Miss Manners Guide to Being Nominated for a Bram Stoker Award
Note: The Polar Vortex is about to dump a bunch of snow on us, school is cancelled, and I’m going to be busy with my five-year old all day, so this won’t be a long and thoughtful post. Bram Stoker season is upon us again, which always leads to sniping, arguing, and fighting, especially among authors who are HWA members versus authors who aren’t. Every year, someone asks for my thoughts on the matter. So here they are, excerpted from a discussion this morning on my private Facebook page between myself, J.F. Gonzalez, Ginger Nuts of Horror’s Jim McLeod, and others.
“I’ve got two Stokers, and I *think* I still hold the record for most nominations in a year (nominations, not preliminary) but that being said — it’s a popularity contest among other writers. Does it feel nice? Sure. But it’s rarely representative of the larger readership or community, and instead, is a snapshot of who the HWA’s cool kids are that particular year. Sometimes, deserving works make it onto the ballot, and sometimes, those deserving works even win… but there’s also a lot of blatant nepotism and nonsense on the ballot and in the process itself. Winning one feels nice. Of course it does. It’s nice to win things. But the larger public doesn’t care, and a win isn’t going to do shit for your career. (Mike Oliveri can speak to that).
And therein lies my problem with the awards. If the nominees would just be gracious and humble and handle it with dignity and good grace, it’d be one thing. And most do. But… you also have the contingent of nominees who campaign relentlessly and annoy the fuck out of everyone else. And those people are usually the ones who landed on the ballot via nepotism in the first place. And they are the ones who taint the process for everyone else, including their fellow HWA members.”
An addendum, as I posted earlier on Sephera’s page: “Well, I can’t speak for anyone else, but my post this morning is ONLY about the campaigning for votes. I’m not even a member and already I’m getting spammed with “Hey, will you read this and consider voting?” That happens every year, and it’s annoying and unseemly. My only point was if you’re nominated, conduct yourself with dignity and grace. And the flip side is also true. While it’s okay to express your misgivings about the awards or the process (and many do) it’s a dick move to disparage those nominated. Treat them with dignity and grace, as well.
