It must be silly season, because proposals for new Hugo categories are proliferating.
The latest is from Rich Lynch and can be found on his LiveJournal. I reproduce it here:
Note: strikeouts indicate proposed deletions and underlined text proposed additions.
3.3.12: Best Semiprozine. Any generally available
non-professionalperiodical publication devoted to science fiction or fantasy which by the close of the previous calendar year has published four (4) or more issues(or the equivalent in other media), at least one (1) of which appeared in the previous calendar year, and which in the previous calendar year met at leasttwo (2)one (1) of the following criteria:
(1) had an average press run of at least one thousand (1000) copies per issue,(2) paid its contributors and/or staff in other than copies of the publication,(3)(2) provided at least half the income of any one person,(4)(3) had at least fifteen percent (15%) of its total space occupied by advertising,(5)(4) announced itself to be a semiprozine.
Audio and video productions are excluded from this category.3.3.13 Best Fan Audio or Video Production. Any generally available non-professional audio or video production devoted to science fiction, fantasy, or related subjects which by the close of the previous calendar year has had four (4) or more episodes or podcasts, at least one (1) of which appeared in the previous calendar year.
3.3.133.3.14: Best Fanzine. Any generally available non-professional periodical publication devoted to science fiction, fantasy, or related subjects which by the close of the previous calendar year has published four (4) or more issues(or the equivalent in other media), at least one (1) of which appeared in the previous calendar year, and which does not qualify as a semiprozine. Audio and video productions are excluded from this category, as are publications that pay its contributors and/or staff in other than copies of the publication.
As you’ll see, this is intended primarily to address the issue of the eligibility of podcasts and the like in the Fanzine category. Rich is not an exclusionist. What he wants to do is give audio and video fan activity its own category, just like there are separate categories for Dramatic Presentations.
Of course this means another category, and people are already complaining that there is not enough material to support the audio/video fanzine category. I’m not sure that this is true. Some countries already have such categories in their national awards, and podcasts are popping up all over the place. One of my definite nominations for Best Fanzine next year will be Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe’s podcast. What they are doing (including their avowed production values) is very much in the fan spirit.
I also like the moving of the “no payment” clause from semiprozine to the fan categories. That makes things much clearer.
But I do have some reservations. As I recall, the phrase “or the equivalent in other media” was part of the changes to make it very clear that web sites and the like are eligible for Hugos. Removing it from the semiprozine definition will, I’m afraid, lead once again to people saying that web-based magazines such as Clarkesworld, Lightspeed and so on are not eligible. That’s not Rich’s intent — he makes that very clear — but it will happen unless some replacement wording is devised.
In addition, there are web-based magazines that include audio and video material. One example is Salon Futura. And I can absolutely guarantee that if this were to pass, and I was still in business by then, there would be people claiming that Salon Futura was not eligible for Best Semiprozine because of the audio and video content. I’m also pretty sure that by that time it would not be the only online magazine with such a mix of content. I suspect that there will be fanzines that qualify for both of Rich’s proposed categories, and people will complain about the likelihood of such a fanzine winning both.
There’s discussion on Rich’s LiveJournal (which does not require you to join anything), or feel free to comment here.
I would be in favor of making a space for ‘casts, absolutely.
I personally believe the podcast field is the most exciting place in genre right now (along with and overlapping in sports with short fiction) although making it a fan category is… interesting.
Regardless of categorization and definitions there will always be complaints of course. And some things are never going to quite fit in the available boxes… but I think these changes are promising.
Wish I had time to dive into the LJ discussion but must dash. Thanks for reporting on all this, Cheryl and happy New Year!
I appreciate your comments on my proposal. There already is a category for professional podcasts — “Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form”.
That’s a fair point, though you are excluding any possibility of a semipro category for podcasts, and most of those I know of that are not fannish are probably semipro. They may not stand much chance against the likes of the BBC and Hollywood.
It also raises the question as to whether those podcasts are in fact “dramatized”. As I recall, the BDP categories have, in the past, included non-fictional material, so there’s precedent. It is also a murky area. StarShipSofa, for example, is a fairly even mix of fiction and non-fiction. So apologies for bringing it up. I just have the knee-jerk reaction to anything that smacks of focusing on the medium and not the content.
Perhaps it may be time to consider changing the name of “Best Dramatic Presentation” to “Best Professional Audio or Video Production” (both long and short form), as documentaries and the like have been eligible since the mid 1990s.
That was certainly my assumption last year based on the Apollo new coverage Hugo.
However the consensus during most discussions I had was that the specific wording of ‘dramatic’ was pretty key-which is how a podcast ended up winning for Fanzine instead.
“the phrase “or the equivalent in other media” was part of the changes to make it very clear that web sites and the like are eligible for Hugos.”
While he has nothing against electronic publications, he stated on the LJ thread that a fanzine must have discrete issues released periodically.
His exact words:
“The intent is that a ‘fanzine’ should be a discrete periodical publication (whether on paper or words-on-screen) and not a website (though a website, such as efanzines.com can certainly be a host for electronic media fanzines).”
Yes, that is the intent. Fanzines are in fact discrete periodical publications. A website is not (though it can certainly host a fanzine).
I have no problem with that. I have stated publicly that I don’t regard this blog to be a “fanzine” for precisely that reason. (John Scalzi has said much the same about Whatever.) But removing websites from the definition would also remove online periodicals such as SF Revu. The argument against allowing Emerald City to compete in the Hugos was not that is wasn’t a periodical, but that it was not published (primarily) on paper.
I think a blog could be considered a fanzine, but only as a single issue that keeps getting revised. But it would not meet Best Fanzine eligibility requirements for number of issues produced.
Disagee slightly. The SFRevu website hosts individual and discreet issues of the SFRevu electronic publication. The publication would be eligible for the Hugo, not the website (though, in effect, it amounts to the same thing).
Well yes, and the same was true of Emerald City. Yet nevertheless people claimed that Emerald City should not be eligible as a fanzine because it was published electronically, not on paper. The “equivalent in other media” language was intended to head off such complaints.
Why can’t you consider each blog post to be a separate “issue?” Among other things, the commenting feature means that there’s a lettercol for each “issue.”
This may be an acceptable compromise, if it will mean this proposal has a chance of moving forward. But in reality, blogs and fanzines are different from each other.
I think it is a good idea from the first reading of it. There are a lot of podcasts and videocasts out there. If I spent 10-15 minutes on the net or Itunes, I could produce a bunch of them on SF/Fantasy along with related areas like Anime. It is something that’s time has come.