John Scalzi is asking for discussion of the Hugo Award nominees, noting that other than a brief controversy over the fact that only one nominated work in the fiction categories is by a woman, there hasn’t been much discussion. This reminded me that it would be good to put in another plug for the foolproof solution to the problem:
Buy a membership to next year’s Worldcon, and vote for whatever you like.
The membership rates will go up after tomorrow, but for right now, $40 will get you a supporting membership, which carries full voting rights for the next round of Hugos, and I believe gives you the right to nominate for the 2009 awards as well. It doesn’t take many votes to get on the ballot– only 16 for one of the short story nominees, according to the official release— so it’s not hard to make a difference.
You want to see more works by women? Buy a membership and vote. You want to see more works that aren’t so heavily “Literary” in tone? Buy a membership and vote. You want to see more works by left-handed Martians? Well, we can’t help you there.
Yes, there are other things that can be done that don’t cost money– recommended reading lists, more publicity for works of whatever sort you favor, etc. In the end, though, all of the free options boil down to relying on the good will of the general mass of fandom. The one thing that’s absolutely sure to make a difference is to get more people into the electorate, who will vote for the sort of thing you’d like to see on the ballot.