Hugo Voters Packet is Expanding
Posted on June 14, 2010 Posted by John Scalzi 14 Comments
The folks at AussieCon4 have just sent me a note to tell me that the Hugo Voters Packet, already packed to the gills with nominated works, has expanded to include additional nominated works as well as many of the previously added works in new formats that play nice with your eBook readers, and so on. All the additions and additional formats are right here for your persual, and to get access to the newly expanded packet, all you need to do is get a membership to AussieCon4, either of the attending or supporting variety. The supporting membership is just $50 US and allows you to vote for the Hugos as well (which indeed, is the whole point of the packet: to get you the nominated works so you can make an informed vote). People who previously got memberships are able to access the new material as well.
You have until July 31st to vote, which is still more than enough time to do a whole stack o’ reading. Get to it!
I noticed the RTF of “God Engines.” I should be able to turn that into my usual Palm-stuffable text plus _italics_ without much trouble.
BTW, I still plan to buy the electronic edition the moment it’s available on something other than the never-to-be-sufficiently-damned Kindle/iPad walled gardens.
Thank you.
Dude. Sweet.
You know, I never paid to be a voting member before. And I feel compelled to thank you for your part, one of many, in making this, like totally, the happiest fifty bucks I’ve spent in a very long time.
Truly, thank you.
Handy, I’ve only converted 4 of the novels to ePub to date. Note that in some instances you have to email AussieCon4 to get DOC/RTF versions (e.g. Boneshaker and Julian Comstock of the novels), so I suggest checking the contents and emailing soonish. I’m sure AussieCon4 would appreciate such requests now, rather than a week from deadline.
I hope it’s OK to add this pointer here. The Aussie SF podcast Galactic Suburbia this week covers what the hosts have read so far of the Hugo Packet, and the Pet Topic is ‘Worldcon and conventions – why we go and what to expect’.
So are these physical or electronic packets?
Follow the link and find out for yourself, Sean.
so basically you get all those books for $50 in ebook format?
That is a VERY good deal. Great way to entice people to vote.
One note… next year it is probably best to announce this earlier in the year. People really should not vote for a category unless they read all the material in that category (I am sure fans vote for their author, but that isn’t really fair to others).
I would think you would get alot more people voting with this offering and its great exposure for the authors. That being said, people who vote are probably repeat buyers of sci-fi/fantasy, so it may cost authors some sales.
Guess:
“next year it is probably best to announce this earlier in the year.”
It was.
And as for people not voting unless they read everything in the category, yeah, no, not really. If I read one thing in a category and it genuinely moves me, I’m not going to feel bad about voting for it. Likewise, if I read everything in a category and don’t like any of them, I have no problem pulling the lever for “No Award” (which is an option). We want people to read as many nominees as possible, which is why we put together the packet. But the idea that they can’t or shouldn’t vote unless they read every single thing is a fine way to have no one vote.
Re: Sales — we’ve been doing this for several years, including the years I’ve been nominated for work and it’s not had a detrimental effect on my sales to date (nor is it currently with The God Engines, which is doing quite well).
Guess, you commented in the original announcement thread (unless it was a different Guess).
Errol, thanks for the heads-up on Boneshaker and Julian Comstock. I don’t know if I would’ve noticed that right away.
The tor.com stories don’t have .epub files in the Hugo voting packet itself, but the stories are still online at tor.com and you can download .epubs there.
I’m glad to see that the Hugo packet is mostly useful now; I’d only gotten around to finding paper copies of about five or six of the nominees.
Holy crap. I just realized that the graphic novels section alone is a bargain at $50, even buying on Amazon.
I bought the kindle version of God Engines a few days ago THEN I realized what a great bargain this is and got it as well. Man, I’ve got a lot of reading to do the next month…
Thanks for the heads-up on this. I’ve signed up as Supporting and got the download link for the packet within seconds.
Total no-brainer for us e-book addicts. Thanks for the reminder.