On Tue, 15 Apr 1997, Judith M. Suhr wrote:
> I personally thought Algis Budrys ran WOTF in a very unfair way. The contest
> was promoted as being judged by a panel, but only Budrys made the first cut.
> The panel saw only the finalists. Therefore stories that they (or some of
> them) might have liked could have been passed over because they were not to
> AB's taste.
> Is Wolverton running things differently?
>
"Very unfair" seems a bit of an exaggeration to me. Budrys is an
excellent editor and, although I'm sure he made occasional mistakes, it
isn't likely that he would miss very many decent stories.
You have to see it in practical terms. Budrys was being paid to run the
contest. The other judges were receiving at most an honorarium. Reading a
slush pile, which is essentially what the first round of entries were, is
incredibly exhausting and time consuming, not something that working
authors who support themselves on their writing and with other full-time
jobs can afford to do.
Actually, if Budrys did indeed handle the slush pile reading then the
people who submitted were probably getting a better deal than they would
have at the typical magazine since magazine editors, who don't really
have the time or desire to go through the slushpile either, often farm
the job out to friends and junior staff.
Mike Levy (who has fallen asleep in slushpiles on occasion)
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