BOARD OF DIRECTORS: DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

The GCLS Board of Directors shall:

1. appoint an independent Awards Administrator and an Assistant to oversee, enforce guidelines and rules, and coordinate the awards judging and ceremony;
2. prior to opening the awards nominations, review the GCLS literary awards guidelines and the literary award categories from the previous year and rule on any additions, deletions, and/or modifications for the subsequent year;
3. prior to opening the awards nominations, rule on any modifications to the fee and book submission requirements;
4. prior to opening the awards nominations, appoint a member of the Board to serve as a Liaison for the Awards Administrator’s convenience. Said Liaison will serve as a sounding board for the Awards Administrator, provide historical data, and assist the Awards Administrator in presenting information to the Board should an issue arise that needs adjudication;
5. at the request of the Awards Administrator, and with the help of the appointed Liaison, provide clarification as to rules or guidelines. At no time shall any identifying information as to the nominator, author, or publisher be shared with the Liaison or the GCLS Board of Directors in this process.

The GCLS Board of Directors shall not:

1. have contact with the Awards Administrator regarding the awards from the opening day of the current nominations period through the presentation of the awards;
2. accept any appeals or entertain questions or comments before or during the process regarding the GCLS literary awards. All such issues shall be referred to the Awards Administrator and be handled at the Awards Administrator’s discretion.

LIAISON: DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

The GCLS Liaison to the Awards Administrator shall:

1. serve as advisor to the Awards Administrator during the selection of the judges;
2. serve as Liaison between the GCLS Awards Administrator and the GCLS Board of Directors for any ruling clarifications as may be requested by the Awards Administrator.
3. verify the mathematical calculations of the judging tally sheets, said tally sheets first being stripped of identifying information (book title, author, and publisher) by the Awards Administrator.

AWARDS ADMINISTRATORS: DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

The GCLS Awards Administrator and Assistant shall:

1. issue the approved nomination guidelines for the GCLS literary awards;
2. be responsible, with input and assistance from the Liaison, for the selection and assignment of a minimum of judges per literary award category;
3. record and process all award nominations;
4. provide clarification to nominators regarding the rules and guidelines;
5. be responsible for issuing and enforcing the approved judging rules and guidelines to the judges;
6. provide the judges with all the forms, books, guidelines, and guidance necessary to complete the judging process;
7. evaluate accuracy, completion, and fairness of all evaluations, and in the case of an obvious disproportionate score, contact the judges to ascertain that the results are fair and accurate;
8. upon completion of the judging process, accept the final evaluations from the judges, tally and compile scores, and determine the finalist lists and winners in each category;
9. forward the names of the winners to the individuals who will make the trophies and create the award presentation Powerpoint for the awards ceremony;
10. archive the physical records for not less than seven (7) years.
    

The GCLS Awards Administrator and Assistant shall not:

1. share any aspect of the judging process before, during, or after completion of the process, the only exception being to give general and/or summary data to the Liaison when there is a question for the Board or when advice is needed regarding any aspect of the process that is not currently part of the written guidelines;
2. divulge to anyone the specifics of the numerical rankings for the winners or the way the various judges evaluated the works they read.

The judges’ decisions are final. Neither the Awards Administrator nor the Board will entertain objections or challenges with regard to the judging or the judging process.

LITERARY AWARDS JUDGES: DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

A judge shall:

1. judge only in categories in which s/he is not nominated;
2. judge only categories in which books by a partner or relatives are not nominated;
3. agree to adhere to the rules and guidelines of the judging process;
4. agree to adhere to the timelines established by the Awards Administrator;
5. sign a non-disclosure/confidentiality agreement.

SELECTION OF FINALISTS AND WINNERS:

While every judging process has elements of subjectivity, the process used by the Judges for the GCLS Literary Awards greatly reduces the prospect of favoritism. Each Judge is provided with rules and guidelines and one clean copy of each book for the category being judged along with one scoring sheet for each book to be read and scored.

The scoring sheet is comprised of several sections containing a variety of sub-questions which
apply to the characteristics of the category being judged. For instance, poetry judges would consider openings, use of language, structure, theme, content, etc. while mystery judges would focus on openings, structure, plot, characterization, etc. All categories have some common questions (initial evaluation, openings, overall impressions), but each category also has its own specific sub-questions tailored to the genre.

Each book must be scored in the category for which it is a finalist. For example, a romance with a mystery subplot, if nominated in the mystery category, must be evaluated in terms of how well it serves as a mystery. This is why it is so important for submitters to be sure they have nominated the book in the most accurate category.

Judges read and evaluate each book, assign a point value to each question using the following designations:

5 – Excellent: minimal flaws, a joy to read;
4 – Very good: few flaws, and any minor technical flaws did not detract from the reading;
3 – Good: some flaws present and needed further editing or reworking in key aspects;
2 – Fair: needs improvement in enough aspects that the reading was not as smooth as it should have been;
1 – Poor: serious flaws, and needed such major revision/rewriting that it did not provide for a good reading.
0 – Unacceptable: The flaws are so serious that no points can be given.

Each Judge shall total the score sheets and return them to the GCLS Awards Administrator by the deadline set.

SCORING

Scoring is accomplished by computing the average of the three Judges’ scores. The Top Eight scoring books will be designated Finalists, and the top three (3) scorers in each category, as validated by the Awards Administrator and confirmed by the Liaison, shall be considered equal winners.

TIE-BREAK PROTOCOL

FINALISTS: In the event that there is a tie for the eighth-ranked finalist position, there shall be more than eight finalists for that category.

WINNERS: In the event of a tie between the third and fourth ranked books, the Awards Administrator will read and evaluate the two books in question. The Awards Administrator’s scores will be added to the totals of the original Judges’ scores for each book, and the numbers will be re-averaged, to determine the winner.

In the event that there is a second tie, the three Judges will be asked to rank the eight books that have scored the highest on a scale of 1 to 8. The three scores for the two tied books will be averaged to determine the winner.

In the event of a third tie, four awards will be given in that category for that particular year.

SELECTION OF FINALISTS AND WINNERS IN THE ANN BANNON POPULAR CHOICE CATEGORY 

This award is voted on by members of the Golden Crown Literary Society. Voting eligibility requires active membership in the Golden Crown Literary Society on the day the voting opens. All nominations will be compiled, and the Membership will vote to narrow the field to a shortlist of eight (8) finalists. The Membership will vote again to determine who actually wins from the Top 8 Finalists.  

Any author who wins the Ann Bannon Award is ineligible to win again for the subsequent two years. Any year that Ann Bannon cannot attend to present the award, the winner of the previous year (or of a previous year) will be tapped to present the current year’s award.

FINALITY OF DECISIONS

The decision of the Golden Crown Literary Society as to eligibility of any book shall be final, and no correspondence shall be entered into in relation to eligibility. The decision of the Judges, who will remain anonymous until after the Awards are announced, shall be final, and no correspondence will be entered into with publishers, authors, fans, or any agents concerning the judging process.

Questions about any aspect of this nomination packet may be directed to the Awards Administrator: