Spinetingler Award Winners!

[Angie]

Just in case you missed it, the Spinetingler awards were announced today. You can check out the full list here. Massive congrats are due to all the winners and nominees - many of whom are members here. But there's one bald Aussie dude who gets an extra huge 'whoohoo!' Yep, Crimespace's very own Daniel Hatadi took the "Special Services to the Industry" award. How freakin' cool is that?! Go, you crazy cats, go!

Oh yeah, and there's a nifty new site for all sorts of crime fiction madness to check out - from podcasts to interviews, reviews and polls, and (coming soon) v-casts over at At Central Booking for your mad web pleasure.

Congrats again to the great bald one!

[I. J. Parker]

Yes, I saw with great delight. It's sooo deserved. These days I don't like looking at awards nominations, but this one made my day.

Congratulations, Daniel!

[Ali]

Yes Daniel -

All the hard work you've done - WELL DONE

I'll be having a few drinks toasting Crimespace

Ali

[John Dishon]

Yeah, congratulations to Daniel. Crimespace is a well-organized site that has grown very fast.

Could someone explain to me the different categories for novels? How does an author qualify for Legend or Rising Star or New Voice? I would assume that "New Voice" refers to a first-time novelist, but every nominee has had more than one novel published. So how do any of them qualify as a "New Voice"?

[Sandra Ruttan]

In the announcements about the awards originally, that was explained. In my opinion, the present format for awards is unbalanced, featuring debut authors (and in the case of The Edgars, they must be American) and everybody else.

New Voice category is for authors with 1-3 novels published.
Rising Star, from 4-8 published titles
Legend, 9 or more

The nominees were chosen from open call for recommendations, one e-mail per person, using editorial input to settle ties. That's essentially how it unfolded to the very end.

While it sounds complex, it's not as complicated as you might think. There are other awards where they eliminate anyone nominated the year prior, and certain very popular authors they feel would win every time they're nominated (this has been explained on 4MA regarding the Barry Awards).

Since it was our first year, some things will be refined in terms of process and categories, but Spinetingler has always put a heavy emphasis on promoting newer talent. Many of those newer voices and rising stars are overlooked in deference to the phenomenally successful and very popular - and that's not always because the writing is better. It's the way that it is. I don't think the world needs another straight-up popularity contest. Editorial input was used to determine three of the eight categories because of ties or exceptionally close numbers, and I'll refine that next year with an editorial counterbalance percentage. Trying to find a way to recognize what's both popular and quality.

[John Dishon]

Thanks. Makes sense now.

[DADavenport]

Kudos to all the winners and nominees! Especially our Daniel. Crimespace is a great accomplishment! And I am loving At Central Booking. Another terrific achievement, Sandra.

[Daniel Hatadi]

Thanks so much to all of you. Ali and Sandra, you both do so much yourselves. Someone will have to have another award so Spinetingler can win too!