But Tricia, doesn't a new author have to have at least one story availabe to be considered as a new author?
I think that's what Tricia said in her post, Sas:
The criteria for eligibility for this award is the posting of the first story or stories by an author anywhere in the fandom.
As Tricia noted, the criteria for BNA is fairly simple. Each year any author who has posted their first story in the eligible period is automatically put on the list for the BNA award. The eligible story only has to have been posted anywhere in the fandom, as Tricia says - whether it was on the Archive or not is completely irrelevant. It could be posted on the Archive, on the mbs, on an author's personal website...the only important factor is that it is the first piece of work that this author has published in FoLCdom.
Of course, you're right that BNA is awarded - at least partly - on stories. It would be strange if it were not! The award is for the author who has first posted in the award year whom readers believe has written the best stories. That's certainly part and parcel of it. But it's still an award for the author, not the story. It celebrates the best new author of the year. And in that it's unique in the Kerths, because all of the other awards are for the stories alone.
Elisabeth first posted on these mbs in 2005. Therefore, that was the year in which she was eligible for BNA. I understand that it may regrettably be the case that in 2005 her name was omitted from the BNA eligibles list in error. If so, then that is deeply unfortunate and a bit of a sad situation. Hardly ideal. But errors do happen. That's why on the Kerth site, K-Comm ask that anyone noticing an omission informs them so that the error can be rectified. It is going to happen, now and then. K-Comm, just like the rest of we humans ain't infallible. Just like Mercy was omitted by accident this year, K-Comm were informed she should be on the list and now she's been put on the list. Every year, the list changes between it being first posted and the nominations stage as errors are tweaked out of it. Stories are added which were missed, stories are removed which were accidentally added...them's the breaks of such a process.
The onus is, however, on the author to rectify any mistakes, not K-Comm. They cannot be expected to trawl the net tracking down every single story and author eligible for the awards. That's why, with the other awards, if the story wasn't submitted to the Archive in the eligible year (which means it automatically ends up on the eligibles list) the author has to mail K-Comm and let them know they want it included. If they don't, it probably won't be unless some kind FoLC notices for them and alerts K-Comm to the omission.
BNA, as previously noted, is slightly different because the authors on the list come from the eligible stories list. K-Comm, as I understand it, simply goes through the story list, works out which authors posted for the first time that year, and that data forms the BNA list. But it's still possible for them to miss someone out, it's still the responsibility of that author to be paying attention enough to realise the fact and make sure they are on the list in their eligible year and K-Comm still don't have time to go searching them out.
The hard fact is that, if Elisabeth's name was omitted accidentally in 2005, that's regrettable, but it doesn't change the fact that 2005 was the year she was eligible. That 2005 was the
only year she was eligible. Not 2006, 2007 or 2008. Authors only have one chance at BNA, unlike the other awards. They can't be considered eligible for BNA a year after they first post or two years - because logically that negates the very purpose of the award. They are, by any way you define it, no longer new after that year they first posted.
So, sadly, if her name was omitted in 2005 when it should have been on the list, then the deadline has long since passed for that error to be made good. Once the nominations came in in 2005, that was it. Game over. The opportunity to correct the error was gone and it can't be made good now.
At least that's my take on it.
. But I'm not on K-Comm, so you can take it as being pretty unofficial.
LabRat
