I generally like these proposals, with one exception.
I prefer GRRM's suggestion: that the magazine category be "Best Magazine," rather than "Best Professional" (or "Best Semipro").
It should be about the quality of the stories. Period. If by some miracle a Semipro mag has actually managed to publish better stories in a year than any other Pro mag -- in my books, the Semipro mag would deserve to win. NO mag should be excluded. Just keep it "Best Mag."
There is at least one SFF mag based in Africa: Omenana. Good for them. As you can imagine, the editors don't have $ to pay, let alone pay pro rates, and the ability to generate sufficient $ over there is pretty slim. The mag is also offered for free, so that the stories have a realistic chance of being read by people in Africa. But the mag has great stories and great art accompanying every story; art which authors love and value. If the editors or that mag, against all odds, and with almost no budget, manage to publish the best SFF stories next year -- they should have a chance to win the award for best mag. I think it would be disgusting to tell that mag that though they published the best stories, they don't even get to be on the ballot because they aren't rich enough.
Maybe not everyone agrees that the best mag award should be 100% about the quality of the stories. Maybe they think financial profitability of a mag is super-important. Fine, then don't vote for Omenana when it comes time to vote. But at least leave it on the ballot; don't force everyone to agree with you by default. Give the voters freedom to vote who they want -- don't ever automatically exclude mags who are publishing high quality SFF. Leave it as wide open as possible, leave it to the voters.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2015-09-06 11:46 pm (UTC)I prefer GRRM's suggestion: that the magazine category be "Best Magazine," rather than "Best Professional" (or "Best Semipro").
It should be about the quality of the stories. Period. If by some miracle a Semipro mag has actually managed to publish better stories in a year than any other Pro mag -- in my books, the Semipro mag would deserve to win. NO mag should be excluded. Just keep it "Best Mag."
There is at least one SFF mag based in Africa: Omenana. Good for them. As you can imagine, the editors don't have $ to pay, let alone pay pro rates, and the ability to generate sufficient $ over there is pretty slim. The mag is also offered for free, so that the stories have a realistic chance of being read by people in Africa. But the mag has great stories and great art accompanying every story; art which authors love and value. If the editors or that mag, against all odds, and with almost no budget, manage to publish the best SFF stories next year -- they should have a chance to win the award for best mag. I think it would be disgusting to tell that mag that though they published the best stories, they don't even get to be on the ballot because they aren't rich enough.
Maybe not everyone agrees that the best mag award should be 100% about the quality of the stories. Maybe they think financial profitability of a mag is super-important. Fine, then don't vote for Omenana when it comes time to vote. But at least leave it on the ballot; don't force everyone to agree with you by default. Give the voters freedom to vote who they want -- don't ever automatically exclude mags who are publishing high quality SFF. Leave it as wide open as possible, leave it to the voters.