Marko Kloos posts about “the 2015 goodreads choice awards and you”.
It appears to my untrained eye that ANGLES OF ATTACK, the third Frontlines novel, made it into the opening round of the Goodreads Choice Awards 2015, science fiction category. That means a whole lot of readers thought it didn’t suck, which is a cool and pleasing thing.
In the wake of the ballot-related kerfuffle that happened earlier this year, I am extremely hesitant to throw out any recommendation or suggestion regarding votes, but if you have a Goodreads account and think that ANGLES is deserving of a vote, I would not oppose it in the least. And if you think one of the other fine novels in the SF category was better than ANGLES, you should totally vote for that, and I won’t mind in the least. There are some pretty good novels in that list, including stuff from John Scalzi, Ann Leckie, Neal Stephenson, and Paolo Bacigalupi, all kick-ass writers in their own right.
John Scalzi encourages people to vote for their favorite.
And in the Goodreads Choice fantasy category, N.K. Jemisin acknowledges there is stiff competition.
https://twitter.com/nkjemisin/status/661626113177858052
Here are links to the Goodreads Choice 2015 Science Fiction, Fantasy, YA sf and fantasy, Graphic novels and comics, and Horror categories.
Update 11/03/2015: Edited the sentence about John Scalzi for greater precision about what he actually said, versus what I surmised about his willingness to be voted for.
Discover more from File 770
Subscribe to get the latest posts to your email.
I’m struck by the use of cover fonts as marketing signalling. I’m sure some of you know much more about this.
In the SF first round, I count 12 book covers using sans-serif fonts, 2 using serif fonts.
In the fantasy first round, I count 12 covers using serif fonts, 1 or 2 sans-serif. Many of the fantasy fonts are from the same family of fonts, as far as my limited knowledge can see: examples “Fifth Season,” “Autumn Republic,” “Boundary Crossed.”
(None of which has any bearing on the awards, but it leapt out at me, seeing the covers grouped like this.)
SF is a very strong list, they published a lot of books I liked on 2015!
Talking about covers I find it interesting that most of the fantasy books have a person on the cover, while only 2 sci-fi books do (if you count the eye on Seveneves).
“The Goodreads Choice Awards are the only major book awards decided by readers.”
I guess that little kerfuffle earlier this year must have been over some minor awards that nobody cares about.
Or are they trying to suggest that all of the other major book awards are decided by people who don’t read?
I just noticed that the ordering of the books changes on each page load, presumably to prevent bias. I’m always impressed by that sort of attention to detail.
Anyway, I was going to note that there’s a write-in option for each category as well, if a favorite is missing.
Morris Keesan: I can’t say what the basis for Goodreads’ claim is, but in 2015 there was definite room for doubt about how many Hugo-nominated works had been read by the people who voted them onto the ballot.
That was an award given by members of an association. Nothing wrong with that other than it is subject to manipulation by a small disgruntled political group.
This is a broad based award for anyone who wants to participate. I don’t think it can be freeped by the pups. But it is a good foil against those like “Lovely Spaceship Brad” and “I was robbed Larry”.
It is my favorite award. Partly because of the contrast to the other awards.
Surely Locus, which allows anyone to vote, is more broadly based among readers than the Goodreads vote, which is restricted to members of Goodreads?
Interesting process – using Goodreads stats, of course, to make a list of 15 – but, like Locus, allowing write-ins. I wonder if a write-in ever wins (probably not).
Obviously it’s an award (major or not? meh) decided by some Goodreads members, who Goodreads likes to think reads the works (but really, will folks read the 15 books in every category?!). But some folks don’t like how the Hugos are described, so it’s tough to get worked up over Amazon using hyperbole. 😉
Anyway, I’ll be interested to see the results.
Locus awards are pretty tiny it turns out. Smaller than the Hugos which is also pretty tiny. I didn’t know that. I had to let the people at File 770 tell me:
https://file770.com/?p=22354
Isn’t there a cost barrier as well for the Locus awards?
There is no cost to Goodreads. It is only a meeting ground for like minded people. The number of people it reaches is why Amazon wanted them. I don’t know how many actually vote because their are multiple rounds. But if you look at the vote totals by winner, one can see that it would be difficult for the puppies to have an impact. Look how “I was robbed Correia” fared head to head against some of the competition he dislikes. Not even close. His pups of brown noses did manage to knock Scalzi out of the running for the Hugos. But Scalzi’s Lock In scored much better then Correia at Goodreads placing second and probably would have won the Sci Fi category except….
The pups were able to eliminate Andy Weir from the Campbell, but he rocked the Goodreads Choice awards scoring 1st place with over 30K votes.
It is my favorite award and I like that it includes work outside of the patterns of some of the other venues. I also like that some of the other venues have their own personality, membership base and point of view. I think sameness sucks.
@Zune: Anyone can vote in the Locus awards, but some years back, Locus without warning (mid-award-process) adjusted things so that subscribers votes counted double. Too many non-subscribers voting, methinks. But anyway, no, there’s no cost barrier.
I have to admit that if a work of mine ever showed up on the Goodreads ballot, I would probably be all “Vote for ME! ME! Only ME, you easily-influenced bastards! ME-E-E-E-E-E-E!”
But if that ever actually happens, which is only slightly more likely than winning the Powerball, I pledge to try and resist the impulse.
@Mike Glyer In any online voting system, it’s almost impossible to know whether people are making informed votes or not. We’ve thought about adding a voting widget to RSR to let people give their own votes to stories (like Amazon does), but it would be so easy to game and so hard to police that it’s hard to justify.
Amazon has a whole team devoted to trying to catch voting scams, and clearly even they aren’t all that successful at it.