a comment here before noon, Wednesday Jan 25, UTC-05 (that's US east coast time zone) with your favorite hugo eligible work (novel, novella, short story, graphic novel, fanzine, fan artist, editor, whatever) to enter. At noon Wednesday I'll pick a submission at random and buy a ChiCon supporting membership for the winner.

Also also: some members of the comm already have Hugo voting/nominating privileges and are trying to figure out what to nominate. So even if you aren't interested in winning the raffle, please do drop links to your favorite SFF works. Categories are novel, novella, novellette, short story, related work (for example, art, crit, making-ofs), graphic story, dramatic presentation (film, tv, radio, theater, computer game, music), editor long form (person edited four novel length books in 2011), editor short form (person edited four anthologies or magazines, at least one of which was published in 2011), pro artist, semipro zine, fanzine, fan writer, and fan artist.

Comments

[ambyr]

It would also be nifty if people could recommend works they'd like to see nominated, for the benefit of those of us who are already members and are scratching our heads over our ballots. I'm particularly interested in filling in holes in the editor and short to mid-length (novella, novellette) portions of my ballot. Links to eligible stories in online zones that people recommend gratefully appreciated.

[ambyr]

By which I mean zines. Thanks, autocorrect.

[phi]

Good point -- i'll add something to the post to that effect :)

[ambyr]

Awesome! I have some recs of my own to share, once I'm home from traveling and not trying to do everything on my phone.

[tessercat]

Ditto to this. :)

[littlebutfierce]

Someone linked this in ebooks -- just thought I'd check if you were down w/that since this is a locked post.

[phi]

Thanks for the headsup but I think that's a question for the mods, since they're the ones who will have to deal with membership requests

[wistfuljane]

Hi! Speaking on behalf of the mods team, as a general rule, we prefer locked posts not be linked publicly. However, do you mind making a public version of this post? Editing out the information that you would like to be locked?

[phi]

Done. I locked it in the first place because I wanted to make sure only someone who was already engaged in Dark Agenda wins the Hugo membership, but after talking it over in IM with some folks, changed my mind.

[avendya]

I second this question; I would like to link to this post from my DW, but don't link/quote to locked posts without permission.

[wistfuljane]

Hi! Speaking on behalf of the mods team, as a general rule, we prefer locked posts not be linked publicly. However, I've asked the OP if it was possible to make a public version of this post.

[sanguinity]

Wednesday is the 25th, yes?

[phi]

Yes, thanks :)

[oyceter]

Just read Zen Cho's "The House of Aunts" and love it to teeny weeny little bits.

[rhivolution]

Seconded. I read it a couple of weeks ago and thought it was great.

[phi]

Hi -- were you putting your name in the hat?

[rhivolution]

Nope, just reccing, sorry about that!

[prodigy]

Wow, I didn't know about it but I just clicked and read and, thirded. Really good shortform work.

[phi]

was this a "putting your name in the hat" comment?

[prodigy]

Ack, I didn't even know there was a hat to put my name in, that's what I get for reading things too quickly. I think retroactively entering would be unfair to oyceter, though, who actually did enter on time, so much as I'd love that free membership, I'll have to say no. :(

[oyceter]

(Er, that was my "sticking my name in the hat" comment!)

[phi]

Pending responses from rhivolution and prodigy, you might be the only person who entered!

[oyceter]

\o/!!

[ambyr]

If anyone's still checking, here's a few recs from me of things and people to consider nominating!

Best Short Story (up to 7,500 words)

"A Vector Alphabet of Interstellar Travel" (Yoon Ha Lee)
"The Four Generations of Chang E" (Zen Cho)

Best Dramatic Presentation "Long Form" (more than 90 minutes)

Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame (if eligible; U.S. release date is relevant for books but I'm not clear if that also applies to movies)

Best Editor Long Form

Devi Pillai, Orbit Books

Best Fan Writer

Mark Oshiro

Best Fan Artist

Stephanie Pui-Mun Law (I would nominate her as pro artist, but it's not clear to me she's done any work--book covers, etc.--that counts as pro for Hugo purposes in the past year. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong!)