New Nebula Rules
The following rules are effective for the Nebula Awards® effective January 2009, and, except as explicitly stated, will have no impact on works published in 2008 or the Nebula Awards® process currently underway. Any questions about these rules should be forwarded to the Nebula Awards Commissioner, the SFWA Awards Rules Committee or a member of the Board of Directors.
You can find the old rules here.
Complete Nebula Awards® Rules Including the Ray Bradbury and Andre Norton Awards (Revised & Updated)
The Nebula Awards® Rules as of January 2009 are listed below:
1. The SFWA President shall, in compliance with the Bylaws and established operating procedures, appoint a Nebula Awards Commissioner to oversee and administer the Nebula Awards® and to carry out the duties as outlined herein and any other related responsibilities that may arise during the course of said administration.
2. The SFWA President shall, in compliance with the Bylaws and established operating procedures, appoint a three (3) person SFWA Awards Rules Committee (SARC), to rule on questions pertaining to the Nebula Awards® rules. The Nebula Awards Commissioner will serve as a secretary to this committee, but shall not be a voting member.
3. The SFWA Board of Directors, at their discretion, may create additional awards in special categories, to be voted on by the Active members in good standing. These additional awards will not be Nebula Awards.
4. The Nebula Awards year shall begin on January 1 and end on December 31 of the year for which awards will be presented.
5. Nebula Awards will be made in the following categories:
a. Short Story: less than 7,500 words;
b. Novelette: at least 7,500 words but less than 17,500 words;
c. Novella: at least 17,500 words but less than 40,000 words
d. Novel: 40,000 words or more.
i. At the author’s request, a novella-length work published individually, rather than as a part of a collection, anthology, or other collective work, shall appear in the novel category.
6. Eligibility
a. All works first published in English, in the United States, during the calendar year, in the genres of science fiction, fantasy, or a related fiction genre are eligible for the Nebula Awards® in their respective categories.
i. Works such as comic books, graphic novels, and similar type works shall be placed in an existing category as deemed appropriate by the Nebula Awards Commissioner, based primarily on their word count.
ii. The Nebula Awards Commissioner will decide the eligibility of a questionable work.
b. Works first published in English on the Internet or in electronic form during the calendar year shall be treated as though published in the United States.
c. Word counts for translated works shall be based on the English word count.
d. Works not yet released to the general public, such as review copies for a forthcoming work or works published in a password protected or limited distribution workshop, shall not be eligible for nomination or the final ballot until the work is actually released and available to the general public.
e. The novel-length version of a previously published short story, novelette, or novella shall be eligible upon the novel’s first English-language publication in the United States. A novel re-issued in expanded or modified form shall not be eligible unless previously withdrawn in accordance with the rules. A short story, novelette, or novella based on a previously-published version of the work shall not be eligible.
f. Works are eligible whether or not their authors are members of SFWA. Works are eligible whether or not they have been previously published outside of the United States.
7. Withdrawals
a. The author of any eligible work may withdraw it from consideration in a given year and request that a later edition be considered for the Nebula, but only in two specific cases:
i. If it appeared as a limited edition publication, or
ii. If the author finds the published version unacceptable as the result of editorial changes or production errors.
b. An author must present a written request for withdrawal to the Nebula Awards Commissioner by November 1st or within thirty (30) days after the publication, production, or broadcast of the work, whichever is later.
c. For a later edition of a withdrawn work to be eligible, the author must present a written request for reinstatement to the Nebula Awards Commissioner.
d. Nominations shall not be accepted for a work withdrawn from eligibility, nor shall nominations on file for any such work be carried over to the future.
e. An author may permanently withdraw a work from eligibility by delivering a written request to the Nebula Awards Commissioner. No work so withdrawn shall ever again be eligible for the Nebula Awards.
f. If a work published late in the year is withdrawn after November 1st and has received nominations, those nominations will be null and void. The member(s) who nominated the work will be allowed to make replacement nominations.
8. All Active and Associate members of SFWA in good standing are eligible to make nominations during the NOMINATION PERIOD.
9. Works may not be nominated by their authors, editors, publishers, or agents, by spouses or domestic partners of their authors, or by any other party with a monetary interest in the work.
10. A secure, web-based form will be provided for all classes of members to offer “suggested reading” throughout the year. ANY class of member will be eligible to add entries to this database, which shall be checked for duplicates and errors by the Nebula Awards Commissioner once per month.
11. The official NOMINATION PERIOD will open on November 15th and continue until February 15th. Nominations will be accepted via a secure web-based form.
a. Only Active and Associate members in good standing shall be eligible to nominate works for the FINAL BALLOT.
b. Nominations shall be treated as confidential information and only the names of the works and numbers of nominations will be available for viewing by other members or the general public.
c. Each eligible member may nominate no more than five different works per category and may not nominate any work more than once.
d. The nominations will be counted by the Nebula Awards Commissioner, who shall compose the FINAL BALLOT.
12. The FINAL BALLOT shall be comprised of the top six works in each category which receive the most nominations.
a. In the event that zero (0) works are nominated in a given category, then no award shall be given in that category .
b. In the event that less than six (6) works are nominated in a given category, then all works will be listed on the FINAL BALLOT.
c. In the event of a tie within a category for number of nominations, all tied works shall appear on the FINAL BALLOT, but in no event will more than a total of six works be listed per category, unless there is a tie for the final slot on the ballot in a category, in which case all such tied works will be listed no matter the number.
d. The FINAL BALLOT shall be made available for viewing no later than February 20th.
e. The FINAL BALLOT shall be made available for voting on March 1 via a secure web form. A printable version shall be made available, and members may print and mail their votes in.
f. Only Active members in good standing shall be eligible to vote.*
g. Voting will be open until March 30th for Active Members.
h. No more than one vote may be cast per category, per member.
i. All votes will be tallied by April 1st.
j. The work in each category that receives the most votes will be declared the winner.
k. In the event of a tie after voting on the FINAL BALLOT, the total number of nominations received for each work will determine the winner. If the number of nominations is also tied, then the tie shall stand, and all such tied works shall receive the award.
13. ONLY for the 2009 Nebula Awards:
a. Works which receive at least five (5) recommendations under the previous Nebula Awards® rules and were published after July 1, 2008, but did not make the 2008 Preliminary Ballot shall be nominated per these rules during the nomination period, with the number of recommendations they received added to their total number of nominations. Members who recommended these works will not have their total number of allowed nominations reduced, but they may not nominate these works a second time.
b. Works which received less than five (5) recommendations under the previous Nebula rules and were published after July 1, 2008, may be nominated per these rules during the nomination period. Recommendations will not be carried over.
c. The FINAL BALLOT shall be mailed in printed form to all members eligible to vote no later than March 1, 2010.
14. Nebula Juries
a. Effective in 2009, the use of Nebula Juries shall be eliminated, and publishers are encouraged to make eligible works available to the membership.
15. The Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation
a. Beginning in 2010 (for works released in 2009), SFWA shall award, in tandem with the Nebula Awards, an annual Ray Bradbury Award for Best Dramatic Presentation. This award is not a Nebula, but shall follow all Nebula rules and procedures, and be administered by the Nebula Awards Commissioner.
b. Eligible works for this award shall be dramatic works such as motion pictures, television, Internet, radio, audio, and stage productions.
c. The award will be given to the principal director and writer(s) of the production.
16. The Andre Norton Award for Outstanding Young Adult Science Fiction or Fantasy Book
a. The Andre Norton Award for Outstanding Young Adult Science Fiction or Fantasy Book, established in 2006, is awarded in tandem with the Nebula Awards. This award is not a Nebula, but shall follow all Nebula rules and procedures except as follows:
i. Eligibility: The eligibility period shall be the calendar year. Any book in its first appearance in the English language published as a young adult science fiction or fantasy (or related genre) novel during that period shall be eligible, including graphic novels. Nothing shall preclude a work’s being eligible for both a Nebula Award and an Andre Norton Award. There shall be no word limit. Any questions of eligibility shall be decided:
1. By the Andre Norton Award Jury, in consultation if possible with the author, for purposes of determining whether or not a work is a young adult novel, or
2. By the Nebula Awards Commissioner, in consultation with the SARC and subject to an appeal to that committee, for purposes of determining other aspects of eligibility according to the rules.
3. In the event of a disagreement over jurisdiction, the SARC shall determine whether the eligibility question at issue falls under the jurisdiction of the Jury, the Nebula Awards Commissioner, or the SARC.
b. Andre Norton Award Jury: In consultation with the Nebula Awards Commissioner, the President shall appoint an Andre Norton Award Jury. The jury shall consist of at least three (3) and not more than seven (7) members, to consider works published during the calendar year for possible inclusion on the Final Ballot. The jury may add up to three (3) works to the Final Ballot. The jury may not add a work written by a member of the jury or a spouse or domestic partner of a member of the jury to the FINAL BALLOT.
c. Nominations: Nominations may be made by any Active or Associate members of SFWA in good standing, and shall be tallied in accordance with the Nebula Awards® rules for novels. Nominations shall be tracked by the Nebula Awards Commissioner and included as a separate category on the FINAL BALLOT.
d. FINAL BALLOT: The top six (6) works nominated shall reach the FINAL BALLOT, according to the procedures established for novels. The FINAL BALLOT shall be appended to the Nebula Awards Final Ballot, voted upon by the Active members and counted in accordance with the Nebula rules.
e. Winner: The winner shall be the work which receives the most votes during the FINAL BALLOT . Ties shall be handled in the manner established for novels.
17. The winners of the Nebula Awards, Bradbury Award, and Andre Norton Award shall be announced at an annual Nebula Awards ceremony.
18. The interpretation of these rules, and all questions regarding eligibility, withdrawals, nominations, ballots, etc. shall be decided by the Nebula Awards Commissioner, subject to appeal to the SARC. If an author or a director or writer of a dramatic production disagrees with a decision made by the SARC, he or she may apply to the Board of Directors for a further appeal by presenting to them a brief summary of the reasons for the appeal. At this time, the SARC shall provide a summary of their decision to the Board, and, if two members of the Board then believe that an appeal is justified, the decision shall be voted on by the Board, which may overrule the SARC.
These rules have been prepared under the current By-laws. It is anticipated that new By-laws will be ratified during 2009, and the Board reserves the right to revisit these rules at that time. These rules are “Working Policies” as defined in the current By-laws, under Article X, Section 2, and may be amended at any time by a majority vote of the Board of Directors.
*It is anticipated by the Board that Associate members will be allowed to vote on the Final Ballot, once the new by-laws have been ratified by the membership.
***
Current as of January 2006
1. The Nebula Awards® year shall begin on January 1 and end on December 31 of the year for which awards will be presented.
2. Awards will be made in the following categories:
a. Short Story: less than 7,500 words.
b. Novelette: at least 7,500 words but less than 17,500 words.
c. Novella: at least 17,500 words but less than 40,000 words.
d. Novel: 40,000 words or more. At the author’s request, a novella-length work published individually, rather than as part of a collection or an anthology, shall appear in the novel category.
e. Script: a professionally produced audio, radio, television, motion picture, multimedia, or theatrical script
3. Eligibility
a. Works in categories (a) through (e) are eligible for twelve (12) months from the month of publication or release. A work’s eligibility period begins on the first day of the month of its first publication in the United States, or, in the case of a dramatic work, on the day of its first release in a U.S. public theater, or first air-date on U.S. TV, or equivalent for radio plays and theatrical products, and ends on the last day of the preceeding month in the following year, or, in the case of a dramatic work, 365 days later.
b. A work is eligible to be placed on the Preliminary Nebula Ballot only once. A work that has been placed on the Preliminary Nebula Ballot is no longer eligible, even if the twelve month eligibility period has not expired.
c. The novel-length version of a previously-published short story, novelette, or novella shall be eligible upon the novel’s first English-language publication in the USA. A novel re-issued in expanded or modified form shall not be eligible unless previously withdrawn in accord with Rule #6. A short story, novelette, or novella based on a previously-published work shall not be eligible.
4. Works must be in either the Science Fiction or the Fantasy genres. The Nebula Awards® Report (NAR) Editor will decide the eligibility of a questionable work, subject to appeal to the SFWA Awards Rules Committee.
5. Works are eligible whether or not their authors are members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA). Works are eligible whether or not they have been previously published outside the United States of America.
6. The author of any eligible work may withdraw it from consideration in a given year and request that a later edition be considered for the Nebula, but only in two specific cases: (a) if it appeared as a limited edition publication, or (b) if the author finds the published version unacceptable as the result of editorial changes or production errors.
The NAR editor shall decide whether or not to allow a withdrawal, subject to appeal to the SFWA Awards Rules Committee.
7. Withdrawals
a. An author must present a written request for withdrawal to the NAR editor within 30 days after the publication of the first Nebula Awards® Report following publication of the work.
b. For a later edition of a withdrawn work to be eligible, the author must present a written request for reinstatement of eligibility to the NAR editor.
c. Recommendations shall not be accepted for a work withdrawn from eligibility, nor shall recommendations on file for any such work be carried over to the future.
d. An author may permanently withdraw a work from eligibility by delivering a written request to the NAR editor. No work so withdrawn shall ever again be eligible for the Nebula.
8. All active members of SFWA in good standing are entitled to make recommendations and may vote on award ballots.
9. Works may not be recommended by their authors, editors, publishers, or any other party with a monetary interest in the work.
10. The SFWA® President shall appoint a Nebula Awards® Report (NAR) editor to compile, publish, and distribute to members a list of recommendations of works to be considered for the awards at intervals during the award year.
11. At the end of the Nebula Awards® year, the NAR editor will issue a Preliminary Nebula Ballot. All works receiving ten (10) or more recommendations during their period of eligibility shall be placed on the Preliminary Ballot in their appropriate categories. The Preliminary Ballot must be mailed to active members no later than January 15.
12. Members will nominate no more than five works in each category on the Preliminary Ballot. These ballots shall be returned to the NAR editor or independent agent (as indicated on the ballot) before the Preliminary Ballot closing date, which will be not less than 28 days after the date of distribution of the Preliminary Ballot. The five works in each category receiving the most nominations will be placed on a Final Ballot.
13. The Final Ballot will be published and distributed by the NAR editor to all active members within fourteen (14) days after the Preliminary Ballot closing date.
14. Members will cast numerically ranked votes for works on the Final Ballot, writing 1 for the first choice in each category, 2 for the second, and so on; or, instead of ranked votes for nominated works, members may vote for “No Award.” If any ranked vote is cast in a category, a vote for “No Award” in the same category will be disregarded. Members may leave any category completely unmarked; their ballots will only be counted in categories in which they have cast ranked votes or voted for “No Award.”
15. Votes for “No Award” will be counted before ranked votes are counted. If forty (40) percent or more of the ballots received in a particular category received are marked only for “No Award,” then no Nebula Award will be given in that category and votes in that category will not be counted.
16. Ranked votes for nominated works are counted by the “Australian ballot” method defined in this paragraph. On the first count of ranked votes for nominated works in a category, only first-ranked choices are counted. If any work is the first choice of a majority of the ballots cast for works in that category, it is declared the winner of the Nebula Award for that category. If no work has received a majority of first-ranked votes on the first count, additional counts will be made, as follows: The work which received the lowest number of best-ranked votes on the latest previous count is removed from further contention. Each ballot cast for the removed work is now counted for the work, still in contention, which received the next-best-ranked vote on that ballot. If no work that is still in contention has been marked with a ranked vote, that ballot is not counted again for that category. Additional counts will be made, removing the last-place work from contention each time, and adding next-best-ranked votes from its ballots to the totals for the works still in contention, until one work receives a majority of the votes cast in the latest count in that category, in which case that work is declared the winner of the Nebula Award for that category; or until only two works remain with exactly the same number of ballots counted in their favor, in which case the work, of those two, which received the greater number of first-ranked votes on the first count is declared the winner of the Nebula Award. If both works also had the same number of first-ranked votes on the first count, the voting is declared a tie, and both works will receive the Nebula Award.
17. The Final Ballot will be tabulated by an independent agency. To be counted, properly prepared Final Ballots must be received by the Final Ballot closing date, which shall be not less than 28 days after the date of distribution of the Final Ballot.
18. Nebula Juries
a. The SFWA® President shall appoint, and the NAR editor administer three Nebula juries, each consisting of at least three (3) and not more than seven (7) members. In the case of the Dramatic Script Nebula Jury, at least two members of that Jury shall have had at least one script professionally produced.
b. The Short Fiction Jury shall have the option of adding one work to the Final Ballot in each of the three short fiction categories (short story, novelette and novella).
c. The Novel Jury shall have the option of adding one work to the novel category.
d. The Script Jury shall have the option of adding one work to the Script category. The Script Jury shall also be charged with ensuring, to the best of its ability, that the Nebula for best script is presented to the primary writer or writers of an actual script. Accordingly, the Jury shall be responsible for requesting a copy of the production script for each script on the Preliminary Ballot, and reviewing the attribution on those scripts, to ensure that the Award shall accurately reflect the true authorship of the Work. The Jury may disqualify productions where authorship is unclear or in doubt, or the accredited authorship consists of more than four individuals, with no primary author. Such disqualified productions will not appear on the Final Ballot.
e. A Jury may not add to the Final Ballot a work written by a member of that Jury.
19. The Nebula Jury shall consider only eligible works published between January 1 and December 31 of the year for which awards will be presented.
20. The President shall appoint a three (3) person SFWA Awards Rules Committee (SARC), formerly the Nebula Awards® Committee, to rule on questions pertaining to the Nebula and other SFWA awards rules. The NAR editor will serve as a secretary to this committee, but shall not be a voting member.
21. The president shall have the power, at his/her discretion, to call for the presentation of a Grandmaster Award. A maximum of one Grandmaster Award can be presented each year with no requirement that an award be presented in any particular year. Nominations for Grandmaster Award shall be solicited from the Board of Directors, with the advice of participating past presidents, who shall vote, with participating past presidents, to determine its recipients. In case of a tie, the president’s vote shall decide.
22. Beginning in 2006 (for books published in 2005), SFWA shall award, in tandem with the Nebula Awards, an annual Andre Norton Award for Outstanding Young Adult Science Fiction or Fantasy Book. This award is not a Nebula, but shall follow all Nebula rules and procedures, except where differentiated below.
a. Eligibility: The eligibility period shall be the same as for the Nebula for best novel. Any book in its first appearance in the English language published as a young adult science fiction or fantasy novel during that period shall be eligible, including graphic novels. Nothing shall preclude a work’s being eligible for both a Nebula Award and an Andre Norton Award. There shall be no word limit. Any questions of eligibility shall be decided:
i. By the Andre Norton Award Jury, in consultation if possible with the author, for purposes of determining whether or not a work is a Young Adult novel, or
ii. By the NAR editor, in consultation with the SFWA Awards Rules Committee and subject to appeal to that committee, for purposes of determining other aspects of eligibility according to the rules.
In the event of a disagreement over jurisdiction, the SARC shall determine whether the eligibility question at issue falls under the jurisdiction of the Jury, or the NAR editor and the SARC.
b. Andre Norton Award Jury: There shall be a Jury, constituted and administered in the same manner as a Nebula jury, to consider works published during the eligibility period for possible inclusion on the preliminary and final ballots. The jury may add any number of works to the preliminary ballot. The jury may add up to three works to the final ballot. The jury may not add a work written by a member of the jury to either ballot.
c. Preliminary ballot: Recommendations for a preliminary ballot may be made by active SFWA members and shall be tallied in accordance with the Nebula rules for novels obtaining a place on the preliminary ballot. Recommendations shall be tracked by the Nebula Awards Report editor and included as a separate section in the NAR. The preliminary ballot shall be appended to the Nebula Awards preliminary ballot.
d. Final ballot: Works shall reach the final ballot according to the procedures established for the Nebula Award for novels. The final ballot shall be appended to the Nebula Awards final ballot, voted upon by the active membership, and counted in accordance with the Nebula rules.
e. Winner: The winner of the Andre Norton Award shall be announced at the Nebula Awards ceremony, along with the Grandmaster Award (if one is presented).
23. The officers of SFWA, at their discretion, may propose additional awards in special categories to be voted on by the active members. These additional awards will not be a Nebula Award.
24. The Nebula Awards® rules may be amended by a majority of the active membership or a majority of the officers.
