[A_D_E_P_T]

WorldCon is not representative of all readership. Its website even notes: "The Hugo voters are good at finding and nominating good works, and do talk among themselves, so word spreads." [1] They seem to do an awful lot of talking among themselves, I'll give them that.

Besides, it doesn't take a whole lot of nominations to get something onto the ballot. An energetic and motivated clique can capture the whole thing.

And surely it's apparent that they reward a certain type of work, and disregard others. For e.g., Analog Magazine -- which specializes in hard science fiction -- didn't pick up a single short story or novella nomination.

[1] - https://www.thehugoawards.org/submitting-your-work/

[TheCoelacanth]

Traditional print magazines like Analog are at a huge disadvantage in popularity contest awards like the Hugos because they are only available to subscribers.

Hugo winners usually come from magazines that make their stories available for free online.

[amanaplanacanal]

A motivated clique attempted a takeover in the mid 2010s and the nominating rules were changed so it couldn’t happen again.