RA FOR ALL...THE ROAD SHOW!

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Thursday, September 8, 2022

Using Awards Lists As A RA Tool: Hugos and Fingerprint Awards

This is part of my ongoing series on using Awards Lists as a RA tool. Click here for all posts in the series in reverse chronological order. Click here for the first post which outlines the details how to use awards lists as a RA tool.   

One big award was announced recently and one smaller on, but as I talk about every time I post something in this series, any award, if used to help patrons properly is one of your best resources.

Let's start small so that you don't lose interest part way through this post. 

The inaugural Fingerprint Awards shortlist was just announced, and you can VOTE for the winner.

More about the award from The Bookseller:

The awards, which recognise the best titles in the crime genre and most of which are voted for by readers, are held as part of the Capital Crime Festival co-organised by Goldsboro Books owner and agent David Headley. 

Shortlisted for the Crime Book of the Year is McDermid’s 1979 (Little, Brown), Mick Herron’sSlough House (John Murray Press) and Hallett’s debut, The Appeal (Viper), which won the John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger earlier this year. Also in the running is fellow debut novelist Sarah Pearse with The Sanatorium (Transworld) and Eva Björg Ægisdóttir for her second novel, Girls Who Lie (Orenda).

Lisa Jewell and Paula Hawkins have made the cut for Thriller Novel of the Year with The Night She Disappeared (Cornerstone) and A Slow Fire Burning (Transworld) respectively, while Gold Dagger-winning M W Craven is in the running for Dead Ground (Little, Brown).

Multi-award winner author Mukherjee is among those shortlisted for the Historical Crime Novel of the Year for The Shadows of Men (Vintage), his latest Wyndham & Banerjee novel, alongside Daughters of Night by Laura Shepherd-Robinson (Pan Macmillan).

Two other categories will be selected solely by the Capital Crime advisory board, comprised of authors, bloggers, journalists and industry figures. The categories are the Industry Award of the Year, recognising the best marketing campaign, editorial work, or publishing strategy, and the Thalia Proctor Lifetime Achievement Award, marking an outstanding contribution to the crime-writing industry.

"My vision for Capital Crime was always to make it a festival for readers and what better way to celebrate the readers who make it all worthwhile than to give them the power to decide the winners of the Fingerprint Awards?" Headley said. "Narrowing down the incredible body of work published last year to six categories of five books [each] was no mean feat but with the well-informed advisory board we’ve gathered together, I’m confident that these shortlists represent the very best of crime and thriller writing from around the world."

Readers can vote for their preferred winners here by 19th September. The winners will be announced at 7.30pm on 29th September.

Click here to see the full shortlist and to learn more.

From a resource standpoint, obviously you cannot use the backlist here, but this is fun, new, and slightly different award. Plus, you can make a display of these authors and other crime fiction titles and endorse your patrons to vote. They will love being part of the award process. If you are adventurous, you could run your own local "Fingerprint Award."

From a brand new award to one of our most trusted-- The Hugo Award. This, along with the Nebula, is the most prestigious Speculative Fiction Award. While the Nebulas are voted on by the members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association, the Hugos are voted on by those who attend The World Science Fiction Convention each year.

There are 19 categories including art and fan categories. Of special note for us in the libraries, there is an award for Best Series, YA, and New Writers. You can click through to the Hugo's website for sinners and nominees past and present going back 80 years!

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