22 August 2008

Best "Semi-Pro Zine" a Forgone Conclusion?

John Kilma, editor of Electric Velocipede wrote an interesting entry on the Tor.com website yesterday about eliminating the "best semi-pro magazine" category from the Hugos. In a nutshell, he indicated that he supported the idea of eliminating the category because Locus wins the award every year. I'm a Locus reader who is constantly impressed with the quantity of genre information Charles Brown puts together for each issue. However, is does seem like the Hugos need some revamping when the same zine wins repeatedly.

According to the Hugos, Electric Spec, would, at most, be a fanzine. Nothing against fanzines, but, heck, if our magazine ever wins a Hugo, I'd much rather see it categorized for what it is--semi-pro (or maybe pro some day). To motivate editors like us to reach that point, Worldcon should look at changing things up a bit. After all, isn't part of the purpose of the Hugos to inspire great work?

4 comments:

Betsy Dornbusch said...

No doubt. I think it's time WorldCon shook things up a bit.

Gremlin Editor said...

Let's face it. There's an "old boys network" involved here. Electric Spec should wake up and smell the coffee. Unless you folks get invited into the "club", you'll always be on the outside looking in.

(p.s. in case you're wondering if I'm a member of the club, I would never join a club whose standards are low enough to let me in!)

lesleylsmith said...

Way to shake things up, D. :)
It looks like it is possible to change the Hugo rules:
http://www.thehugoawards.org/?page_id=8

lesleylsmith said...

Of course, Mr. Kilma is hardly objective about the issue.