Submitting a Work for the Bram Stoker Awards®
Bram Stoker Awards® Etiquette Rules
Everyone wants to win a Bram Stoker Award®. And every author of an eligible work wants to give that work the best possible chance of winning.
On the other hand, no one wants to be deluged with spam. And no one wants the reputation of the Awards to suffer from the effects of ruthless campaigning or outright dishonesty.
If there is a single thought to keep in mind here, it is the
difference between promoting and soliciting.
Promoting (acceptable) is the
business of spreading the word about your work and making sure
anyone who wants to can read it.
Soliciting (unacceptable) is the practice of
wheeling and dealing, whining and wheedling, in order to get
yourself an award that you may not deserve.
Works that are truly
worthy of the award tend to rise to the top without help if enough
people read them. If you have to go out and beg for recommendations
or votes, that says something rather uncomplimentary about both you
and the work. So you're doing yourself a service if you
refrain.
To clarify what's acceptable and what's not when promoting a
work for the Bram Stoker Awards®, HWA's Officers and Trustees have formulated
the following guidelines. They are effective immediately. Please
respect them.
Questions? Contact the Bram Stoker Award Co-Chairs at stokerchair@horror.org.
What Is Acceptable
- PUBLICIZE: The very best way to promote a book for a Bram Stoker Award® is to
publicize the book as widely as possible. Most HWA members who
participate in the Bram Stoker Award process are voracious readers and
enthusiastic film buffs, and subscribe to a variety of magazines,
newsletters, and web sites that offer reviews and ads for
horror-related material.
- REVIEWS: If you are an HWA member, you might find our list of horror
reviewers useful.
- ADVERTISE IN THE HWA NEWSLETTER: If you are promoting a book, you or your publisher may take out an advertisement for it in the HWA Newsletter. However, you may not solicit for award recognition in the ad, including the use of phrases such as "For Your Consideration." See our Newsletter Ad Guide for details.
- NEW RELEASE ANNOUNCEMENT: If you are an HWA member, you may notify the organization of your new release and have notices placed in several places in our publications, free of charge, including:
- a notice in the "Fiendish Endeavors" or "Recently Born of Horrific Minds" sections of the HWA Newsletter
- New Releases series of blog posts on our blog
- a notice in the regular Internet Mailer sent out to members.
Use the New Releases form to do this.
- OFFER YOUR WORK TO THE JURY:
If you wish to submit your work for Jury consideration, you must follow the special guidelines on these pages:
FINAL DEADLINE for Accepting HWA Bram Stoker Awards® Jury Submissions:
The Bram Stoker Awards® Juries require a reasonable cutoff date for accepting submissions, in order to read them and deliver their Recommendations for the Preliminary Ballot by 15 January of the following year. Therefore the Bram Stoker Awards® Committee has set 11:59PM (Pacific Standard Time) on November 30th each calendar year as the cutoff date and time for all Jury submissions. Juries will not consider submissions received by the Jury Chair later than that deadline.
Advice for authors and publishers:
If you expect your work to be published in December you should submit a PDF or MS of the work to the Jury Chair prior to 30 November (any work that will be published in December will certainly be at least in a manuscript form that the Jury could review).
This Ruling does not impact on the separate 'Members' Recommendation process. Works can still be Recommended by individual members using that process until January 15th of the following year.
- LINKING A RECOMMENDED WORK:
As a service to members, the HWA allows the authors, author's agent, or publisher of recommended works on our Bram Stoker
Recommendations web page to provide a link to where the member can access more information on the work. Only members have access to this page.
Only the author, author's agent, or publisher of the work may make this request.
These links can be either:
- a web address
- where the reader can download the work for free
- the Amazon.com page where the book is offered for sale
- a link to the publisher's web site, or
- a link to the author's own web page where the book, story, or script
is showcased.
- or to an email address where the reader can request a copy of the work for free.
You do not have to be an HWA member
to activate your link.
To find out if your work has been posted to the members-only recommendations page:
- MEMBERS: HWA members can check the Bram Stoker Recs page.
- NON-MEMBERS: Non-members may check the Bram Stoker Awards ® Reading List. If your work appears here you may provide a link by contacting the Compiler at compiler@horro.org. If your work does not appear, it has not been posted to the members-only recommendations page. That being the case you cannot provide a link or request a link at this time. Check back regularly to see if your work has been posted. At that time, and not before, you may provide a link.
HOW: If your work has received a recommendation, you may supply the Compiler with a
URL or email address for linking and ask that your link be
activated.
- PROVIDE COPIES
:
- Via Email: You may provide free copies of your work to any HWA member who
requests one. Do not send a file without first receiving permission with a query to the member.
- Via Postal Mail: You may send unsolicited copies of your work to members by regular mail for "Bram Stoker consideration" or review purposes.
- But remember:
- never include a member whose entry is followed by the NO MASS MAILINGS PLEASE tag in the membership directory. Instead, use the HWA Directory (members only) to create your own "opt-in" emailing list for promotional purposes.
- never solicit Bram Stoker recommendations or votes, either for yourself or for anyone else.
- OPT-IN EMAIL: You may send ONE mass email consisting only of an invitation to join your list. Only members who respond affirmatively may be included in future mailings. "Opt-out" arrangements are not acceptable. And remember never to use such a list to solicit Bram Stoker recommendations or votes, either for yourself or for anyone else.
The correct terminology to use in opt-in offer emails is "I/we am/are offering a copy of this work to you for Bram Stoker Award® consideration." Any attempt to solicit recommendations or votes in these mailings is a severe breach of protocol and is likely to offend other members.
- MESSAGE BOARD ANNOUNCEMENT (members only): You may use the HWA message board to post one (and only one) Bram Stoker promotional announcement about each of your eligible works each year. If you are not an HWA member, you may have an HWA member post the announcement in your behalf, or you may contact the Bram Stoker Award Co-Chairs who will post an announcement for you.
- FACEBOOK ANNOUNCEMENT: You may post one (and only one) promotional announcement about each of your eligible works at the HWA Facebook group. We recommend that you use the announcement to supply links to locations where people can obtain the work or find out more about it. If you choose to offer a copy of the work you should use the phrasing, "I/we am/are offering a copy of this work to you for Bram Stoker Award® consideration." Do not solicit recommendations or votes. Note also, that you may not post the text of your story on the HWA Facebook page.
- PRELIMINARY BALLOT MAILER: After the preliminary ballot has been announced, if your work appears on it, you may place a notice in the special "Bram Stoker Awards Preliminary Ballot" issue of the HWA Internet Mailer telling members how to obtain a copy. To place your notice, contact imailer@horror.org before a specific deadline that will be announced at a later date.
- WHEN CAN I SAY I'M A NOMINEE?
You may mention that your work has appeared on the Bram Stoker Awards® preliminary or final ballot. However, you may not promote
your work at all as "Bram Stoker Recommended." (See point 6 below.) unless it appears on the FINAL ballot. Works that appear on the Preliminary Ballot are NOT Bram Stoker Award nominees.
What Is Not Acceptable
- You may not engage in dishonest or deceptive practices. This
includes recommending works you have not read, trading
recommendations with others, and soliciting Bram Stoker Award® recommendations
from friends and acquaintances. Publicizing your work is one thing.
Begging for recommendations on a message board or in a mailing to a
group of pals is another. Please note that we consider it just as
unacceptable to comply with such a request as to make it. It
degrades us all and harms the awards immeasurably.
- You may not solicit Bram Stoker Award® recommendations or votes. And if you
are an HWA member, you may not comply with any such request. If you are a member you must not publicize your Recommendations - remember, the Recs process is anonymous (Rule VIn), therefore publicizing your Recommendations is a breach of that Rule.
- You may not spam the Jury or contact Jurors about your work outside the published process of "What Is Acceptable" above. Spamming will most likely render your work ineligible for Bram Stoker Award® consideration. After you have submitted your work to the Jury you will receive an acknowledgment. If you do not you may query the Jury Chair using their official email listed below. Do NOT under any circumstances email asking how the jury liked your work, or if they read it, or if they are going to include it in their selection, etc. This is unseemly and unprofessional. No Jury is allowed to, nor will, give any feedback other than to acknowledge receipt. Continued contact of this nature may render your work ineligible for further consideration.
- You may not send unsolicited emails or other forms of contact (such as Twitter) promoting your
work for a Bram Stoker Award®. Several excellent alternatives to creating
what amounts to spam are outlined above. Particularly unacceptable
is the sending of unsolicited emails that include PDFs or other
attachments. Please believe us when we say this hurts your cause
more than it helps. Few transgressions make people more furious
than receiving junk emails or unrequested attached spam files.
- Beyond your one new release announcement (see section 4 in What Is Acceptable above), you may not post additional Bram Stoker Award-related announcements in regular editions of the HWA Internet Mailer. Bram Stoker Award-related announcements are limited to the special "Bram Stoker Award® Preliminary Ballot" and "Bram Stoker Award® Final Ballot issues of the Mailer. Only works that appear on these ballots are eligible for inclusion.
- Members may not post the text of your story on the HWA message
board, and you may not post more than one Bram Stoker Award® promo announcement
per year per eligible work. Announcements about your work on the
message board should be used to supply links to locations where
people can obtain the work or find out more about it.
- You may not promote your work as "Bram Stoker Award Recommended", nor as appearing on the Bram Stoker Award Reading List. Receiving one, or a handful of Bram Stoker Award recommendations (which is how a work appears on the Bram Stoker Award Reading List) is a far cry from winning the Award or even from being listed on the preliminary ballot. It devalues the Bram Stoker Awards to have their name attached to works whose only defining characteristic may be that one or two HWA members liked them. Authors or publishers who promote their work in this manner run the risk of offending our voting members.
- You may not promote your work as a "Bram Stoker Award Nominee" unless it
appears on the FINAL ballot. Neither
recommended works nor works appearing on the preliminary ballot are
Bram Stoker Award Nominees.
- Members are reminded that works submitted to them for Bram Stoker Awards® consideration are copyright and are provided to you for the sole purpose of considering their merit for Member Recommendations for said Awards. Legally and ethically these works may not be passed on to any other party. Should other persons request you to pass on a copy you have received in this manner you should not do so, and should point out to them that the material is copyright. Anyone who is unhappy with that legal and ethical position may be directed to president@horror.org. HWA is a writers' organization and above all we support protecting the copyright rights of our members and all authors, whether or not they are members of HWA.
Finally, remember there are Rules for the Bram Stoker Awards®. It's in your best interest to familiarise yourself with them, here:
http://www.horror.org/stoker/rules2012.pdf.
