Sunday, September 30, 2007

Covering the Rest of the Bases

Before we’ve really had a chance to congratulate the winners of the four annual crime-fiction competitions announced during this weekend’s Bouchercon, in Anchorage, Spinetingler Magazine editor Sandra Ruttan is already soliciting nominees for her debut Spinetingler Awards competition.

She announced in August that her online periodical would enter the fray of annual honors with prizes in seven specific categories, presumably to be handed ’round by the close of 2007. (That number has since grown to eight.) Ruttan is currently looking to the reading public for nominees in the following classifications:

• Best Novel: Legend (“authors with 9 or more books published”)
• Best Novel: Rising Star (“authors with 4-8 published works in total”)
• Best Novel: New Voice (“authors with 1-3 published works in total”)
• Best Cover Art (“Tell us what covers do it for you.”)
• Best Publisher (“If you’re a reader who’s had wonderful experiences, an author with nothing but good things to say, tell us who you nominate and why.”)
• Best Editor (“With so many complaints about poor editing and typos in books, we thought it was time to take note of the hard-working editors who are getting things right.”)
• Best Short Story on the Web (“Stories must be published in a recognized e-zine, such as Shots, Mouth Full of Bullets, Pulp Pusher, Demolition, etc.”)
• Special Services to the Industry (“for tireless contributions to e-zines, writing reviews, running discussion lists or forums”)

Ruttan explains that “nominations can be e-mailed to sandra.ruttan@spinetinglermag.com for works published between October 1, 2006, and September 30, 2007.” She adds that “Only one e-mail per person will be considered.” A complete rundown of rules regarding Spinetingler Award picks is available here.

“We will close to nominations November 15, 2007,” Ruttan goes on to explain, “and will post the shortlist of nominees [in] early December. At that time, people will be invited to vote again, selecting their favourite in each category. [The] public vote will be weighed against the rankings of the editors to determine the winners in each category.”

READ MORE:Nomination Process for Spinetingler Awards,” by Sandra Ruttan (Crime Zine Report).

1 comment:

Sandra Ruttan said...

I probably should have expanded the 'special services' award description. Bookstore owners, publishers - there are people like Dave Thompson who automatically spring to mind - industry bloggers... whatever. We got thinking about it later, about how many volunteers contribute tirelessly in support of our genre.

Nominations have already started coming in, and they're pretty interesting. I hope this expands my reading and brings new authors to my attention.