australia's biggest losers

[adelaidesean]

We have two long-running awards for specfic in this country. Plenty of people have tallied up the winners down the years, but what about all those people who've been nominated and haven't got the gong? Who are our biggest losers?

I've taken the data from the entire history of the Aurealis Awards, plus the Ditmars covering roughly the same period. I've included only professional fiction data for discrete works, ie not included collections or Athelings etc. The results are below the cut.

Does it mean anything? Probably not, but it does confirm my gut feeling that those who win a lot tend to lose a lot too. A bit like rejections, maybe, although the awards process is for the most part outside the author's control.

Awards have no meaning, really, but they do supply a lot of data, and sometimes it's just fun to fiddle.

5
Deborah Biancotti, Jack Dann, Robert Hood, Kate Orman

6
Damien Broderick, Paul Collins, Victor Kelleher, Dave Luckett, Ben Peek

7
Leanne Frahm, Isobelle Carmody, Scott Westerfeld

8
Rory Barnes, Simon Brown, Greg Egan, Richard Harland

9
Shane Dix, Kaaron Warren

10
Margo Lanagan, Garth Nix

11
Sean McMullen, Lucy Sussex

13
Sara Douglass
Terry Dowling

17
Stephen Dedman

21
Sean Williams

UPDATE: Thanks to deborahb for this quote:

"We are all failures--at least, the best of us are."
-- Sir James Matthew Barrie (1860-1937), British writer

Comments

[murasaki-1966.livejournal.com]

Who's Pen Peek? That'a a new name.

[stephen-dedman.livejournal.com]

Collaboration between Robin Pen and Ben Peek, allegedly a distant relative of Shane Nix.

[angriest.livejournal.com]

Clearly you need to lose more awards, Stephen. You can't have that Williams bastard beating you! : )

[stephen-dedman.livejournal.com]

Good point. Spread the word: nominate me for as many fiction Ditmars as possible!

Now, if only I could write short stories as quickly as Sean writes novels...

[ladnews.livejournal.com]

Sheesh. First Ben Beek, then Pen Peek. I can't get it right!

Anyway, it's fixed now. Ta.

[girliejones.livejournal.com]

So what you're saying is ... you've been ROBBED?! A Lot?!

[seanwilliams.livejournal.com]

God, no. I'm extraordinarily lucky.

If I have a point to this post, it might be that a lot of attention is focussed on the winners, which sometimes encourages people who don't win to feel disgruntled. The same goes with nominations and those who haven't been nominated. If I was the sort of person who focused on the bad things in life, maybe I would feel robbed. But I'm not, and I reckon I'm happier for it.

That is, I definitely am. :-)

there can be only one

[maelorin]

with so many authors, and publications, to pick from, and most awards limited to only a single winner, there are bound to be many near misses.

you have me all curious now to know the breakdown of the awards nominated for, awards won, and awards not nominated for but eligible (all by year). the nerd in me is curious about the cycles rather than win-loss rations - if you get what i mean.

then again, i'm sure you'd rather spend your time in the garden, etc :p

[roberthoge.livejournal.com]

Like we didn't already know you were a loser, Sean. ;)