I had an interesting exchange on my bloghttp://aidanmoher.com/blog/?p=372 the other day when I posted a piece about how (relatively) cheap it would be to win a Hugo. Based on the way Hugo voting works, and how anyone can vote with a $50 membership fee, it seems like there's a bit of a flaw in the whole system.

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After all, last year it only took 17 votes to get on the ballot if you happened to have an eligible short story, and anyone can vote as long as they pay the fee to join the World Science Fiction Convention. This year it costs $50, so if you do the math (17 votes x $50), that adds up to a cost of just $850 if you want to fund voting privileges for you and 16 friends. (That assumes voting levels stay the same as they have been for the last two years.)

The breakdown of what it would take to get a nomination and what it would take to win:

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Best Novel: Nomination $2,000, Win $18,640 Best Novella: Nomination $1,700, Win $15,750 Best Novelette: Nomination $1,050, Win $14,640 Best Short Story: Nomination $850, Win $16,250 (BEST NOMINATION VALUE) Best Related Book: Nomination $900, Win $11,750 Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form: Nomination $2,200, Win $19,100 (SUPER BARGAIN!) Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form: Nomination $1,200, Win $16,850 Best Editor, Long Form: Nomination $900, Win $12,900 Best Editor, Short Form: Nomination $1,750, Win $14,000 Best Professional Artist: Nomination $1,000, Win $15,300 Best Semiprozine: Nomination $1,900, Win $13,550 Best Fanzine: Nomination $1,300, Win $8,800 (BEST WIN VALUE) Best Fan Writer: Nomination $1,200, Win $11,900 Best Fan Artist: Nomination $950, Win $9,250

Considering the prestige that the Hugo's have, it's a little unsettling that a loophole like this exists and had me wondering if the whole process doesn't need a bit of re-thiking. Kevin Standee, Chairman of the Hugo Awards Marketing Committee, not too happy with any of this, dropped by to add a few comments and clear things up.

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That article, while technically accurate, ignores a lot of things. For example, it presupposes knowledge of the exact number of nominations it would take to make the ballot in a given category. It also presupposes that patterns of unusual voting would not be noticed. Furthermore, if an obvious clinker showed up in the nominations, interest in voting in that category would certainly increase, significantly increasing the cost of “buying” the award. There do appear to have been attempts to “buy” the award in the past. At most, they have led to dubious nominations and nominees finishing in last place in the final ballot. Of course, as Chairman of the Hugo Awards Marketing Committee, I would actually prefer if a larger percentage of the existing membership actually bothered to cast their ballots. There are thousands of people already eligible to nominate and vote without paying anything additional (they’re the members of Anticipation and Denvention Three), but only hundreds of them will exercise that right, which is a pity.

I replied:

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When you mention than only a handful of the eligible voters actually cast their vote, have you ever thought of changing the voting process and allowing other people to vote (especially those in the media) without having to pay the $50 fee?

His response on the idea of broadening the field of eligible voters:

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Regarding broadening the vote: Every year, many times, many people have proposed allowing anyone who wants to do so to vote for no cost whatsoever. Even I — a horrible radical who is perceived as trying to Destroy Us All by some people — wouldn’t go that far, although I have at times proposed lower costs for voting WSFS memberships. There is already a fairly notable award in the SF/F field that allows anyone who wants to vote to do so without payment of any fee: The Locus Awards. They do give more weight to subscribers’ votes than those of non-subscribers, but other than that, they are open to the public. The Hugo Awards are not “awards from anyone who is interested in SF and Fantasy,” although I’ve been accused of trying to make them so. They are awards presented by the members of the World Scicence Fiction Society (which means the members of the World Science Fiction Convention, because the only way to join WSFS is to join Worldcon). The rules for the awards are established by the members in an open, democratic process in which every single member may propose, debate, and vote on changes. There is no Secret Cabal, no Shadowy Board of Directors, no Mysterious Award Judges making the decisions. You don’t elect representatives to WSFS — it’s every fan for him/herself, like a New England Town Meeting. To be honest, only a small number of the thousands of members of WSFS take an active interest in the governance of the Society; however, they’re all eligible to do so should they decide to get active. And so far, those members of the Society who do take that active interest have shown little inclination to take actions that would reduce the cost of joining WSFS significantly below its current level. So in order to get what you propose, you’d have to actually become a member of WSFS and start attending its annual business meeting (held at Worldcon) and convince enough like-minded people to do the same. We actually have an article about the process of Changing the Rules on the Hugo Awards web site at http://www.thehugoawards.org/?page_id=8 so that people can see how to do it. But there’s no easy or cheap way to make changes — and that’s intentional, because governing documents are not supposed to be easy to change.

What're your thoughts on the Hugos, the voting process and the idea that one could 'buy' a nomination or win (something that Kevin even admitted to being possible)?

Blimey ... I'm gobsmacked!!

I asked myself why people pay a membership fee and then thy don't vote!!
That doesn't make sense for me.

Anyway for me it isn't important whether a book wins an award or not.
An award doesn't have any influence on my decision whether to buy a book or not.

I voted for DAVID GEMMELL LEGEND AWARD. They have a great nomination list.
And like to discuss about reasons why to vote for or book or not.