Annie Bellet says she was livid when she read about “The Nebulas & 20booksto50, not-a-nudge-nudge-slate” on Camestros Felapton.

I am going to talk about this for a minute because I am livid.

1) calling a slate "not a slate" doesn't make it not a slate

2) HAS NOBODY FUCKING LEARNED ANYTHING FROM THE DAMNED PUPPIES? FFS

3) I am ashamed of the indies in SFWA who did this & so pissed https://t.co/x2mzOrXdMp — Annie Bellet (@anniebellet) February 26, 2019

She’s brought to bear on this 2019 Nebulas slate her experience with the Sad/Rabid Puppies Hugo slates of 2015, when she took her Hugo-nominated story out of contention (see “Two Hugo Nominees Withdraw Their Stories” from April 2015). Twitter thread starts here.

I was one of the peeps on the original self-pub comittee. Those rules that let indies into SFWA? I fucking wrote them. A bunch of us in SFWA who got in on short stories etc but were also indie worked our asses off for YEARS to get the rules changed. To make things better. — Annie Bellet (@anniebellet) February 26, 2019

There was a lot of pushback initially. We all endured a lot of ugly shit from our peers. But it was important to us to try to bring SFWA into the 21st century.

It was never, for us, about indie vs trad, because ffs that whole idea is stupid. — Annie Bellet (@anniebellet) February 26, 2019

But that aside… this is a slate. The asterisks, the lack of works not by authors outside that group, the very comments pointing out how few votes X work might need… it's a slate.

Maybe you can live wondering if you got nominated because of a slate. Maybe you can be proud. — Annie Bellet (@anniebellet) February 26, 2019

Slates suck the life out of awards and they suck the joy out of being nominated for them.



NO award nomination is worth compromising yourself, tarnishing your name. This is not how you want to be remembered.



All press is not good press. That's a fucking lie. — Annie Bellet (@anniebellet) February 26, 2019

and yeah, I have strong feelings about this for obvs reasons. If you don't know why, well, I have a fucking Alfie award that should tell you why.

Slates are not okay. You are assholes for doing this. I am so mad and disappointed. I know they don't care, but I'm saying it anyway. — Annie Bellet (@anniebellet) February 26, 2019

She also showed the characteristics that distinguished this slate from a mere recommendation list.

the list was explicit including asterisks for the works that should be focused on the most and explanations of how many votes it would take etc.



There's no grey area on this one. It is a slate. — Annie Bellet (@anniebellet) February 26, 2019

if you wonder why this is a slate, READ IT. He specifically says "I think we can get an indie work nominated in at least four categories" so like…



The gaming of the system is right in the post. Right there. FFS. https://t.co/6Oc6Irn2Xh — Annie Bellet (@anniebellet) February 26, 2019

Marko Kloos was the other 2015 Hugo nominee named in the story linked above, and he added his support today:

Slate nominating and voting: just don’t even.



And writers—I’d advise not to accept a nomination that’s clearly a slate effort. Not only will your professional reputation take a ding, but you’ll also feel like someone bought you an achievement medal at the Army-Navy store. — Marko Kloos (@markokloos) February 26, 2019

That PTSD, it’s real. I damn near bite through my own tongue every time I get a Hugo-related subject line in my inbox around nomination time. — Marko Kloos (@markokloos) February 26, 2019

Marshall Ryan Maresca commented on the differences between authors asking for consideration and a slate.

OK, I usually don't weigh in here but, here's a line for you.

I've received several emails/DMs from people who were all, "Hey, can I send you a copy of my book, think about it when you vote for Nebulas/Hugos/whatever". And that? Can be a bit crass, but fundamentally FINE. https://t.co/M1IFQHuPmU — Marshall Ryan Maresca (@marshallmaresca) February 26, 2019

And, if you can't tell the difference between, "Here's a thing I did, I hope you like it" and "LET'S GET ON THE LIST, MAN!" then, well, I don't know what else to say. — Marshall Ryan Maresca (@marshallmaresca) February 26, 2019

People involved with 20Booksto50K, the creator of the slate, and the author of one of the listed works, have also weighed in.

Yudhanjaya Wijeratne, co-author with R.R. Virdi of “Messenger,” a work on the list that is now a Nebula finalist, had this to say:

1) I understand that we South Asian writers may not exactly be well known to you and your community, but I urge you to use our good friend @Google. Creds: 5-book deal with @HarperCollinsIN. I do have some understanding of how difficult it is to compete with trad pub. Firsthand. — Yudhanjaya Wijeratne ? (@yudhanjaya) February 26, 2019

3) Are there enough indie authors in SFWA to swing a vote without trad pubbed authors also voting on these works?



4) Lastly, have you actually read any of the work herein, to judge them by their merit as you so rightfully advocate? — Yudhanjaya Wijeratne ? (@yudhanjaya) February 26, 2019

5) If there are works you deem worthy or unworthy, unless indie outnumbers trad pub, why has the SFWA community vote not reflected your opinion?



6) Or is it taboo only when your friends don't win? — Yudhanjaya Wijeratne ? (@yudhanjaya) February 26, 2019

The disproportionate influence of a slate may also be due to the small numbers of nominations needed to make the Nebula ballot, according to this exchange:

clearly there are. Also you fucking well know the whole membership doesn't vote. It takes like 10 votes to get a book onto the Norton list ffs. Also the non-slate voters divide their votes up among a huge range of work, which means slates have more power just by being focused. — Annie Bellet (@anniebellet) February 26, 2019

Whether something is a recommendation list or a slate is a question:

Sorry, Annie. But you're sounding like a petulant child here. I'm not out to even any scores – Asia is quite large, in case you don't know. I'm asking why this is unusual, given a clear record of similar recommendations lists on professional writers' websites. https://t.co/gpPhRwxOww — Yudhanjaya Wijeratne ? (@yudhanjaya) February 26, 2019

Bellet said this about recognizing the difference between slates and recommendations:

Second, those are put forward by a single author publicly and feature a wide range of works usually. They are not posted in groups with asterisks and talk about how many votes are needed. — Annie Bellet (@anniebellet) February 26, 2019

They generally don't involve only a tiny set of works by people in the group.



But honestly, if you can't tell the difference, you probably should stay away from making these kinds of posts or being in them. Cause it is pretty fucking obvious when you read the post it was a slate — Annie Bellet (@anniebellet) February 26, 2019

Incidentally, there is support for Wijeratne’s nominated story.

As a long-time pro, a SFWA member, the founder of Strange Horizons, and a fan of Yudhanjaya's work, I think this Nebula nom is well-deserved. — MaryAnneMohanraj (@mamohanraj) February 26, 2019

Michael Cooper responded on Facebook by essentially arguing no one can show anybody was influenced by the list:

Recently the Nebula Award finalists were announced, and there’s been some flak because of the number of independent authors on the ballot. Honestly, so far as I’m concerned, I don’t think there are enough. I think that the ratio of indies to trad pubs on the ballot is backwards from what it should be. Why do I think this? Well…sales. Indies sell more books than traditionally published authors by a wide margin. Granted, this is as a whole and there are individual trad pub authors who do very well, but if you look at the top SF authors on Amazon, the list is dominated by indies. …If you’re a SF reader, then you probably know this statement: Correlation does not equal causation. Just because a list of books to vote for was posted in the 20Books FB group, does not meant that that list got the indies who are on the ballot up there. It’s not a smoking gun. To say that the indie authors in SWFA (the organization that produces the Nebula awards) voted as a bloc because of that list is to call into question the character of all those people and to say that they did not evaluate the books they voted for. That sort of statement is: irrational, a baseless accusation, and irresponsible. Now, I know that a lot of people didn’t come out and *say* that members of the 20books FB group voted as a bloc, but they implied it. For the sake of intellectual honesty, they should make it clear that they did not imply such a thing, and that to the best of their knowledge, every SFWA member that nominated a book or story, did so after careful consideration and review. Because they have no evidence to the contrary (that they’ve presented, at least). Lastly, to say that because a person is a member of an FB group means that they adhere to all the core tenets of that group is frankly stupid and lazy thinking. To then denigrate them because you don’t like an aspect of a group in which they are members is the sort of thinking that belies a lack of clear logic and reasoning.

Craig Martelle, who runs the 20Booksto50K Facebook group, added a comment on Cooper’s post:

It’s hard not take negative comments about 20Booksto50k® personally since I run that group, but taking a step back, we did nothing untoward. Indies read indies. We support each other by reading and buying each other’s stuff, often promoting it as well with our own hard-acquired email lists. The ignorance is appalling about what we do. I think ethically making money isn’t dirty and that’s part of the allusions. People contact me if they find a typo in one of my books – I fix them and reupload. The books with the most typos are my trad pub books. Trad does not necessarily equal higher quality. I think my latest books are as high in the quality department as any trad book out there. But I digress – this isn’t about me. It’s about a system that promotes ebooks that cost more than a hardback. It’s about the old guard who are slowly changing yet having a hard time giving ground. It’s about the industry of middle men who stand to lose their jobs from the indie revolution. Of course they don’t want to change. I can’t begrudge them a long career that ends on a whimper. But adapt and overcome. That’s what has made indies a force to be reckoned with. I demonstrate that with The Expanding Universe anthologies, now a two-time Nebula finalist publication. I support indies taking charge of their own careers through 20Books. I support all authors taking responsibility for their career decisions. I don’t support those who need to denigrate others. It won’t make them feel better and it definitely won’t stop the indie train. That baby is already well down the tracks and picking up speed.

Martelle also waved the threat of a SLAPP suit against offenders:

We simply asked people to read our stuff with their limited time because full-time indie authors are busy as hell. I’m watching the blogs and stuff. If anyone crosses the line into libel, I’ll drop a C&D on them and then follow with a lawsuit. As they say, put your money where your mouth is. I’m willing to because I know for a fact that we didn’t do a slate. Let’s see how the keyboard warriors respond to real world consequences.

Jonathan Brazee continues to claim SFWA itself okayed the list:

I didn’t respond to any of the blogs or Reddit, but just as an aside, the indie FB list was cleared with the SFWA staff before it was ever posted.

I have asked Brazee for the name of the person he spoke to. Who knows what really happened anyway? If somebody asked me “How about if I put up a reading list” I wouldn’t think anything of it, unless I knew that person was the representative of a large group, and was going to preface his list with an encouragement for the group to nominate those works for the Nebula Award.

J A Sutherland has added perspective in this Twitter thread:

Thread – and my own thoughts.



A slate is a slate and it's a political statement. Even if the slate is a general "nominate indie" that's still a slate. Anything that takes away from the spirit "nominate the books you've read and think are best" pisses on the award and taints it. https://t.co/Mwt6PaLLnm — J.A. Sutherland (@JASutherlandBks) February 26, 2019

"Here's a list of the best sci fi I've read this year and you should read it too and vote for it in this award if you agree"



vs.



"Here's a list of books you should vote for in this award because it will show somebody something-something-something."



Intent matters. https://t.co/y8uCon3lTZ — J.A. Sutherland (@JASutherlandBks) February 26, 2019

The intent of the award is to recognize the best fiction.



The intent of this list is to get something from a particular group the award, regardless of whether something else was better.



Intent matters. — J.A. Sutherland (@JASutherlandBks) February 26, 2019

When the 20books group first solicited suggestions, it was expressed with a different intent: To create a reading list of member works that SFWA members could add to the Nebular reading list.



It has now morphed into a campaign to get specifically those works onto the ballot. — J.A. Sutherland (@JASutherlandBks) February 26, 2019

The intent morphed. Badly. It was originally a thread soliciting group member works that were eligible. A "Hey, what can we (SFWA members in 20books) read and consider?"



Very different once they came up with a specific list. — J.A. Sutherland (@JASutherlandBks) February 26, 2019

I'm unsure of the demographics in SFWA – no longer a member. My guess would be that group members, concentrating on a small number of titles, could swing it. It's a professional org, but then there's those that don't vote at all, dispersment amongst titles, etc. — J.A. Sutherland (@JASutherlandBks) February 26, 2019