I'm strongly in favour of removing Editor - Long Form. Most voters don't know the names of the editors for the books they read, and they can't assess the editor's contribution. When a shortlist is produced, you might get some information about which books an editor worked on, but still, you can't see what they did on those books. In the other categories, the voters can educate themselves. You can watch the dramatic presentations, read the novels, listen to the podcasts, look at the art. For Editor - Short Form you can see what the editor chose for their publication. But none of this is possible for Editor - Long Form. You can't see what the editor did, so you can't judge if they did a good job. Maybe some voters get inside information from authors and others involved in publishing. But for most voters it comes down to name recognition (I've heard of Patrick Nielsen Hayden, he must be good!) and brand loyalty (Toni Weisskopf works for Baen and I like Baen, she must be good!), not an informed opinion of the quality of the work.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2015-09-04 11:17 am (UTC)Most voters don't know the names of the editors for the books they read, and they can't assess the editor's contribution. When a shortlist is produced, you might get some information about which books an editor worked on, but still, you can't see what they did on those books.
In the other categories, the voters can educate themselves. You can watch the dramatic presentations, read the novels, listen to the podcasts, look at the art. For Editor - Short Form you can see what the editor chose for their publication. But none of this is possible for Editor - Long Form. You can't see what the editor did, so you can't judge if they did a good job.
Maybe some voters get inside information from authors and others involved in publishing. But for most voters it comes down to name recognition (I've heard of Patrick Nielsen Hayden, he must be good!) and brand loyalty (Toni Weisskopf works for Baen and I like Baen, she must be good!), not an informed opinion of the quality of the work.