Xena WP asked Jo Walton:

Jo, I struggled with ranking the novels on the Hugo ballot when they were part of a series, but not the first of that series, because so much of the world building and character development occurs in the first novel. How do you deal with this issue? Thanks for your time,

Jo Walton It's really hard. I try to consider the book as if it stands alone, to imagine reading it without the earlier work, especially now that we have the series Hugo. But it's difficult to put that knowledge of earlier books aside. I think about this especially when nominating, and try not to nominate when it's a case of "I love X, here is some more X, yay!" but to consider whether the new volume works considered alone.

Traditionally, looking at the Hugos, sequels have done badly when they don't stand alone. If you look at Bujold, the Hugo winning volumes have been ones that really do work independently. Speaker for the Dead works without Ender's Game. Any number of good second and third volumes have not won -- the Book of the New Sun, for instance. The various parts of A Song of Ice and Fire. Ancilliary Justice, but not the sequels. I was therefore very surprised last year when Obelisk Gate won, though given that less surprised this year.

So in conclusion, yes it's a problem, and all you can do really is keep doing what feels best to you. And do nominate even though you haven't read everything in the world -- nobody has. Nominate what you've read and think is worthy.

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