Score

For any Hugo Voters out there. I'm trying to gin up support for my cover artist, Stephan Martiniere, for Best Professional Artist. I'm also eligible for the John W Campbell Award for Best New Author, and I suppose for Best Novel, though relatively unknown authors like me have no real shot at that!

Several of the books on this list are not eligible for this year's Hugo Award as they were published before 2014.
And why is anyone bothering to vote? No votes cast here have any bearing on the nominations for the Hugos. Only people who attended the 2014 Worldcon in London* or who have bought memberships for the 2015 Worldcon in Spokane can add to the nomination list.

* I went to Loncon3, so I can add nominations, although I don't get to vote in the final ballot. ;)

The position of a book on this list has absolutely no meaning! The list is meant to be a collection of works that are eligible (and you're right Jilly, some books here are not) - it is not a ranking! So pushing your favorite (or your own book) to the top of the list doesn't change anything. You're either eligible and should be on the list or you're not.

I will get to nominate and vote on the Hugo Awards this year (yay for supporting memberships), so at the very least, this list helps me find titles that I overlooked throughout 2014.

On a personal note: I have no problem with authors promoting their own books (go for it!) but it is quite strange to see rather unknown works suddenly at the top of this list, above the Sandersons and Abercrombies... whether it's true or not, this gives the impression that the authors rallied all their friends to vote for them on a list where position has no meaning anyway. It leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth and actually makes me NOT want to pick up that book. I don't know if I'm the only one who feels that way but I thought I'd throw it out there.

Linguana wrote: "The position of a book on this list has absolutely no meaning! The list is meant to be a collection of works that are eligible (and you're right Jilly, some books here are not) - it is not a rankin..."

I know some people dislike eligible works getting a push, but the relatively unknown stuff could actually be better than some of the known stuff, and yet they will stand no chance of nomination without some way of drawing attention to them. My book, for example, has some of the best cover art done this year, so I think it isn't a bad thing to let voters see it and perhaps nominate artist Stephan Martiniere. If I did nothing, he would get nothing, not because of the quality of the work (which is what should matter), but because the voters simply won't know it exists.

People are already well aware of the really popular work, so to me is makes sense to draw attention to lesser-known work that is of high quality. (But I don't understand why ineligible works are on there)

There's a bit of wiggle room with eligibility in a book series - if one book is published in the given year, the series counts, which was how the Wheel of Time series got on the ballot last year.
It might not do any good nominating lesser known works if all the awards get thrown at the Radish Empire book again, as happened in 2014.

Linguana wrote: "The position of a book on this list has absolutely no meaning! The list is meant to be a collection of works that are eligible (and you're right Jilly, some books here are not) - it is not a rankin..."

I didn't actually put my book on the list, someone else did, and yes it's ineligible, as I recently found out. I'd not heard of this list before, and was delighted when my book was put up, but I'd gladly remove it now, if I knew how.

Hi Ted,
I'm totally with you on the visibility issue. That's why I think it's great that there are some lesser known books on the list. It's the amount of votes for specifically those books that I found surprising.
And yes, that is a pretty nice cover you got there. :)

I'm pretty sure Andy Weir's The Martian isn't eligible because it was self-published a few years ago.

Linguana wrote: "Hi Ted,
I'm totally with you on the visibility issue. That's why I think it's great that there are some lesser known books on the list. It's the amount of votes for specifically those books that I ..."

I didn't push people for votes other than hitting the button Goodreads provides on the side that lets 'friends' know about the list. I am curious about The Martian--was it not re-issued by a bigger publisher? If they do that is it still not eligible just because it was once self-published? I haven't read it yet, so I have no horse in that game, but I'm curious.

I think the work in question has to be altered significantly for it to be eligible after it was first published. I still haven't read The Martian so I couldn't tell you if the self-published novel was any different from the now traditionally published one.

Ah, see I didn't think about friends (it's Friday, my brain is half-dead). It makes sense that they come to vote for the lesser known books - I'd do the same if I was friends with an author and I liked their book. :)

Linguana wrote: "It makes sense that they come to vote for the lesser known books - I'd do the same if I was friends with an author and I liked their book."

You're half right. Very commonly, GR authors' friends are in fact other GR authors, many of whom take a "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" attitude towards Listopia and vote for books they haven't even read. (Of course, some GR authors are enthusiastic readers of self-pubbed books and promote them out of genuine affection for the books. But that's far from the majority of cases I've seen.)

Ted's circumstances are a bit different in that he's primarily promoting his cover artist, and that art can be judged with a single glance. Still, I think it's significant that a full 85% of its current voters have either voted only for Ted's book or voted for his book plus one or two other self-pubbed books. I don't question their judgment regarding Stephan Martiniere's art--which I agree is very attractive--but I can't help but wonder how objective they're being in their overall voting patterns.

This a great list. I have trouble keeping track of new books, and it's nice to have so many of them in one place. I appreciate that the the GR rating and number of eaters is right there.

Well, this list turned out to be pretty useless...

2018 list is posted here: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

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