Attention to a certain self-published author: no, you have not been nominated for a Hugo this year. Now, I don’t know whether you’ve made an honest mistake, have fallen prey to wishful thinking, or are actively lying, but in any event, you are wrong; just because some folks have filled out the name of your magnum opus on the online Hugo nomination form, doesn’t mean you are “nominated;” certainly not before the nomination period closes, this Thursday.
After that there is an interval of tabulation, and after that, the committee contacts each of the top vote-getters, to confirm that they give their consent to being a Hugo nominee. I’ve gotten that phone call twice, myself. People have declined the honor, believe it or not; indeed, a whole bunch did last year, for reasons I don’t want to chew, all over again. But they did. And this year at least one major author has said that he’s been feted enough; if his name even comes up, he will take his name out of competition.
But first we get the voting deadline, and then we get that period of tabulation, and then we get that period of determining consent, and then we get the public announcement, in that order.
When there are headlines all over the world providing us with the top five names in every category, then there are nominations, not before.
So those congratulations you’re getting? Are nice and everything, but premature.
Comment By: Pixel Scroll 3/31/16 The One They Pixel, The One You’ll Scroll By | File 770
April 1st, 2016 at 12:49 am
[…] (8) COME CORRECT. Adam-Troy Castro says “No, You Have Not Been Nominated For a Hugo This Year”. […]
Comment By: Michael Kennedy
April 1st, 2016 at 5:01 pm
This very issue — people who received even one vote in the nomination round claiming to be “Hugo nominees” — is why the WSFS Constitution was amended in the last few years to explicitly refer to works/people who get on the final ballot as “finalists.” The amendment received first passage in 2014 and was ratified in 2015. It essentially removes the term “nominee” from the WSFS Constitution and adds the term “finalist” were appropriate. I don’t believe the online version of the has been updated to show this yet, but the ” includes the new wording (see paragraph A.3 Short Title: Hugo Finalists).
That said, yes, the usage of “nominee” for any but those persons/works that make the final ballot is at best misleading self aggrandizement.
Comment By: Michael Kennedy
April 1st, 2016 at 5:06 pm
My prior comment includes some bad XHTML. Correct links (but without the XHTML, so you’ll have to copy/paste to follow the links) follow.
The 2014 version of WSFS Constitution:
http://www.wsfs.org/bm/const-2014.html
The revision changing the wording to “finalist”:
Section A.3 of:
http://www.wsfs.org/bm/bpo-2014.pdf
This change took effect at the end of the 2015 Worldcon.