Our hit count at Strange…

Our hit count at Strange Horizons has gone through the roof, due to the Hugo nomination. It'll be interesting to see how many stick. I think it's sort of fascinating that it was probably better for us to be nominated in the Best Website category than if I'd been nominated in the Best Pro Editor category (along with Ellen Datlow, Gardner Dozois, etc.). Because if we'd made it into that category, a) we wouldn't have had any shot at actually winning, I think, but more importantly, b) we wouldn't have had our URL listed on the Hugo ballot that's being distributed far and wide. How many people would have seen my name and bothered to do a web search to see what I publish? Not too damn many, I think. But the site link is being clicked from all over the world. It's very cool.

I'm honestly not sure if we really do have a chance of winning. We'd need a couple of hundred people, minimum, voting for us as their first choice. We are the fabulous underdog contender (the small home-grown site, climbing its way up the spec fic ladder), which will gain us some votes from people who like to see the little guy win. (Which I am entirely in favor of, btw -- I have a tendency to vote that way myself). And of course we have quite a few staff and contributors and readers who simply like us best out of the five sites -- who read us more often and more regularly. But I just don't know how many of those will make it to ConJose (or made it to the Millenium PhilCon (and are therefore eligible to vote this year, I think?)).

Locus is in the Bay Area, after all -- it seems likely they'll have a lot of local support. (On the other hand -- do people *know* they're in the Bay Area? Do they have a presence in Bay Area fandom?) SciFi.com is, of course, huge and very impressive. But the only part I read regularly is SciFiction, and I honestly think we offer more than SciFiction does. Though I would, naturally. :-) And I don't think the Sci Fi Channel actually gives a damn whether they get a Hugo or not. I'm sure Ellen Datlow and Scott Edelman care, but I assure you that we have 30+ volunteers who will be ecstatic if we win. :-)

SFSite is sort of a useful conglomeration in theory, I guess, but I never go there. And Tangent Online is fabulous at what they do, very valuable to the field -- I would probably vote for them right after us. But they don't do fiction -- or poetry, articles, art, or music, for that matter. Just reviews. Short-fiction reviews, which are scarce on the ground, no doubt. But still -- don't you think we're better? *I* think we're better...

Okie, clearly I'm so biased that I just don't have any real sense which site is going to win. But really, I'm still pretty happy, even if we end up coming in last in the rankings. Because honestly, it's an honor just to be nominated. Truly.