How did the Science Fiction community feel about L. Ron Hubbard's emergence as a religious figure? And how did Scientologists feel about his parallel career as a Science Fiction writer?

by BroseppeVerdi

I was surprised to find out that Hubbard was nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Novel the year after his death. The book he was nominated for, "Black Genesis", was the second of a ten-part series, and consisted of a staggering 4,000 pages written over just two years. Each of the 10 volumes also made the NYT best seller list separately.

The level of Hubbard's success as a novelist in his latter years is surprising, given his controversial stature. Did the Sci-fi community look down on Hubbard for being a cult leader? And how did the Church of Scientology reconcile the hundreds of fictional short stories and novels written by their prophet?

OMGCluck

I was surprised to find out that Hubbard was nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Novel the year after his death.

From https://www.kirkusreviews.com/features/gaming-system-1987-hugo-awards/

most of the ballots that had been taken out had been from supporting memberships – convention memberships for those who wanted to take part, but who couldn’t or didn’t want to attend the convention in person … A large number of these came from people in Britain … on photocopied ballots with Robert Springall's name written on the bottom. It is within the rules to photocopy ballots and circulate them, providing that the person who has done the photocopying puts his or her name on the bottom. The people who nominated Black Genesis either did not nominate anything else or nominated other Hubbard novels or books by writers connected with the Writers of the Future competition … Most of the supporting memberships that were taken out for the convention were taken out by people who nominated Black Genesis or other Hubbard books.

Thus, Black Genesis had arrived on the ballot with a groundswell of support from people largely outside of fandom … the blatant gaming of the system struck many the wrong way, especially once the nominations had been released. The reaction was decisive: Black Genesis failed to even place in the awards. Fans voted for ‘No Award’ in protest of its placement.

The book he was nominated for, "Black Genesis", was the second of a ten-part series, and consisted of a staggering 4,000 pages written over just two years.

Someone took the trouble to blog their way through the Mission Earth series in excruciating detail. Here's where they began on Black Genesis. It's worth reading just to learn how far from a Hugo Award winning author L. Ron Hubbard truly was. Here's how the "dekalogy" was edited.

Each of the 10 volumes also made the NYT best seller list separately.

The level of Hubbard's success as a novelist in his latter years is surprising, given his controversial stature.

From the same article first linked:

In 1990, Robert W. Welkos and Joel Sappell, writing for the LA Times, noted that L. Ron Hubbard’s books tended to remain on bestseller lists for a long period of time, and cited reports from booksellers and from former Church employees that members of the Church would go out to bookstores and buy up every copy they could, which would increase the sales figures of each book. Hubbard's own literary agent Forrest J. Ackerman repeated this in a video interview in 1997.

Did the Sci-fi community look down on Hubbard for being a cult leader? And how did the Church of Scientology reconcile the hundreds of fictional short stories and novels written by their prophet?

A few people have written at length about this, so I'll just link to their articles: