Mihai Adascalitei at Dark Wolf’s Fantasy Reviews recently took the time to contact the 2009 Bram Stoker Awards nominees to ask their opinion about the award and how it can affect an author’s career. Specifically, he first asked the group of nominees: How does it feel to be nominated for the Bram Stoker Award? Is winning the award as important as the nomination? And he followed up with this question: Can a nomination for an award such as the Bram Stoker Award change an author’s career? Does this nomination set a higher standard for your works?
Here’s how Ellen Datlow answered the second question: “I think that a nomination is more helpful to new writers/editors starting out than those already established. The nomination of an unknown can influence readers outside the field to read his work. But I doubt very much that it changes an author or editor’s career markedly. Very few awards do. However, a short story nomination might bring an author’s work to the attention of an agent, which in turn could help her sell a first novel.
“I’m always a little nervous when my next anthology is published – it doesn’t matter whether I’ve won or been nominated for an award for the previous anthology.
“I have no idea what the market expects but I sure hope each book has increased sales. I edit so many different kinds of anthologies: theme, non-theme, all or mostly original, all reprint, sf/f/h that I hope the market/that is, readers, just eagerly await what I’m producing next.”
You can catch all the other responses here: Dark Wolf’s Fantasy Reviews
They make for a fun and insightful read.
