Vote vote vote--and rec rec rec rec

[ellen_datlow]

Ok. Here's my impassioned plea/push/nag for anyone who reads this blog and is eligible to recommend stories and or novels for the various peer group science fiction, fantasy, and horror awards.
I know that some people feel that awards themselves are a bad thing and that they should all be abolished. I'm not talking to you. I don't believe that and I know I'm not going to change your minds.

Awards are NOT going to go away but they could become less visible (which I think is a bad thing). As an editor I really appreciate it when the stories/books I edit make final award ballots and win awards. And I think most writers are even more appreciative of this. It gives a sense of validation for what you're doing by your peers (for the Nebula and Stoker).

Right now is "award rec season" and there are discussions on both the SFWA Bulletin Board and the HWA Bulletin Board about how their respective awards are dying --not enough members are recommending works to even make a preliminary ballot.

Now some people think that this might be because no one likes the work being published.
Others that no one is reading enough short fiction to be interested in recommending works in those categories.
I have a really difficult time believing the first reason. I've been reading sf/f/h short fiction for twenty five years and have found no drop off in quality in any of those fields.

I can't answer for the second but I hope it's not true because if so my profession will die and I love editing short fiction.

If you care at ALL for the genre short story then I urge you to recommend the stories that you think are worth bringing to the attention of your peers.

This is totally off the cuff and I know if I thought about it more I'd have more to write--but I'd also probably just delete the whole post...

Comments welcome!

Comments

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Hey Lisa! (Lisa's a fellow HWA member). Did you get the email I just sent you as to when the Stoker deadline is this year (for recs)?

I do think I'm going to occasionally cut and paste my ongoing mini-reviews of books from whatever YBFH I'm working on. I wonder if I should post my Stoker recs for short and long stories, too. What do you think about that?

GENERATION LOST is excellent! I could go either way with the anonymous rec issue but you make a good point. I too, sometimes use the recs to check out something I might not ordinarily and who recs it does make a difference.

[nihilistic-kid.livejournal.com]

I use the rec system to know what I don't need to bother to read! At least with the Stokers, there's one fellow who does very well each year recwise thanks to having four or five friends who apparently love everything he does. He managed to even crawl into the ballot once, two years ago if I remember correctly.

[david-de-beer.livejournal.com]

see, this is the part of pimpin your mates that doesn't sit well with me. It's fine, to a point, and sure a lot of us do it, but mostly I just prefer to let people know "XYZ has a story at ABC mag"; if I read and liked the story, then I'll say so as well, and I do think it needs to be balanced with pimping stuff by non-mates.

course, I pay more attention when the pimping is by people I know, or whose tastes I don't utterly distrust, but the pimp-a-mate on the blogs and forums can get very annoying very fast.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

No argument there. There seems to be no one to prevent this...all you can do is pay attention to recommendations by people whose taste dovetails with your own.