The Nebula Awards are given by SFWA to the best novel, short story, novelette, novella, and script of the year. The Award is voted on by the SFWA members. The ballot is composed of several works in each category put forward by the membership, and the jury who does a very expansive search for stories including small presses adds an additional choice in each category to the final ballot. The Award goes to the best regardless of whether they are a member of SFWA or not.
As a member of the Short Story jury, I spent this past year reading short stories, novelettes, and novels. The criteria for the jury's final decision was to find sparkling jems to bring to the attention of the SFWA membership. I looked for stories in each category that moved me, fascinated me, and that I thought were extraordinary.
I'm going to tell you truthfully that those stories can be found anywhere. Whenever an editor chooses a story to publish, it is only his or her subjective opinion that makes that decision. That's why great stories can be found anywhere. One editor's rejected story is another editor's prize.
It's going to be interesting to see how the SFWA membership votes. Whether one of the jury's recommendations on the ballot wins a Nebula, doesn't matter as much as the fact that they were nominated to the final ballot.
Also too, do these stories have to be from SFWA eligible markets?
Thanks for giving us such a detailed description of the process, and welcome back to Hatrack.
[This message has been edited by mommiller (edited February 24, 2008).]
More information about the Nebula Awards is available on www.sfwa.org
However, that aside, most of the Nebula winners are worthy of winning in my opinion. I love Moons Speed of Dark (SF) and Bujold's Paladin of Souls as well as many other winners.
[This message has been edited by JeanneT (edited February 24, 2008).]
If you are visiting this thread again, I'm left curious what kinds of broad themes you may have found over the course of the year. Specifically - are there topics that seem to get better treatment (more moving/sparkling), eras, styles, etc. I'm a newish writer with a thousand and sixty inspirations or story ideas, and I sometimes have trouble figuring out which way to go.
For instance, I was surprised at positive reception to my clone story, which I would have thought was a bit cliche, and disappointed in my adult take on an imaginary friend, which I think *is* a bit cliche but I thought I broke past it but apparently failed to do. I use these not as examples of what works, merely just examples of broad topics/subject matter.
It also seems that some things are easier to write than others. Action-oriented seems easier than introspective.
I guess my main question is: do you have any advice for writers based on your experience? Any thoughts on things that did seem to work really well or things that really flopped? I am sure you are under confidentiality agreements on the specific works you reviewed, but I'm just looking for broad trends/suggestions. Thanks in advance!
What a great way to spend a year...