Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire
  • Mood: tired
  • Music: Meg Davis, "Captain Jack and the Mermaid."

Some news about the Hugo voters packet.

A joint statement:

It has become customary in recent years for authors of Hugo-nominated works to provide the members of the World Science Fiction convention who get to vote for the awards with electronic copies of their stories. The ball started rolling a few years ago when John Scalzi kindly took the initiative in preparing the first Hugo voters packet; since then it has become almost mandatory to distribute shortlisted works this way.

Unfortunately, as professionally published authors, we can't do this without obtaining the consent of our publishers. We are bound by contracts that give our publishers the exclusive rights to distribute our books: so we sought their permission first.

This year, Orbit—the publisher of Mira Grant's Parasite, Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice, and Charles Stross's Neptune's Brood—have decided that for policy reasons they can't permit the shortlisted novels to be distributed for free in their entirety. Instead, substantial extracts from the books will be included in the Hugo voters packet.

We feel your disappointment keenly and regret any misunderstandings that may have arisen about the availability of our work to Hugo voters, but we are bound by the terms of our publishing contracts. The decision to give away free copies of our novels is simply not ours to take. However, we are discussing the matter with other interested parties, and working towards finding a solution that will satisfy the needs of the WSFS voters and our publishers in future years.

Finally, please do not pester our editors: the decision was taken above their level. Don't pester anyone else, either. The issue is closed.

Signed,

(Mira Grant (aka Seanan McGuire), Ann Leckie, Charles Stross)
Tags: a few facts, awards and stuff, parasite
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  • 71 comments

geekhyena

May 13 2014, 16:33:13 UTC 3 years ago

I feel that this is a shortsighted move on Orbit's part, and I don't think it reflects well on them. However, all that means is I'll be hitting up the local library for copies of the books I haven't already read. Best of luck - Parasite is an excellent novel, and I hope it wins!

kay_gmd

May 13 2014, 17:45:20 UTC 3 years ago

I'm not sure about this. It depends on the purpose of the packet.

If it's meant to be a special bonus for those who vote, then this drops the bonus value.

I think it's meant to provide enough of the material to allow the voters to make informed decisions. If that is the case the extracts could be reasonable, and might even allow Orbits to cherry pick for optimal advantage.

For instance I'm reading Ancillary Justice right now. I'm absolutely loving it, but it took a while getting started (the beginning does a great job of setting you up to be able to enjoy the rest of the book, but it's not a fast read right in). If I were faced with several novels that I hadn't read, and wanted to read to make my vote, and I just started at the beginning I might judge it before I got to the good part so that I could get to the rest of the reading. Orbits might select an extract that works differently.

I got through Parasite too quickly to have a good example with that one, and I haven't read the other one yet...

geekhyena

May 13 2014, 17:48:13 UTC 3 years ago

True, I remember getting through Embassytown when it was up for Best Novel, and the first 60 pages were a hard slog. So maybe the extracts will help, but it still seems a bit shortsighted.