First Edition: The elected proposal is...

We are a few hours away from closing the second round of voting. Thank you to all members who have taken the time to vote. The initial results will be posted tomorrow, December 2nd, around noon U. S. Eastern Standard Time. These results are not final. We are using ranked choice voting. If no proposal receives a majority of the 1st Choice votes, the proposal with the least 1st Choice votes will be eliminated, and its votes redistributed. This tabulation will continue until a proposal achieves a majority.

Check back in in around twelve hours!

So, do we get one ranking per day until we pass 50%?

With those three votes from Máel Dúin, Flowers for Algernon looks like the overwhelming favorite. However, unless I'm in the dark here, there hasn't been any headway on obtaining copyright permission for it. So, the runner-up matters!

If Flowers For Algernon isn't feasible due to copyright permissions, should its votes be redistributed (essentially as though it hadn't existed as a proposal) to select a runner-up rather than the runner-up of the initial tabulation?

>9 jdanielpowell: That's an incredibly good point.

>9 jdanielpowell: This makes sense - I’m also curious whether there would be a different outcome.

>9 jdanielpowell: I think so. Basically start the tabulation process again, but with the initial first placed book removed.

>8 grifgon: what is the deadline for a response to the Flowers copyright request?

>14 punkzip: Not sure! There's no rule about it.

>17 grifgon: Could the Advisory Board give guidance on a realistic time expectation for a copyright answer? And then perhaps the CP members should be polled on how long we're willing to wait. I'm thinking we need to set a hard deadline fairly soon for a go/no-go decision on Algernon, and the more insight we have from experts, the better.

>18 AMindForeverVoyaging: I think a poll is a good idea. I don't know if the Advisory Board will be much help here, though, because the timeline on waiting for a response on copyright inquiries is all over the map. There's no real point at which the situation becomes hopeless; its very common to wait months or even a year to hear back. It can also take only a few days. Who knows! So, it's more a matter of how long the membership is willing to wait than anything else.

>19 grifgon: That's in line with my expectation. I'm sure the copyright issue is often a great unknown. Still, to keep us from drifting in limbo, I think we should set a reasonable (for us) deadline. I just have no clue what reasonable would be :)

Also, do we have an official runner-up at this point?

I'll be in favor of putting aside an appropriate amount of time for getting a copyright answer, which I imagine is a normal part of the process in getting a book made. Flowers of Algernon seemed to have been a clear favourite in the voting process and I think we should not be too hasty to start looking at second choices, at least not until all reasonable avenues for the first choice have been exhausted

>13 EdmundRodriguez: I think if that’s the process, it would be best to have management do that tally now so we know the “true” runner up.

Though I wonder if there needs to be a poll first on how the runner up should be calculated? It might be a bit skewed already knowing one of the potential titles.

>23 NathanOv: I was thinking the same thing: Why not do a poll about which method should be used to calculate the runner-up? Only thing is that it is also effectively a Sinuhe versus maybe-something-else poll.....

I do wonder if the result would be different. Argh. This is something that should have been decided beforehand... Something to determine for next time.

>24 grifgon: If the overriding rule is that the winner must have a majority of 1st choice votes, then the ballots have to be reset, and re-tabulated from scratch - with the first elimination being Flowers for Algernon rather than the $2K Canticles proposal. Then re-tabulate per standard process from there.

>25 ultrarightist: I basically agree. Not doing so would mean disenfranchising the 33 members who ranked Flowers for Algernon first.

>24 grifgon: Well if I’m understanding management’s recent comment, luckily it sounds like Sinuhe is the runner up in either method! Might be worth still voting on before a second edition, though.

Congratulations group for choosing our first edition! I look forward to watching its progress until it reaches my hands. My only regret is how my own online thin skin misperceives conversation topics as sour grapes instead of our mutual desire to obtain a nice example of fine press. Thank you for your understanding...

Congratulations dlphcoracl for getting your proposal elected as Consensus Press' first edition. I think it's really a worthy winner and I'm looking forward to reading it in a proper, fine press edition. Hopefully, we can get it as close to your initial vision as possible. Congrats again! 👍

>29 Dr.Fiddy:

Thank you for your kind comments.

Hopefully, the Consensus Press board has more than enough wiggle room to design an appealing private press edition of this classic sci-fi work and can use my suggestions as a starting point. The selection of an artist for illustrations (if the board wants illustrations) will be critical in realizing its full potential.

>30 dlphcoracl: As a bit of a clarifying note: The Advisory Board isn't designing the book. Doing so requires a lot more work than simply giving advice, and really calls for a hired professional. (Besides, you'd never want a book designed by committee anyway.) The Algernon proposal says it is open to decision-making by the board and craftspeople. Ultimately, that flexibility is going to be exercised by the three craftspeople hired – the designer, the printer, and the binder. The board did have some revision to the proposal – Fournier for the typeface and a smaller format – but I think its direct input will mostly end there.

I would think the decision about artwork should be left to the membership, as, per the rules:

Major decisions will be made by vote of the membership, if not already specified in the adopted proposal.

Since in comment 198 of another page consensuspress (linked) did mention that a check in tabulation is encouraged, then for anyone interested, I crunched the numbers and confirmed that:

(1) The rankings posted by consensuspress were correct.

(2) The Tale of Sinuhe is the runner up for either method.

>27 NathanOv: had asked about "either method". For anyone interested, one method would be just to look at which proposal is in 2nd once Flowers For Algernon received the majority 50/99 votes. That's very straightforward and we all saw that.

The other method is to make Flowers For Algernon the first proposal eliminated and redo the whole thing from scratch. As mentioned above, luckily this happened to still yield The Tale of Sinuhe, but in future years, we should definitely discuss this ahead of time in case different methods lead to different results. (This is what >27 NathanOv: was mentioning) Just as a quick reference and reminder, we care about the runner up in circumstances when the winning proposal isn't possible (which theoretically could happen this year due to copyright).

As a personal note, I think either of our top two titles would be wonderful for our First Edition. Congratulations to dlphcoracl. Hopefully we can secure rights. (Glacierman As you know, I would also be thrilled if your book came to fruition.)

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For anyone interested in what the crunched data looked like with Flowers For Algernon as the first out, here are the nerve-racking tabulations. Let's be glad our hearts didn't have to sit through this tight race in real time.

INITIAL RESULTS

33 Flowers For Algernon
13 The Tale of Sinuhe
11 The Narrow Road to the Deep North
10 The Life of Merlin
9 Letters from a Stoic
8 On the Shortness of Life
7 The Voyage of Máel Dúin's Boat
7 A Canticle for Leibowitz (>$1,000)
1 A Canticle for Leibowitz (>$2,000)

FIRST TABULATION: Redistribution of votes for Flowers For Algernon

18 The Tale of Sinuhe +5
17 The Life of Merlin +7
15 The Narrow Road to the Deep North +4
14 A Canticle for Leibowitz (>$1,000) +7
12 On the Shortness of Life +4
11 The Voyage of Máel Dúin's Boat +4
11 Letters from a Stoic +2
1 A Canticle for Leibowitz (>$2,000)
Flowers For Algernon

SECOND TABULATION: Redistribution of votes for A Canticle for Leibowitz (>$2,000)

18 The Tale of Sinuhe
17 The Life of Merlin
15 The Narrow Road to the Deep North
15 A Canticle for Leibowitz (>$1,000) +1
12 On the Shortness of Life
11 The Voyage of Máel Dúin's Boat
11 Letters from a Stoic
A Canticle for Leibowitz (>$2,000)
Flowers For Algernon

THIRD TABULATION: Redistribution of votes for Letters from a Stoic

20 The Tale of Sinuhe +2
18 The Narrow Road to the Deep North +3
18 On the Shortness of Life +6
17 The Life of Merlin
15 A Canticle for Leibowitz (>$1,000) 
11 The Voyage of Máel Dúin's Boat
Letters from a Stoic
A Canticle for Leibowitz (>$2,000)
Flowers For Algernon

FOURTH TABULATION: Redistribution of votes for The Voyage of Máel Dúin's Boat

22 The Tale of Sinuhe +2
22 The Narrow Road to the Deep North +4
21 The Life of Merlin +4
19 On the Shortness of Life +1
15 A Canticle for Leibowitz (>$1,000)
The Voyage of Máel Dúin's Boat
Letters from a Stoic
A Canticle for Leibowitz (>$2,000)
Flowers For Algernon

FIFTH TABULATION: Redistribution of votes for A Canticle for Leibowitz (>$1,000)

28 The Tale of Sinuhe +6
28 The Narrow Road to the Deep North +6
24 The Life of Merlin +3
19 On the Shortness of Life
A Canticle for Leibowitz (>$1,000)
The Voyage of Máel Dúin's Boat
Letters from a Stoic
A Canticle for Leibowitz (>$2,000)
Flowers For Algernon

SIXTH TABULATION: Redistribution of votes for On the Shortness of Life

37 The Tale of Sinuhe +9
32 The Narrow Road to the Deep North +4
30 The Life of Merlin +6
On the Shortness of Life
A Canticle for Leibowitz (>$1,000)
The Voyage of Máel Dúin's Boat
Letters from a Stoic
A Canticle for Leibowitz (>$2,000)
Flowers For Algernon

SEVENTH TABULATION: Redistribution of votes for The Life of Merlin

53 The Tale of Sinuhe +16
46 The Narrow Road to the Deep North +14
The Life of Merlin
On the Shortness of Life
A Canticle for Leibowitz (>$1,000)
The Voyage of Máel Dúin's Boat
Letters from a Stoic
A Canticle for Leibowitz (>$2,000)
Flowers For Algernon

(Edited Dec 4, 2022: to remove an extra floating +1 in the 3rd Tabulation that was erroneously copied from the 2nd Tabulation)

>32 Tuna_Melon: This is FANTASTIC; possibly the single best post yet on the discussion forum. Great to see Reed's tabulation confirmed, and to see what might have been without Algernon — a nailbiter. Thanks so much for putting the work in Melon! 👏🐟 🍈 👏

So, only 99 members voted?
The membership is slowly shrinking.

>34 wcarter: Members are only obligated to vote on one of the ballots, and nearly 100% of the 126 members voted on the first one, so the second ballot was basically optional.

>32 Tuna_Melon: Thank you for this Tuna_Melon. It's great to have the tabulations confirmed.