sweet!

(wasn't planning on voting for Chabon anyway)

You don't have to attend Denvention 3 in order to get the free books. A $50 Supporting Membership is sufficient to get you voting rights. It is still a lot, I know, but the free books make it more palatable, and some of us are working on getting the cost down for future years.

"Too bad only Hugo voters get to read these books electronically, since even non-attendees might want to weigh in about them online."

Well, you know. There are these things, called "bookstores" and "libraries," wherein people can buy or borrow the books, and then discuss them online. All of the books are in fact readily available in those places (they can also find them on Amazon, BN.com, Powells.com and any number of independent bookstores that have online ordering).

Also, anyone can become a Hugo voter simply by getting a supporting membership at Denvention 3, this year's Worldcon. A supporting membership is $50 (i.e., less than the hardcover cost of all four books combined), and for that price you get to vote on the Hugos, get a nifty souvineer book from Denvention 3, and, of course, these four books in electronic form. In all, not a bad deal.

(Just tried to post and it appears to have eaten the comment, so --)

Cheryl is correct: The Hugo voters aren't a secret cabal. ANYONE can become a Hugo voter, simply for the cost of a supporting membership (which, incidentally, is less than the cost of all four of these books in hardcover). You also get a ginchy souvineer book from Denvention 3. In all, a pretty good deal.

As for "Too bad only Hugo voters get to read these books electronically, since even non-attendees might want to weigh in about them online," well, you know. There are these things called "bookstores" and "libraries," in which one might purchase or borrow these books, after which they can very easily discuss the nominees online (or anywhere else!).

Offering the electronic versions to Hugo voters is a way of making sure they read as many of the novels as possible before they vote, and (to my mind) rewarding them for deciding to be part of the Hugo voting process and the SF/F lit community.

D'oh!

@scalzi: Fair enough... I already have all of the nominees on my shelf and hope to finish reading all of them soon, now that I'm done with Tiptree duties. I just got all excited when I thought the nominees were available free to everybody, because I'm a big Creative Commons dork.

Scalzi, how do you currently use the sort of C.C. marketing offered by Cory Doctorow and others? Do you have the ability to make your book/s free as a download while it's for sale on the shelf? I'm trying to understand the best way to move books today. I'd enjoy an insider's perspective on the Creative Commons issue. I would pay for the download if it would work on a very book-like reader with no DMR used.

Jeff-Minor:

Creative Commons is actually not necessary to freely distribute one's work online and without DRM; one can simply choose to do those things while still retaining copyright (or without licensing rights via a CC license). I don't tend to use CC licenses myself for my novels, but I've used them for other writing and other creative work, and I think they have their place.

I'm happy to have my work available electronically, and I think DRM is largely silly. I do think we need to continue to get people on board with the concept that they really ought to support creators by buying their work (and thus, paying their mortgages and feeding their kids). One of the nice things we've seen with Radiohead/Nine Inch Nails is that people are, in fact willing to pay for the creative work they consume, even if pirated versions are available. So on that end I'm optimistic.