Hugo Nominees: Why Yes, You Can Get In On the Hugo Voter Packet Action
Posted on March 25, 2009 Posted by John Scalzi 18 Comments
First, a status update on the state of the 2009 Hugo eBook Voter packet: I’m still in the process of getting permissions from various publishers to get as many of the Best Novel (and Best Related Book) nominees into the Hugo eBook packet as possible. At this point I hope to have the package ready by sometime next week, so that’s good.
Second: I’m getting pinged by folks who are in other Hugo categories, asking me if they can get a copy of their short story/graphic novel/fanzine into the packet, too, to nestle in there with the Best Novels.
My answer: Hell, yeah. The whole point of the packet is to help potential Hugo voters read and see as much of the Hugo nominated work as possible, so if you want in on this action, I want you in on it too.
I’ve already pinged the Best Novel and Best Related Book folks, so for everyone else, here’s what to do, by category:
Short fiction nominees: E-mail me (john@scalzi.com) a copy of your short story. RTF or (if you have illustrations) PDF files are probably the best way to go.
Fan writer nominees: Put three examples of your fan writing from the last year into a single RTF/PDF document and send that along.
Fanzine and Semiprozines: One copy of your ‘zine: PDF or HTML is probably the way to go here.
Fan/Pro artists: Three samples of your work, in JPG form. I would say try to keep the samples reasonably small as files (i.e., less than 200KB in size). A PDF file of three pieces of work should also be fine if you prefer. You might also want to put in a small bio note.
Graphic novel: A PDF version of your nominated work. Note that as these files may be large, if I get enough graphic novel participants I may send out a separate packet for them.
Campbell Nominees: If you have a novel, send along an RTF or PDF version (or other easily accessible format). If you have short stories, send two or three in a single RTF/PDF document.
It seems to me that aside from METAtropolis (which I’m working on getting something for the packet), the folks in the Dramatic Presentation categories probably won’t want in on this; and I’m not sure how I can represent the editor nominees without them having to clear their participation with the writers they edit, but if the respective nominees want to get something into the packet, I’m certainly happy to have them involved too, and they should just e-mail me and we’ll figure something out.
Deadline: Oh, let’s say, next Tuesday by 5pm Eastern. That way I can have the whole packet ready by this time next week. And of course the sooner you can get stuff to me, the better.
Feel free to share this information with interested parties, and if any of the nominees have any questions, they should go ahead and e-mail me; I’ll be happy to answer.
Sorry to use this for a bleg, but neither the Worldcon pages nor the Hugo pages nor Google nor Wikipedia have the answer – what’s the deadline to purchase a Worldcon supporting membership (and hence be eligible to vote for the Hugos?) Does anyone out there know?
The voting usually goes to the end of June, I believe, or possibly into July. Once they put up the online Hugo ballot, they will announce the deadline. In any event, it won’t be for a few months yet.
What a tremendous effort — thank you!
MasterThief:
The Hugo Award pages (I’m one of the people who maintains them) don’t show the deadline because Anticipation hasn’t yet released the ballot. The ballot will have the deadline, as John said, and we’ll update our pages accordingly.
In the meantime, if you plan to vote, why not buy your membership now?
@ Scalzi & Standlee – Thanks for the info! I just wanted to make sure I hadn’t missed the deadline.
You should be able to get links to clips of dramatic presentations and some of the shorter ones may be available to view on the net.
On say hulu for Americans.
If contacted the BBC and the CBC might repost the Dr. Who episodes.
Yeah, but I don’t want to do all that much work. Also, to be blunt, I don’t think anyone’s going to have a problem finding Wall*E or Dark Night. Exposure is much less a problem for the Dramatic Presentation field.
As you know, Bob, the Best Graphic Story contenders would be a big bandwidth hog to put together as a packet. But two of them are free online comics that could be read by anyone anytime (well, anyone with an internet connection…)
Schlock Mercenary: The Body Politic begins at http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20070520.html and is also available as a free downloadable PDF, from a link on that page.
Girl Genius Volume Eight begins at http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20080204 – with possibilities of a downloadable PDF in the future.
I’ll work on getting a PDF issue of Clarkesworld to you. Thanks for doing this!
Dramatic Presentation: the trailers. ’nuff said.
I was going to point out Schlock Mercenary’s existence in PDF form, but Alice (#8) beat me to it. I’ll have to check out Girl Genius, always love the webcomics :D
It seems to me that the best way to represent the editor nominees would be a list of the works they edited in 2008. I’d find it useful to have that information for all five nominees, or for as many as wish to provide it.
Thank you very much John.
Thanks for undertaking the considerable work involved in doing this again. It is a tremendous service to Hugo voters and I greatly appreciate it.
I would ask Hugo voters to check out CHALLENGER at its website, http://www.challzine.net. I have a new issue — #29 — in the works, and am working on #30.
One of these day I’m going to put a history together of Hugo nominees being offered electronically. I think the 1992 Worldcon offered out a CD-ROM, and in 1996 nominees were offered on the web for the first time.
Michael @16: It was 1993 (ConFrancisco) that authorized a CD-ROM collection, although as I recall it did not do that well commercially.
I sent a .pdf file of my 27th Challenger to Anticipation for them to include in the Hugo packet, and #29 is up at www,challzine.net. Also: watch for announcements at the worldcon of the Fan-Eds’ Feast, probably Satursday in the very early afternoon.