To allay any surprise over Electric Velocipede’s Best Fanzine Hugo nomination, editor John Klima has posted some comments, beginning:

There tends to be some confusion as to whether Electric Velocipede is a fanzine or a semiprozine, as far as the Hugo Awards are concerned. Since I pay my contributors, people automatically assume that this means I am a semiprozine…

Electric Velocipede is a fiction publication that pays its contributors and enjoys a fine reputation among critics.

A publication belongs in the Best Semiprozine Hugo category if it meets two of five criteria in the rules, which are: (1) publishes more than a thousand copies, (2) pays contributors and/or staff, (3) provides more than half the income of any one person, (4) has at least 15% of its space occupied by advertising, and (5) announced itself to be a semiprozine.

Klima explains that Electric Velocipede meets only the second one listed. He wrote last year on Tor.com that the magazine appears twice a year and has about 150 subscribers. It accepts advertising, but presumably gets something less than the threshold amount.

Klima’s answer covers the bases and, besides, fair is fair. The Hugo Administrators have never asked me how many copies I publish, whether I pay contributors (no, guys, do not start sending your invoices!), or anything more than am I willing to accept my nomination — which I virtually always have, quite happily. I’m sure John Klima feels just as happy. Congratulations, John.