The God Engines: Hugo Consideration Edition

Posted on February 23, 2010    Posted by      44 Comments

First, because I know this will come up: Yes, Subterranean Press and I are working on an official electronic version of The God Engines for everyone else. Patience, please.

Second, I’ve been led to understand by numerous e-mail from a far distant land the natives call “Australia” — wherever that is — that physical copies of The God Engines are difficult to come by (apparently they have to be delivered inside the pouch of a wallaby or something to that effect), and that this places a number of that country’s citizens into a state of despair because it means they won’t be able to consider the work for a “Hugo,” whatever that is (I think it’s a type of brass instrument, between a tuba or a sousaphone). Really, the ways of the people of that land confuse and frighten me; I think it’s all that fermented yeast they eat.

So, in the interest of international amity, I decided to make available an electronic edition of The God Engines, for those antipodean sorts who are also Hugo nominators. But then I realized if I allowed Australians in on this, then other overseas folk — antipodean or not, yeast eaters or otherwise — would point out that they also have a hard time finding The God Engines, as it’s not been released in other countries, either. So I thought, fine, I’ll let all Hugo nominators who are not Americans or Canadians in on this electronic editions. But then I realized that if I didn’t let the North Americans in on this, they would drive to my house and burn it down. Because that is the traditional North American way of displaying disapproval.

So, fine: If you are a Hugo nominator, regardless of geographical location, you are eligible for a special Hugo edition of The God Engines from me for your consideration. I’ll send you a pre-production pdf of the novella (1.2 MB), which means that there may be a copy edit error or two in it; I think you can handle it. But to get it, you must follow to the letter these following instructions:

1. Send your request to “TGE@scalzi.com” and not my standard e-mail address (because it’s easier for me to keep track of requests that way, that’s why).

2. When you send your request, you must include your Worldcon membership number (either for Anticipation or Aussiecon 4) and the name you registered for the Worldcon under, so I can confirm that in fact you are eligible to nominate for the Hugo, and not just some schmoe. DO NOT SEND ME YOUR VOTING PIN. Because if you do, I’ll do horrible, horrible things with it [insert maniacal laugh and ominous thunderclap here].

3. In the body of your request, please cut and paste the following words:

I hereby solemnly declare that I will in fact nominate works for the Hugo this year, because nominating for the Hugos is AWESOME, and those who nominate for the Hugos are AWESOME, and I am AWESOME, so how could I not nominate for the Hugos?

Note: The above declaration does not oblige you to nominate The God Engines. That would be silly. Nominate it only if you feel it is worthy. If you don’t feel it’s worthy, don’t nominate it — but remember to nominate other things. Seriously, remember to cut and paste those above words in your request, otherwise I’ll go, “you’re totally not serious about nominating for the Hugos” and will deny your request until you put them in. Don’t think I won’t!

4. Finally, in exchange for getting this version of The God Engines for no cost, please consider taking some of the money you’re saving in purchasing and shipping the book and donate it to a literacy charity of your choice. No, I’m not going to stand over your shoulder and make you do this one; I’m just asking you to consider it. I’d consider it a fair trade.

There you go. This offer is open through March 12, 2010, so those of you who aren’t yet Hugo nominators still have time to become so. Update: Whoops, too late to be a nominator if you’re not one already. But not too late to register to vote on the actual Hugos. Get to it!

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44 Comments on “The God Engines: Hugo Consideration Edition”

  2. I’ve done stuff like this for years and have just asked people not to share outside their immediate household. That works better than you think it might.

    To be clear, I see pirated e-versions of my stuff all over the place. But generally not from the versions I’ve put out for Hugo consideration. Because you know what? Hugo nominators and voters seem to appreciate the trust.

  3. That’s good that you have their trust like that.

    Got Old Man’s War last night via the Kindle….
    I’m still laughing about Asshole the BrainPal. Giggling like a little girl at midnight, when I should have been sleeping, damn it..
    :)
    Glad to have discovered you and this blog.

    take care

  4. “if I didn’t let the North Americans in on this, they would drive to my house and burn it down. Because that is the traditional North American way of displaying disapproval.”

    It’s either that, or we force you to have a show on Fox News.

  5. “Because that is the traditional North American way of displaying disapproval.”

    Yeah, don’t screw with those Canadians. They’re already pissed about that hockey game and are just looking for an excuse.

  6. This was a seriously cool thing to do, Mr. Scalzi. And demonstrates good business sense. Cudos and may you win the Hugo.

  8. Yes… the traditional house burning. Is your domicile white? If not we’d have to paint it. Tradition is important, and we’d hate to see the lessons of 1812 be diminished.

    G’day eh? :)

  9. Any chance I could score a copy for my nook? I purchased the limited edition signed version which is in my house but hey if I could put it on my nook I might not open the limited edition again to keep it purty.

    I could provide proof of ownership with a picture of the signed page with my X out of number (I am at work so forget what number I am but it was a low one)

    Of course not sure if you will recognize your own signature on that book. You should of been a doctor with that one.

    Figured it was a shot in the dark request :)

  10. Yes, Subterranean Press and I are working on an official electronic version of The God Engines for everyone else. Patience, please.

    Patience hell, I wanna kill read something.

    Speaking of electronic versions of your lovely prose, any chance of an ebook version of Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded? Yes, as I believe you have pointed out, it’s a collection of your posts from here which are already digitalized. I know. But they aren’t handily pared down into a creme de la creme délicieux subset in a niftily portable form.

    Would it help if I said, “Pretty please?”

  12. I AM FREE-EBOOK GET GUY. CAN HAS FREE? K-THKS BYE!

    seriously though, I know it’s at borders. Intend to read soon.

  13. Now now. Everyone knows that Dayton is under 14 feet of snow and that nothing will actually burn.

    I think this is just a subte way to try to get your fans to try to burn down your house. Admit it, you’re just trying to get free heat.

  14. I’ll send that e-mail off after the kids are in bed and I can look up my ID number.
    But can I beg that you put this in .mobi? Because reading the pdf on my Kindle will make me not really able to read it. Small as the mac is, I feel awkward pulling it out to read on while on public transit and waiting for the kids at ballet and swimming.

  16. G:

    “But can I beg that you put this in .mobi?”

    That’s more work for me, and I have lots to do as it is. That said, I have no objection to you making your own .mobi version from the .pdf for your own personal use, if that’s what you’d prefer.

  17. You bastard…I bought this only three days ago! You knew, didn’t you!?

    (Actually…I would have bought it anyway…I haven’t read enough SF this year to feel qualified to nominate anything. Damn job.)

  18. John Scalzi @ 13, re ebook of Hate Mail:

    I believe Tor is working on an electronic edition of that, yes.

    Great!

    [Insert happy-dance here.]

  19. I think it’s a type of brass instrument, between a tuba or a sousaphone

    Considering a sousaphone is merely a deformed tuba, what exactly would fall between them?

  21. …if I didn’t let the North Americans in on this, they would drive to my house and burn it down. Because that is the traditional North American way of displaying disapproval.

    Maybe in SoCal, but the accepted method for displaying disapproval in Ohio is leaving a burning bag of dog droppings on the front porch. Burning entire homes is reserved for the Michigan Game.

  22. Webscriptions.net has Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded in ebook form already. It’s $6.

    I, of course, discovered this a couple of days after I bought it in physical book form…

  23. John Dittrich:

    Actually it’s not for sale there anymore — Subterranean’s rights to the ebook were tranferred over to Tor. The book remains listed there so people who have already downloaded it electronically can download it again if something happens to their version.

  24. Dude, you are too cool. Wish I qualified, but, *le sigh* I don’t.

    But, since I live in North America and have access to your book, I’ll just have to go about it another way.

    Poor wallabys, they must get tired.

  25. Hmm. This reminds me that I emailed in my supporting membership form a few weeks ago and never heard anything back about it. This talk of ‘membership numbers’ and whatnot makes it seem like I should’ve by now. O_o

  26. You rock! Thank you so much for the electronic copy, and for all the work you did last year on the Hugo voter package. I wouldn’t have bought a membership if not for that, and then I wouldn’t have voted, nor discovered some AWESOME authors. I am looking forward to even more AWESOMEness this year.

    Mar 13 is the deadline? hmmmm… I think I need to take a break from my WOT reread and check out some of the suggestions here.

  29. FYI, I got a copy of “The God Engines” down here in New Zealand. It arrived on Friday from Amazon.

    Great book, thoroughly enjoyed it. I loved how you didn’t get sidetracked from the story, kept it nice and tight. Other authors would have fleshed the book out by a 300+ pages, with a lot of backstory and additional plot lines. It was very refreshing to have a couple “time passes” points in the story.

  31. Mmm – vegemite…
    (Word to the wise – avoid the new cheese version – it just isn’t cricket, y’know)

  32. Dear Melbournites,
    We still have three hardcover copies of The God Engines sitting in store at Of Science and Swords, corner of Elisabeth and Lonsdale, in the Strand Arcade. Considering how it cost us about ten million dollars per book to import them (damn you, UPS!) we’re not going to get a second shipment.
    For out-of-Melbournites, we can mail anywhere in Aus. Just give us a call. Hunting down our number is the first test.

  33. Yes, TGE is terribly hard to obtain here in the yeast-eating antipodes. I had to order it from Amazon, then I had to cancel my order when Amazon showed themselves to be anti something good (I forget what exactly now, but then I haven’t had my morning yeast extract yet) and then I had to order it directly from the publisher, then I had to strike myself forcefully across the forehead when I realized there were other online stores that had it cheaper. But it was too late, I was now committed. Then I had to open the package when it finally arrived. I tell you, it was all very exhausting!

    Now all I have to do is read it. Is there an easier way to do that?

  34. Ed Ashby is right – you can easily get copies of the book from Book Depository for about $20AUD with free delivery which is very reasonable. It takes about week but worth it – it’s a beautiful little book. For mine I got it direct from Subterranean. I’m one of these yeast-eating weirdos from Down Under and wonder why the heck these other aussies are complaining about not being able to get copies when it’s extremely easy to order it online and get it shipped on over… – methinks they really just wanted an e-book version regardless and now they might get a free one

  36. This is very commendable of you good sir. I will take it up if I do not manage to retrieve the dead-tree version. I wish that more works < novel length would be made available electronically to nominators, or really, to anyone. I find that if one is not already a subscriber to a decent number of different journals the task becomes quite difficult!!! I even looked into obtaining old Asimov and Anaolg magazines to go through some of the more highly thought-of shorter works but it does not look likely to happen. Seems if a work has not been swept up into an anthology you are screwed if you were not already a subscriber.

    Sad how *SCIENCE-FICTION* is not at all down with electronic distribution, you know, that *FUTURISTIC* means of media propagation. (I would be very happy to pay commensurate prices for shorter works from these journals….or even just being able to buy issues electronically piecemeal would be nice) Yes, I know this is the fault of publishers, suits, and their ilk mostly but it does not lessen my grief. Sci-Fi is just as mired in the same tired old publication mechanisms as anything else I suppose.

  38. John Scalzi

    I don’t know that Book Depository is very well known.

    I found out about them during Amazon vs MacMillian, and mentioned them to a few people. A couple of acquaintances here in NZ have used them since, and have been very happy with their service.

  39. Speaking of which, I’d just like to piggy-back on John’s audience and make the same offer for my Hugo-eligible novella of 2009, “Palimpsest”. It’s collected in “Wireless”, which came out in hardcover last August — if you can’t find a copy, poke me by email: charlie dot stross@gmail.com.

  41. Just wanted to let you know that this book actually frightened me, especially by the time I finished it. I could not put it down until I finished it.

  43. Okay, so the Hugos are awesome, the honor of being allowed to nominate is awesome, and you, sir, by making this offer are pretty damn awesome.

    Having just finished reading TGE, I can definitely say that it’s awesome as well. Thanks for the opportunity, and I’ve made my DonorsChoose donation.

  44. It’s been more than a year now, and I still can’t buy an eBook version of TGE. I love your work, but there’s no way I’m buying a hardcover of a novella. Besides, I don’t have amy more room in my house for physical books. Was able to buy Fuzzy Nation very recently. What’s the problem with TGE?

    Thanks for all the great work!

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