Some news about the Hugo voters packet.

[seanan_mcguire]

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

Comments

[museclio]

You totally need to pick up Ancillary Justice. It's fantastic.

[bercilakslady]

I agree on reading the whole thing. I was tempted to put Ancillary Justice down about halfway through, but didn't think that was fair if I was voting in the category, so I stuck with it. I'm glad I did.

[seanan_mcguire]

I agree that it's hard to decide without reading the whole thing, except that I guess "I don't like this, it's not for me" is usually apparent in the first fifty pages or so.

[billroper]

I'm sorry that you all find yourselves in a difficult position. I know that it can't be fun in any sense of the word.

[seanan_mcguire]

Nooooooooooooooooooope.

[groblek]

I'm sorry to hear that, and especially sorry that people are harassing you about matters beyond your control. I hope most people will still read the three novels Orbit's publishing, as they're quite good and deserving of serious consideration. The hardest part about this Hugo ballot for me will be deciding what order to rank them, as all three top my list.

[geekhyena]

Do you have a copy of either Ancillary Justice or Neptune's Brood that I could borrow?

[groblek]

If you're OK with reading electronic books, we can loan you Ancillary Justice through the Kindle's 14-day loan ability once Sarah's done reading it. Unfortunately our copy of Neptune's Brood is through iBooks, which doesn't allow lending. I think both books are going on my list of ones to pick up physical copies of so we can loan them out, so I'll let you know if we acquire copies soon.

[geekhyena]

Let me know once Sarah's done, then, if that's cool ^_^ I've still got Wise Man's Fear to finish atm, anyways. I'll get Neptune's Brood from the library. Thanks!

[sylphon]

Bummer. I loved getting some of your stuff last year that way. It introduced me to some new authors that I now read as well. I hope other publishers don't decide to dry up that well.

I'm not ticked at you or even them, I understand business is business and unfortunately some people abuse the system and distribute what they ought not.

It does seem to handicap the authors though since then people can't make their voting decisions as easily.

[seanan_mcguire]

I am afraid that the responses, which have overall been incredibly entitled and "how dare you not give me everything I want for free, any time I want it" is going to cause other publishers to follow Orbit's lead. It's proving the "these people don't buy, they just take" theory.

[sylphon]

Ugh. I'm really sorry to hear that, but I understand their position. It's hard to want to provide for free when people see it as their due. It was a great way to be introduced to authors, give a more accurate voting of my preferences and find new worlds to immerse myself in, but it isn't cost effective for publishers, since for every person that is willing to buy further books, there are probably a dozen that just want the freebies.

I will say though that this is how I ended up getting into your Mira Grant stuff, I got one via the hugos last year, liked it and bought up the rest. I already owned all your Seanan McGuire books but wasn't so sure about the Mira stuff since a major thematic change could also result in literary changes. The copy included in the hugo packet last year encouraged me to snap them all up for my library though in a heartbeat :-)

Either way, we're all here till the end of the ride, so keep on trucking and here's hoping the paperwork and whiners don't bog you down!

[lady_kathana]

I understand Orbit wants to protect their sales, but I think this is short sighted. Almost every author I've been introduced to via the Hugo Voter packet has been someone I've gone on to support in other ways, such as buying their other books, recommending them to friends and even inviting them to JordanCon as a guest so more readers can learn of them (The packet is how I first read Seanan's books and learned about her as an author). Terrible, terrible idea.

[seanan_mcguire]

I'm just glad most people are aiming their anger at Orbit, not at my friends and I.

[wendyzski]

Disappointed at Orbit - especially as many of us have been using the "You get free e-books" as a way to encourage people to buy supporting memberships and hence broaden the Hugo voting pool. It just means that we need to redefine our strategy.

But not at our writers or editors - who deserve hugs if they are willing to accept them, and if not perhaps strong drink or cupcakes and sympathy for a terribly awkward situation making an already awkward Hugo year worse.