Save the Semipro Zine Hugo!

[Scott H. Andrews]

In a move that could affect the majority of SF/F short fiction magazines currently operating, there is a motion up for vote at this year's WorldCon to abolish the Hugo Award category for Semiprozine.

This category includes many of the most vibrant magazines publishing today, such as Clarkesworld Magazine (http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/), Weird Tales (http://www.weirdtales.net/) (which has published my own fiction), and Fantasy Magazine (http://www.darkfantasy.org/). This category also fits Beneath Ceaseless Skies, since we pay pro rate, even though I did not declare us a Semipro Zine for this year's Hugo nominations. (I will be declaring us a Semipro Zine very soon.)

Many great stories have appeared in Semipro Zines since the category was established in the 1980s. These magazines publish far more new writers and experimental fiction than the "pro" zines do. Clarkesworld Magazine (http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/) and Weird Tales (http://www.weirdtales.net/) were both nominated for this Hugo this year. Especially in this era of dwindling markets for short fiction and tough economic times for all publishing, the semipro zines are more important than ever, for both writers and readers. I think it would be a shame if we lost this Hugo category as a way to recognize accomplishments made at this vital level of short fiction publishing.

Editor Neil Clarke has started a website to Save the Semipro Zine Hugo (http://semiprozine.org/). It features listings of lots of Semipro Zines and awards they have won. It also explains the WorldCon voting process and how attendees can participate.

If you are as concerned about this as I am, please visit his site and learn what you can do to help.

[Kenneth Mark Hoover]

Thanks for the heads up. I for one think this would be a bad idea to see this award go by the wayside. I'm headed to that website now....

[Scott H. Andrews]

I have now declared BCS a "semiprozine," in this News post on the BCS Forums (http://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/forums/showthread.php?p=684#post684).

I've done that purely to support the campaign to Save the Semipro Zine Hugo (http://semiprozine.org/). If that resolution that's up for vote at WorldCon passes, not only will there be no Semipro Zine Hugo Award, but also all the magazines that were ever in the Semipro category will be prohibited from being considered in the Fanzine category. So by doing this, I'm risking that BCS will never again be eligible to win a Hugo Award, or even to be nominated for one.

But that's how important I think this issue is. Especially in this age of few short fiction markets, and in these lean economic times, the Semipro Zines have become the core of the current SF/F/H short fiction scene. It would be a crime if they and we couldn't ever even be considered for a Hugo.

If you agree, visit to Save the Semipro Zine Hugo (http://semiprozine.org/) and learn how you can help. Thank you.

[Kenneth Mark Hoover]

Scott,

What is really behind the attempt to abolish this award? I have my own thoughts, but I respect your opinion and would like to hear what the consensus is (if there is one) among semiprozine editors as to the reason behind this.

[Scott H. Andrews]

Scott,

What is really behind the attempt to abolish this award? I have my own thoughts, but I respect your opinion and would like to hear what the consensus is (if there is one) among semiprozine editors as to the reason behind this.
I'm not in-the-know enough about WorldCon to have a concrete opinion of my own. But the word is that this is likely a move designed to keep Locus magazine from winning this Hugo Award yet again.

Locus has won the Semiprozine Hugo something like 26 of the 29 years that that award has existed. The Semiprozine category was started thirty years ago to get Locus out of the Fanzine category because people felt that it was routinely trouncing all the other Fanzines that deserved recognition.

But even if that widely believed rumor is the case, it seems to me that abolishing the award category outright in order to keep one magazine from winning the award again is like swinging a battle axe to kill a fly. The collateral damage seems way out of proportion to me.

Especially in this era of few short fiction markets and the recent tough economic times, Semipro Zines are the most vibrant area of SF/F/H short fiction publishing in existence today. So I think there should be a Hugo Award category to recognize them, regardless of whether Locus wins it every year.

[Grace Seybold]

Wow, that's a bizarre reason if true. Why don't they just give Locus a Special Lifetime Achievement Award or something and declare that that makes them ineligible to win the regular award from now on? If the whole point was to put them in their own special category, they should take that to its logical limit, rather than penalizing other magazines.

[Scott H. Andrews]

If the whole point was to put them in their own special category, they should take that to its logical limit, rather than penalizing other magazines.
I agree--if that is the real reason, the solution they're trying to implement seems overkill to me.

So any of you all who will be at WorldCon (hint, hint), make a note of when and where the business meeting at the con will be held and plan on attending, to make your vote count. I think it is Saturday morning, but this page at Save the SemiPro Zine Hugo (http://savesemiprozine.org/2009/04/03/business-meeting-procedure/) has lots of details. Those of you attending WorldCon, please read it and plan to vote.