It’s not a question I’ve ever asked myself, and I doubt it would ever have occurred to me, had I not been surfing the Interaction website and happened to look at the Interaction Complete Nomination Statistics, which were quite interesting.

Of the 4,000 or so Interaction members (the number I’ve heard mentioned), 546 nominated to vote and 684 actually voted. It took 33 nominations to make the novel ballot, 29 to make the novella ballot, 19 to make the novelette ballot, and just 18 to make the short story ballot. Interestingly, given all of the discussion of the editor category, it took more nominations (71!) to make the final ballot for editor than for any other category in the awards. It is something people feel passionately about, obviously.

I don’t know how typical these figures are, but it obviously it can’t be that hard to get a Hugo nomination if all you need is 18 nominations. I don’t suggest or condone vote stacking, but you can see what leads to it. The belief that it isn’t that hard to get a result. Interesting.

Edit 10/8/05: Check out the comments for this, as Cheryl makes some good points. The one thing I’d hope people would carry away from this post is that people who care about the awards should nominate and vote. The process is only effective and meaningful if it’s widely used.

Things around the web. Jeff VanderMeer forces Kelly link to walk the plank, to delightful result, while John Clute looks at the watch within the living that is Jeffrey Ford’s new novel and finds that The Girl in the Glass is magic.

So, I was reading Charlie’s journal, and he asked the question: “When was the last time that a work of Lovecraftiana won a Hugo award?” As it turned out, it had been Neil Gaiman the year previously for “A Study in Emerald”. Briefly I though, time for a Lovecraftiana anthology. I could… And then I stopped. I took a deep breath. I decided to leave such efforts for those who have a deep love of Lovecraftiana. It was good.

I just read this post of Tim’s, and realised that technically (as reviews editor of news/reviews magazine Locus) I’m a Hugo loser, or at least part of a group of co-losers. And it didn’t hurt a bit. I don’t have a losers party to go to, but I’d say this. I love working for Locus, even when deadlines drive me crazy. It’s a wonderful magazine, and I can’t wait to get to hang out with everyone (except Tim, who won’t be there when I’m there) in Oakland. I’ll be glad when WorldCon is over though, and Charles gets back to Oakland. We talk every weekend pretty much, and I missed it these last couple weeks.

Got an email from Russell Farr, who is at the WorldCon right now. Reminded me that Mike Walsh is running Capclave 2005, a convention with Howard Waldrop as guest. If you’re in the area, you should definitely che’ekidaou’ut. For me, I need to get a copy of the giveaway. Hmmm.