List of BFS members' recommendations for BFAs

[CarolineC]

Following announcement of the shortlist for the 2012 British Fantasy Awards (see HERE http://www.britishfantasysociety.co.uk/news/bfs-awards-shortlist-announced/), the long lists from which the shortlisted works/candidates were chosen can now be revealed. The ‘long lists’ are the list of members’ recommendations in each category, including jurors’ recommendations as applicable. The lists have been copied from the voting data. Titles appear in no particular order. While the Awards Administrator has made every effort to check any apparent discrepancies (such as variant spellings), time has not permitted checking the eligibility of every item in each category. Any errors noted may be reported to the Awards Administrator at bfsawards@britishfantasysociety.org

FULL LIST CAN BE READ AT THIS LINK ON THE WEBSITE:
http://www.britishfantasysociety.co.uk/news/lists-of-members-recommendations-for-british-fantasy-awards/

(too long a list to post on the forum due to post word limit)

[Ray]

Thank you to whoever nominated my stories 'I Have Heard the Mermaids Singing' and 'Pins and Needles', it really made my morning seeing them on that long list.  I'm glad people enjoyed the stories. 

[Peter Coleborn]

Interestingly, based on a few Facebook comments some nominated items are misclassified in this longlist. 

[CarolineC]

Might well be so, Peter. See Sarah's disclaimer above. 

From these lists, I can tell that Sarah has had a heck of a job to do, and I say "very well done, Sarah!"

[CarolineC]

By the way, if anyone sees anything on the lists which isn't right, just let Sarah know at the email address above. She'll check it, then pass it on to me so that I can put it right on the website. Cheers! 

[Stephen Theaker]

Really interesting to see, of course, but there are so many mistakes (not Sarah's fault) that it does make me wonder if it's worth doing. Publishing it uncorrected has I think made BFS members look a bit daft. For example, hands up whoever read Grant Morrison's The Boys...!

(Wouldn't be surprised if that was me, actually - did my voting very late in the evening...)

Maybe we members could put together a unofficial public list of eligible items together as this year goes by - let publishers, writers, whoever wants contribute to it, a wiki, or a shared spreadsheet, something like that. That way we'll all have something to look at when it comes to casting our votes, and people can point out where stuff is miscategorised.

[jared]

I've caught at least one typo made by me. (Which, I suppose, lets me know that it received only one nomination!)

I think the list is really helpful. And it would be good to have this (or something like it) prior to voting next year. The forums did a good job of throwing around ideas, but it wasn't this extensive.

[SAWatts]

Just to say that if anyone does spot any errors - please do let me know and we'll get them fixed soonest

Sarah

[Stephen Theaker]

I think the list is really helpful. And it would be good to have this (or something like it) prior to voting next year. The forums did a good job of throwing around ideas, but it wasn't this extensive.

Up until December a longlist was part of the voting process, and five months later we start wishing we had one... I'm reminded of Mike Chinn's comment about the BFS going in long circles to end up back where it began..!

[Mike Chinn]

I think the list is really helpful. And it would be good to have this (or something like it) prior to voting next year. The forums did a good job of throwing around ideas, but it wasn't this extensive.

Up until December a longlist was part of the voting process, and five months later we start wishing we had one... I'm reminded of Mike Chinn's comment about the BFS going in long circles to end up back where it began..!

 

[neilw]

I have to be honest and say that I don't see an advantage in the long list. When it was published as a running total of nominations it was never really useful as a memory-jogger or an eye-opener-to-overlooked-wonders because most people tend to wait until the last moment before voting, so by the time the longlist grows to useful proportions there's never enough time to source and read all the interesting sounding material on it.

If you want a pool of suggestions I reckon it's best done as early as possible in the process, and divorced from the actual voting process, in a forum thread where people chuck in suggested titles and discuss their merits. And I *think* we do that here anyway, don't we?

So why the longlist? This year I can see that it provides transparency and therefore confidence in the new system, but in general all it does is provide a little ego boost for a large number of people. Sure, it's very nice that at least one person nominated your story...but it's really not that big a deal is it?

EDIT: I See Stephen T has beat me to it, with this neat little number: http://www.britishfantasysociety.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=3354.0

[jared]

Do we have any idea what the numbers are for BFS members that regularly (or even irregularly) use these forums? My suspicion is that, like any society, the forum folks are a small (but noisy!) percentage.

Possibly the lovely wiki thing thing should be advertised in the broader sense? (In an email, one of the publications, etc?)

[Des Lewis]

I think - at least some time in the past - HWA awards had a running longlist published on their website which actually showed the votes coming in with the actual proposers' names (ie full members) attached to each candidate work being proposed. Then, I think, it went to the deciding jury who considered the top few in each category plus any books provided by the separate Oversight committee. Unless you have that sort of exact official voting info, I agree with Neil that there is no point in the longlist at all. I do however like Stephen's idea, too, as an unofficial longlist if we don't have that sort of official running longlist.

[jared]

Yup agree with all that.