Guide to the Bram Stoker Awards

One of the biggest awards in the horror/speculative fiction community is the Bram Stoker Award. Given out annually by the Horror Writers Association at StokerCon, this award is highly coveted by all authors of dark fiction.

There are specific guidelines about who can nominate or be nominated. Members can log in to their accounts and read the official rules HERE but I thought I’d break it down a bit.

WHAT IS THE BRAM STOKER AWARD PROCESS?

• All HWA members recommend works
• Those works along with Jury recommendations move to the Preliminary Ballot
• Active & Lifetime Members vote to move works to the Final Ballot
• Winners are chosen by Active & Lifetime Members

WHAT WORK IS CONSIDERED FOR THE BRAM STOKER AWARD?

The awards are presented in these categories:

• NOVEL – (at least 40,000 words)
• FIRST NOVEL
• GRAPHIC NOVEL – (at least 48 pages)
• YOUNG ADULT NOVEL – (age group 14-21, min. 40,000 words)
• LONG FICTION – (7,500 to 39,999 Words)
• SHORT FICTION – (max 7,499 words)
• FICTION COLLECTION – (single-author, At least four separate works of prose fiction, min 40,000 words, at least 25% of the stories cannot have appeared in a previous collection)
• SCREENPLAY
• POETRY COLLECTION – (30 pages min. by a single poet, or 48 min. by no more than 4 poets w/each writing min. 10% of included works)
• ANTHOLOGY – (min. 4 works of fiction by 2 or more authors; min. 60,000 words; min 60% original content)
• NON-FICTION – (min. 40,000 words)
• SHORT NON-FICTION – (min. 1000, up to 40,000 words)

NOTE: Work published electronically IS ELIGIBLE to be recommended, as long as you provide a URL or a link to purchasing information for the work.

WHO CAN RECOMMEND WORK?

Active, Lifetime, Associate, Academic, Supporting, and Affiliate members

THE JURY

THE RECOMMENDED READING LIST

• To appear on this list, an author must have been recommended by someone other than themselves
• If a work is already on the Recommended Reading List, you can still recommend it
• The 5 works with the most votes on the Recommended Reading list are placed on the Preliminary Ballot
• Jury selections do not have to appear on the Recommended Reading List
• One may make unlimited recommendations in any category, but you cannot recommend the same work in the same category more than once

THE PRELIMINARY BALLOT

Eligibility:

• A work must have a minimum of 5 recommendations to qualify for the Preliminary Ballot
• There will be a minimum of 10 works in each category on the Preliminary Ballot

How Are Selections Made

• The top 5 works in each category are combined with the top 5 juror selections to make up the Preliminary Ballot
• If category has less than 5 works with eligible recommendations, the balance will be drawn from Jury selections

Who Votes: on the Preliminary Ballot?

• Active and Lifetime Members

NOTE: One may announce that their work has made it to the Preliminary Ballot, but not that it is “Bram Stoker Recommended”

THE FINAL BALLOT

Eligibility

• The top 5 works in each category with the most member recommendations proceed to the Final Ballot

Who Votes on the Final Ballot

• Active and Lifetime Members

PROMOTING YOUR WORK

There are specific rules about promoting (acceptable – spreading the word) about your work and soliciting (unacceptable – making a deal) to get your work recommended for an award.

HWA Award Etiquette:
You may mention that your work has appeared on the Bram Stoker Awards® preliminary or final ballot. But you can’t promote your work at all as “Bram Stoker Recommended.”

Ways to share your work include:

HWA Newsletter

• advertisements are allowed, but asking “For Your Consideration” is not allowed

HWA Jury

• author(s), editor(s), agent, or publishers can submit their work directly to the appropriate Jury

HWA Facebook page

• Saturdays only
• 1 announcement for each eligible work with the phrasing “I/we am/are offering a copy of this work to you for Bram Stoker Award® consideration.”

New Release announcements

• you may send a notice to the HWA’s “Fiendish Endeavors” or “Recently Born of Horrific Minds” columns
• sections of the HWA Newsletter; New Releases series of blog posts
• Book Releases & Short Story announcements via the Promote Yourself section of HWA for Members Only

Email

• downloading an updated Member List and only emailing those who have opted in.
• NOTE: Using a mailing list program seems to be an easier way to email the large member list

HWA Forum

• Members can post one promotional announcement for each of their eligible works

Social Media

• You are not allowed to promote your work for a Bram Stoker Award on social media such as Twitter (via unsolicited emails or other forms of contact)
• I haven’t seen any rules for promoting one’s work on their website, but be sure to read the full rules before doing so in case I missed something

I’ve Made The Recommended Reading List – Now What?

If your work makes it to the Recommended Reading List, there are a few things you can do to share your work to the voting members:

• Offer a link to download your story/book/writing to the voting members
• This can be an email address (where voting members can request a copy), the Amazon page for the work, your website or the publisher’s website
• Send this info to compiler@horror.org
• You do NOT need to be an HWA Member to provide a link

The Bram Stoker Awards Rules

I tried to cover everything in the rules but I encourage you to read the official rules for anything I missed and to be as well-informed as possible before you start on the journey of promoting your work.

Good luck and have fun!