Egoboo

(1) That Which Boosts the Ego

Egoboo is the force that impels fans in their tireless activity. Since so much of what is done is fandom is done on a voluntary basis, egoboo is the fannish medium of exchange, the "coin of the realm," if you will. It seems to have become popular around 1945.

The highest egoboo is usually gained by seeing your name in print or electrons adjoining favorable comment about your fanac. Laudatory locs, fanzine reviews and con reports are age-old egoboo sources; online egoboo is frequent now. Spoken and social-media egoboo, tho transitory, is pleasant, too.

Indirect egoboo sources can include getting your work or loc published in a fanzine (with the implicit value judgment that at least the faned thought it worthy of publication); being involved in a fan project, such as a con, that concludes successfully; being favorably credited for any fanac; being asked for advice by other fans or having one's advice credited with their successful fanac; being asked to take a position of responsibility in a worthy fan project; and being invited to a closed-door party.

Fandom may be defined as an infinitely complex system for the production of pure egoboo. Indeed, the universe itself was created for egoboo (Psalms 145:10) if we are to believe the stories.

In the Willis & Shaw fannish allegory The Enchanted Duplicator, Jophan found that the egg of the Bu-Birds -- Egg o' Bu -- contained fluid that "was cool, refreshing, and intoxicatingly delicious to the taste.... When the egg was finished he jumped to his feet and began to run eagerly round the oasis looking for more, so intent on the search that he scarcely noticed how quickly his tiredness had been replaced with boundless energy and enthusiasm.... Overindulgence ... was inclined to produce a species of intoxication and a painless but unsightly swelling of the head."

Some also derive egoboo from volcanic reaction from the targets of their needles. If the egoboo of fame is unobtainable, notoriety is better than no egoboo at all. (Occasionally referred to in the late 1950 and the '60s as The G.M.Carr Theory of Negoboo.)

(2) A Fanzine by John D. Berry and Ted White

A fanzine edited by John D. Berry and Ted White mainly in the 1960s, ending with issue 16 in August 1972. Issue 17, never published separately, appeared as a supplement to Blat #3 by Ted White and Dan Steffan in 1994.  Egoboo continued the fan poll that Focal Point had run.

Issue	Date	Pages	Notes
1	Summer 1968
2
3
4
5	December 22, 1968	12
6	March 1, 1969	14
7	June 7, 1969	12
8	September 15, 1969	8
9	November 9, 1969	12
10	March 18, 1970	22
11	June 12, 1970	24
12	July 28, 1970	24
13	October 8, 1971	28
14	October 15, 1971	12
15	March 17, 1972	26
16	August 1972	24
17	May 1994	26	Blat! archives issue; Final issue

From Fancyclopedia 2, ca. 1959

That which boosts the ego. The force that impels fans in their tireless activity. In fandom, egoboo is usually gained by seeing one's name in print, preferably in someone else's publication. Spoken egoboo, tho transitory, is pleasant. Most common sources are favorable comment on one's fanac, but include indirect things like success of projects, volcanic reaction from the target of one of your needles, and unsatiric parody. If the egoboo of fame is unobtainable, notoriety is better than no egoboo at all. Fandom may be defined as an infinitely complex system for the production of pure egoboo. Indeed, the universe itself was created for egoboo (Psalms 145:10) if we are to believe the stories.

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