I’m assuming that the purpose of going for a Hugo is to get publicity and increased readership for HPMOR. If I’m mistaken—possibly the point is that having a Hugo award is Really Cool—then going for the win in a less important category would make sense.
I’ve been in fandom since the early seventies, and it seems to me that people talk about the Best Novel a lot more than Best Fan Writer.
I may be biased, but I think Fan Writing is very much a sub-culture within the sub-culture.
To be fair, even print sf is minuscule compared to tv, movies, and comics. From yet another angle, fanfic has become a huge thing by fannish standards, but I think it’s something of a separate branch compared to the sort of fan writing (typically essays, I think, rather than fiction) which gets a Hugo.
If I’m mistaken—possibly the point is that having a Hugo award is Really Cool—then going for the win in a less important category would make sense.
I suspect the real logic is: having a Hugo award is Really Cool, having a Hugo for best novel is Even More Really Cool, and Eliezer isn’t the type of person to settle for Really Cool in that situation.
I’m assuming that the purpose of going for a Hugo is to get publicity and increased readership for HPMOR. If I’m mistaken—possibly the point is that having a Hugo award is Really Cool—then going for the win in a less important category would make sense.
I’ve been in fandom since the early seventies, and it seems to me that people talk about the Best Novel a lot more than Best Fan Writer.
I may be biased, but I think Fan Writing is very much a sub-culture within the sub-culture.
To be fair, even print sf is minuscule compared to tv, movies, and comics. From yet another angle, fanfic has become a huge thing by fannish standards, but I think it’s something of a separate branch compared to the sort of fan writing (typically essays, I think, rather than fiction) which gets a Hugo.
I suspect the real logic is: having a Hugo award is Really Cool, having a Hugo for best novel is Even More Really Cool, and Eliezer isn’t the type of person to settle for Really Cool in that situation.