Suggestions for 2013 awards?

[Stephen Theaker]

Well, I had five minutes spare at the computer, so if anyone wants to contribute to a completely and utterly unofficial list of stuff that might be eligible for next year's awards, here you go:

Fill in the form

And it'll appear on the list.

But that aside, we're well into 2012 now - anyone read anything that's already knocked their socks off?

[Des Lewis]

That seems like a great idea.

[Cate Gardner]

Excellent idea, Stephen.

[Stephen Theaker]

Witness the power of PIVOT TABLES, puny mortals!

Thanks, Des, Cate!

I had the idea of doing it this way a while back, but it would have been awkward for the BFS to do something like this officially, because the rules would have meant having to guard against people recommending their own stuff, making sure only members were adding to the list, and all that gubbins, but we can do it unofficially without worrying about any of that.

I hope it'll end up being quite a comprehensive list of relevant 2012 releases, but if not it'll at least be useful for me. Already had a few contributions to the list!

[Ray]

Yes, what they all said - great idea.  I've started keeping track this year to reduce head scratching next time (unless it was nits, I hope it wasn't nits).  I read a lot, as I'm sure many people do here, but I can't always remember if it was new that year or not.

[Stephen Theaker]

This unofficial eligibility list is starting to build up nicely: http://tinyurl.com/list2013

Submit items/corrections here: http://tinyurl.com/suggestions2013

[Stephen Theaker]

So... this is now rather more officially a listing of eligible items for the British Fantasy Awards 2013: http://tinyurl.com/list2013

Submit your items here: http://tinyurl.com/suggestions2013

It's an anonymous form, so don't be shy about adding your own stuff to the list.

Any authors, editors and publishers who might have multiple titles to supply are welcome to email them to me in a spreadsheet (stephen.theaker@gmail.com) - in-house metadata sheets are fine, but remember to add a column listing the category the items are intended for. That's especially important for novels (over 40,000 words), novellas (15,000 to 39,999) and short stories (under 15,000).

[Peter Coleborn]

Thanks, Stephen. Is there any easy way to make the page look, well, nice and neat. Maybe reduce the font, split the categories up with a blank line?

[Stephen Theaker]

No, sorry! I did try both things when I first set this up. It's not a webpage in the usual sense - it's a pivot table built from a spreadsheet.

Any formatting applied is lost when a new submission is made and the pivot table rebuilt.

The only way to add a space between categories was to make it alphabetically the last line for the previous category. So I tried using things like zzz to create a last line, but it looked more confusing.

[Allen]

Hi Stephen. Great to see that you have already made a start on the list that I proposed at the AGM.

[Stephen Theaker]

Hi Allen

I don't know if you'll feel that this is quite what you were after, but have a look and see what you think.

One thing to consider is that although this is something I was doing anyway, I'm not *bound* by the rules to do it, so you might want to consider asking the EGM to vote on it so that I or future awards admins can't just decide to stop doing it. However, I would suggest that while I've been able to set this up quite easily, it might be trickier for someone without my amazing skillset!

I think also you were keen to have the list you proposed kept quiet until complete. For me, though, there are some great benefits to doing it this way - e.g. we can crowdsource the checking of the list, and people are encouraged to contribute by the omissions they spot.

[Allen]

I like what you have done so far, Stephen.
As agreed at the AGM, we should discuss this at length via email and then bring the full proposal to the committee or the EGM.

[GaryC]

Margo Lanagan's Tender Morsels should not be on the list - it was first published in 2008. She may be eligible for her new novel Sea-Hearts (aka The Brides of Rollrock Island) - Feb 2012 publication in the UK, though it may have been published earlier in Australia.

Is Gaie Sebold's Babylon Steel eligible for the 2013 awards? It was published right at the very beginning of 2012 - I'm fairly sure it was early January 2012 and not late December 2011.

[Stephen Theaker]

Thanks on the Margo Lanagan front.

Babylon Steel is a tricky one - Amazon gives a 2012 date, but my copy says "First published 2011" and has a 2011 copyright date. Searching through the Solaris blog brought this up: "Your fantasies fulfilled on 27th December (UK) and on 5th January 2012 (US & Can)". So that would seem to be ineligible.

[Peter Coleborn]

Babylon Steel is a tricky one - Amazon gives a 2012 date, but my copy says "First published 2011" and has a 2011 copyright date. Searching through the Solaris blog brought this up: "Your fantasies fulfilled on 27th December (UK) and on 5th January 2012 (US & Can)". So that would seem to be ineligible.

Would it also be ineligible for the BFAward presented in 2014?