Stupid question about the Nebulas

[james_davis_nicoll]

I am not even sure I can phrase this coherently.

Obviously granting a Nebula is intended to show that the writers in SFWA regard the work in question is noteworthy but who is the audience that is supposed to take note that the award went to the works went to? That is, is it something to alert other writers of the work in question or the entire audience of F&SF readers?

I am open to more elegant ways of phrasing that paragraph.

Comments

[ross-teneyck.livejournal.com]

"Who is the audience which is supposed to respect the judgment of the SFWA writers sufficiently that a Nebula award constitutes an inducement to seek out work in question?"

[n6tqs.livejournal.com]

It seems to me the answer is "people who buy books that win awards".

I certainly use award lists to choose books. That works a lot better than best-seller lists.

[galbinus-caeli.livejournal.com]

Myself as well. I try to read all Nebula and Hugo award winning novels.

[affinity8.livejournal.com]

"Who cares about the Nebulas?"

Obviously, writers and editors in sf. Not many others, I suspect.

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

Nebula novels tend to have "Nebula Winner!" on the covers come the next printing. People who came into the bookstore did seem to care about that.

[secritcrush.livejournal.com]

I always did when I was a kid. Hugo and/or nebula winner on the cover was always a big selling point.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

I think the Nebula has two mixed purposes: 1. To let writers recognize other writers. 2. To sell more books.

So the audience for (1) is the other SFWA members. The audience for (2) is the buying public.

I wonder whether either the Nebula or the Hugo has much relevance to people outside the fannish community. They're not like the Newbery Awards, which guarantee a big boost in sales.

[denhow.livejournal.com]

It was almost 40 years ago, but noticing that the Hugo and Nebula awards were attached to good books was my gateway to discovering fandom. So I would say that there is "relevance to people outside the fannish community".

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

No, you're saying that there *was*. I could make the statement about thirty years ago. Is the statement still true today? I dunno.

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

I know several non-fannish SF readers who look for Hugo or Nebula on the book.

At one specialty bookstore we have locally (a mystery store), they have a small SF section and always make sure to note which books won the Hugo and Nebula.

And at Anderson's, an independent bookstore in Naperville, which has a medium sized SF section, but smaller than you'd find at any B&N/Borders, they always list each year's award winners next to the section.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

I think it's supposed to sell more books for the winners.

[cantkeepsilent.livejournal.com]

I think all subjective awards from the MTV Video Awards to the Nobel Peace Prize are a symbiosis of consumers, producers, and themselves. First the Nebula sends out a message to readers that says "We think this book is great!" If they have done a good job of recognizing good books and that increases sales, then other writers will want to pay attention to the work so that they can turn out works that will get them a Hugo too and increase their sales. And through all of this importance for having "Nebula winner!" on the covers of books, the Nebulas become a more important entity.

Of course, the key to the engine is for the award to actually measure greatness in a way that will be relevant to consumers. By contrast, the Miss America pageant missed the memo that a large percentage of the United States got over their bathing suit and high heels fetish fifteen years ago, and as a result nobody cares about who Miss America is any more.

[montoya.livejournal.com]

In the internet era, high-information people don't need awards any more -- by the time a book is winning an award, either I've already heard enough about it or the award sucks -- but low-information people presumably still use them.

I mean, I'm extrapolating from when I was inevitably a low-information person back in the pre-internet era (the days when cover art was a major determinant in whether I'd buy a book, and therefore Bujold and Vernor Vinge were not on my radar), but it seems likely to still be true.

Neofelis Nebulosus

[jamesenge.livejournal.com]

Sometimes it seems like the purpose of the Nebula Awards is to supply rules for awarding Nebulas which can be squabbled over endlessly by the people who award the Nebulas.

In theory, it should be a statement by sf/f writers to the potential sf/f audience.

I think the biggest single reason (there are arguably many others) why the statement has not had much impact lately is the "rolling eligibility" rule. Giving an award to something two years after it's been published (e.g. every winner in 2007) is not the way to acquire that elusive shimmery aura of withitness and hepcattitude.

[icowdave.livejournal.com]

I think the awards are for authors, publishers and consumers.

First, they help the author by recognizing what are supposed to be the best works in the genre. Kudos to the authors! Recognition, from peers and/or the public, is something to strive for in any field. Winning an award leads to publicity, better sales and paves the way with the publisher for more books. Once an author gets a nod it's easier to get another for his subsequent books because his name is out there for all to see. If you like his book you'll be more apt to buy another by him.

Second, they help the industry sell more books. Publishing is a business and they want to sell more books. Pretty simple. How do you go about it? Make sure the ones that get recognized get read by more people. You want people to read your books and come back for more by that author. The Hugo has great name recognition, even outside of fandom, and the Hugo stamp on your cover is a coveted prize indeed for the publisher and the author.

Third, they help us consumers by serving as an indicator of quality. Somebody, or more likely many somebodies, thought enough of the book to nominate it. It might be worth a look-see. With thousands of books to choose from, the awards can be a great way to narrow down your selection. If you only read award nominated books you could read forever and have a better than average chance of getting a good read each time. An important thing to think about when a paperback will set you back $10. They also make it easier to branch out and try new authors. This guy has been nominated for several books maybe I'll give him a shot.

In the end it's a big win for all involved.

[jamiam.livejournal.com]

It's an excuse to have a fancy dinner, I think. And as a bonus, it gives publishers another excuse to stamp eye-catching, gold-embossed thingies on book covers.

[autopope.livejournal.com]

... Except the only literary award in SF/F that has any effect on sales is the Hugo award for best novel, on the novel in question.

[jamiam.livejournal.com]

So I guess it's all about the fancy dinner, then.

[jamiam.livejournal.com]

(I have purchased/read books/short fiction because they boasted a Nebula win. I am, admittedly, a sample of one.)

[galbinus-caeli.livejournal.com]

An honest question: How do you do that with short fiction? Short fiction seems ephemeral to me. By the time the award comes out, the magazine the item appeared in is no longer available.

[jamiam.livejournal.com]

Sometimes they'll appear in a Best-of anthologies; sometimes I'll get lucky and find an old magazine for sale at my local used bookstore; sometimes I'll find that the magazine in question posted the story online.

I see that F&SF at least has back issues for sale.

[jamiam.livejournal.com]

This all assumes one doesn't have a subscription to the magazines, since that would involve merely digging out the relevant issue and reading. Which is a pretty compelling argument in favor of subscribing to Asimov's.

[galbinus-caeli.livejournal.com]

I am not generally a fan of short fiction. I read the occasional anthology, but not enough for it to be worth subscribing.

I would like to be able to read the award winners though. Cultural literacy and all.

[cherylmmorgan.livejournal.com]

Do you have any numbers on that? WSFS would be very grateful if you could supply them.

The way Silverbob explained it to me ...

[autopope.livejournal.com]

In the early days of SFWA, Damon Knight wanted to figure out a way of raising money for the organization.

An annual anthology seemed like a good idea at the time (early 1960s) but he needed a hook to hang it on -- something to help market it.

Therefore the Nebulas were born, to permit SFWA to publish the "Nebula Award Winning" short story anthology each year.

It turned out that the anthology made quite a bit of money -- and it still contributes to SFWA's bottom line. Meanwhile, the awards took on a life of their own ("let there be prizes for all! Of us!") and new categories showed up and so on and so forth.

So basically the original answer was anyone who will buy the sodding book and give us their money, and the current answer is "anyone who will pay attention to this shiny medal my pals voted me" (NB: this is a gratuitously over-cynical interpretation and should not be taken too seriously).

[cherylmmorgan.livejournal.com]

As you can see from the above, people have all sorts of ideas about what awards are for. But as for SFWA, I think that their recent actions - setting up a new web site, simplifying eligibility, simplifying the voting system - all point towards trying to get the Nebulas a higher profile with the book-buying public.