Thursday, March 06, 2008

Why you should be careful about asking your authors for help...

Disclaimer:
The commentary expressed here about the Locus Awards ballot may or may not represent my personal views, the views of Tachyon Publications, or of the authors, editors, and artists we work with, or of the science fiction community at large. Tachyon is not responsible for any voting results or mockery, factual or otherwise, that will ensue.

You probably already know that The Fate of Mice, The Dog Said-Bow, Portable Childhoods, Rewired: The Post-Cyberpunk Anthology, The Asimov's SF 30th Anniversary Anthology, and Year's Best Fantasy 7 are on Locus's recommended reading list. Which also means that they are on the Locus Awards ballot.

Like any savvy publisher, Jacob got on the horn to make sure that his authors actually knew they were nominated (writers are often busy with things somewhat like writing), and asked them to do what they could to get out the vote for themselves. Well, authors are funny. So far there have been posts from Michael Swanwick and Susan Palwick asking for your votes. They have also had a bit of fun with Jacob for asking them to do so. Ah, authors, you self-effacing creatures, will you never learn to promote yourselves sans irony? Let me show you how it's done. Here is my personal irony-free plug:

If you're reading this, go vote for the Locus Awards. You don't have to be a subscriber; you don't even really have to have read anything on the ballot (despite what the ever-honest Ms. Palwick might advise). Vote for all of Tachyon's books, AND Michael Swanwick's two novelettes, "The Skysailor's Tale" and "Urdumheim", AND his short story, "A Small Room in Koboldtown." Vote for Tachyon as your favorite publisher. And most importantly, vote for me, Jill Roberts, as a write-in candidate for Best Editor. I promise to stay humble. Very, very, mostly humble.

(Has anyone, ever, EVER, described Michael Swanwick as self-effacing? OK, it was a stretch.)

1 Comments:

Blogger Michael Swanwick said...

Well, by golly, if nobody else will say it I guess I have to. I am DEFINITELY self-effacing! I'm as self-effacing as any three ordinary men. If there were an award for self-effacingness, I would without a doubt win it. If you put all the self-effacing people in the world in a race, I would come in last. If I were any more self-effacing than I am, I wouldn't even exist.

Every word I've written here is true. You just can't make up stuff like this.

3/07/2008 1:37 PM  

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