tiredIt 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)
May 17 2014, 03:17:02 UTC 3 years ago
2. The short fiction is the glory of the voters' packet, because though many short pieces are available in anthology form, some are from periodicals, also known as "ephemera." As in, destroyed after the next issue comes out and not available at all.
3. I was introduced to your work through the Hugo packet in 2011. I was surprised to find out about your backlist but derived some comfort from the fact that despite its size, you hadn't been published for very long (I'm a mom, being a couple of years behind the times is nothing.)
4. Discovering your work in 2011 has led to me buying most of the rest of your work. Remember, the first hit is free.
I don't expect Orbit to get it right, though I wish they would. "Exposure" is not really that valuable in certain fields (namely, when people want your work for free so you get "exposure"), but in terms of authors in a fairly saturated market, it can lead to future sales. I hope that they redo the calculations before next year, but we'll be buying your book and own one of the others, so it shouldn't be too hard to buy or borrow the third. (The Wheel of Time is going to be an e-book replacement for our physical copies.)
May 20 2014, 15:36:22 UTC 3 years ago