Tom,
The Semi-Prozine category wasn't created for Locus, it was created because of
Locus. You're almost suggesting it's entitled to the category. It has won 21 of
the 27 Hugos awarded for Semi-Prozine. How many more does it need? It is a
well-established institution in the industry and from what I understand,
supports more than 1 of its staff.
Once a staff member is fully able to support himself at his occupation, he is a
professional. Any money Neil Clarke currently takes for Clarkesworld, which
legitimately won in 2010 and 2011, is immediately reinvested in his magazine.
He takes nothing for himself. He works on it in addition to another full job.
Locus and Clarkesworld are not equals, as much as Neil wishes that were the
case.
I am not saying it has been easy for Locus; it never is. In this day and age,
though, everyone in the print media is struggling, regardless of being genre or
non-fiction.
Clearly, the eligibility requirements for the Semi-Prozine category are flawed,
but those at the WSFS business meeting rejected the two revisions suggested
last year. (At least, if I understood the proceedings correctly. It was a
poorly conducted.)
My suggestion is that Hugo nominators slot Locus's editors, Liza Groen Trombi &
Kirsten Gong-Wong, in the Best Editor--Short Form category, where they're
appropriately eligible without any controversy.
However, I can't tell anyone how to nominate. If you feel Locus deserves to be
there, it is your right as a nominator to put it on your ballot.
Adrienne
--- On Sun, 2/12/12, Tom Becker <t...@fanac.com> wrote:
From: Tom Becker <t...@fanac.com>
Subject: Re: [Basfa] Throwing myself to the dogs
To: "Adrienne Foster" <ajfos...@pacbell.net>, "BASFA" <ba...@basfa.org>
Date: Sunday, February 12, 2012, 10:46 AM
At 9:25 PM -0800 2/9/12, Adrienne Foster wrote:
I'm not sure how the SF community is going to respond to this, but I just
posted an essay detailing the reasons why I believe Locus should not be
nominated as a semi-prozine for the Hugo Award. For anyone interested in
reading it, you'll find it at the following URL:
http://www.epinions.com/content_5605007492
If you feel Locus deserves a Hugo nomination, I hope you'll consider nominating
its editors in the Best Editor--Short Form category.
Hi Adrienne,
As you can see in <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Award_for_Best_Fanzine>,
Locus won the Best Fanzine award eight times in total, and four times in a row
prior to the creation of the Semiprozine category. Locus has always been a very
good and very successful zine, and it deserved its awards, but not at the
expense of all other deserving fanzines for the rest of all time, which is how
things looked in 1982-3. The Semiprozine category was created for Locus.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Award_for_Best_Semiprozine
Locus won all of the Best Semiprozine awards from when the category was created
in 1984 through 1992. It was a big surprise in 1993 when Science Fiction
Chronicle won (especially at ConFrancisco where Locus is local). Since then the
category has been more competitive. Locus has won several more times, but so
have others. The most recent three awards have gone to Weird Tales and
Clarkesworld (twice). This seems pretty good to me. What exactly do you think
is broken and how are you proposing to fix it?
Also I don't think it matters whether a publication is struggling or not. Most
of the entrants in every category are struggling. The whole field is
struggling. Locus stands out as a relative success but it hasn't been easy even
for them.
Regards,
Tom
--
Tom Becker <t...@fanac.com>
Potlatch n. A science fiction convention where readers and
writers meet on common ground. http://potlatch-sf.org
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