Current Shikon Award FAQs
NOMINATIONS
How do I nominate stories?
Post the following information as a comment to the nomination post for the appropriate category. All fields are required; please ask me any questions if you cannot fill them all in. Thanks.
Title:
Author:
Author's email: (If you do not want to submit the email, please give us some way to contact the author for notification purposes, either through a journal or website)
Rating:
Category:
Why you are nomming it:
Can I nominate my own material?
Yes. Anyone can nominate a story, even if it is your own. If you do not have an LJ account, I suggest you leave your name and email address for validations. We do not take anonymous submissions.
How do I withdraw my works from consideration?
Reply to the comment nominating your story, stating your withdrawal. If you don't have an LJ, please include an email address so we can confirm your withdrawal.
How many works can I nominate in a category?
One work per category.
Do I have to nominate works in all categories?
No. You may nominate in as many or as few categories as you want.
How can I find out what categories there are for nominations?
All categories are listed in the category post.
Are there any restrictions on works for nomination?
* The material must be available to the public on the web during the eligibility period. This means it cannot be located in a members-only archive or community, the files section of a private list (Yahoo group, etc.), or a friends-locked/private post.
* All work must have a clear basis in the Inuyasha fandom as created by Takahashi Rumiko. Even Alternative Universe (AU) fics must have characters that are recognizable as belonging to the Inuyasha "world".
* Works must be available in English. Translations into English of works originally in another language which are authorised by the original author are eligible.
* Works must have been completed between specific time frame of the current nomination session. Details on the nomination time frames will be available when the next session starts.
Can I nominate adult fiction?
"Best Romance" nominees must be rated R or lower. The "Best Erotica" category is for romantic/sexual works rated NC17. There are no restrictions on ratings for any other categories.
Are collaborative or 'round robin' works eligible?
Yes.
I made a mistake in my nomination. What should I do?
If you made a mistake in your nomination, reply to the comment you left when you nominated the story and give the the proper information. If you are a paid user, you can now edit your comments.
My work has been nominated. When should I expect to hear from you?
Authors of finalist stories that are should be contacted by the third week of the voting month. If you haven't heard from us by then, we're afraid the material wasn't among the best works nominated in that category.
I'm the author of a nominated work and I haven't heard from you, so I assume my work is not among the finalists. Do you provide reasons for rejection?
No. We are unable to give individual feedback about works that did not reach the semi-finalist stage.
My story is a finalist, but I didn't win Best or Runner-Up. Do you point out why my story didn't win?
Some individual judges might choose to explain to non-winning authors why their stories were not selected as Best or Runner-Up. However, this is by no means a requirement of the judges, and should not be expected of everyone. Edit: Starting with the 2008 sessions, semi-finalist stories will be included in our Recommended list on our archives page.
Will lists of nominated works be published?
No; however, finalists will be announced.
SEMI-FINALISTS, FINALISTS & JUDGING
How will the winning works be selected?
The works nominated in each category will first be screened for basic quality standards; whatever fics are left after this screening are semi-finalists. These semi-finalists are then gone over in more detail, and a maximum of 12 (or fewer, depending on category) are selected to be finalists. These finalists are then scrutinized and compared with each other for highest quality.
What do you mean by 'basic quality standards'?
Material with frequent grammatical or spelling errors, with poor formatting, which is not appropriate to the category nominated, or which lacks adequate connection to the manga or anime, will be eliminated from consideration entirely.
How will stories be chosen as finalists?
Works will be selected by the judges based on their stylistic quality. Various factors including canonicity, characterization, dialog, structure, pacing, originality, memorability and suitability to category will all be taken into account. The popularity of a story or its author is irrelevant, and will not receive special consideration from the judges-- the Shikons are concerned with quality, not who produced it. Favoritism will not be tolerated.
Aren't judged awards elitist? Wouldn't a popular vote be more fair?
Popular voting tends to recognize well-known authors and story settings. While judged awards necessarily represent the opinion of the judges, each finalist work will be read by at least three different judges, who have been selected from across the whole Inuyasha fandom. We hope this will ensure that a range of different viewpoints are considered. All works considered have been nominated by fans.
How do I find out who the judges are in a particular category?
You don't. A list of judges will be available, but the allocation of judges to panels will not be made public for obvious reasons. It must also be noted that if a judge happens to be an author with a nominated story, that judge will not be screening their own work.
I'd like to be a judge. What should I do?
Read and comment to the "I Want to Be a Judge" post, and your application will be considered.
MISCELLANEOUS
Are The Shikon Awards connected with Takahashi Rumiko or Viz?
No. The Shikon Awards are run by fans, for fans. We are not connected in any way with any official body associated with the creation of Inuyasha.
What will the recipients of the Awards receive?
A graphical banner will be presented to winners and runners-up in each category. If you would like to make banners for The Shikon Awards, please contact a mod.
If you still have questions after reading the FAQ, please email me, and include in your subject "Shikon Awards Question". I want to please ask nicely that you write a proper email to me regarding the question. Any emails on this subject matter that contain poor sentences and netspeak will be immediately thrown into my spam folder. Thanks!
QUESTIONS BY MEMBERS
For the WIP category, what happens if the fic was updated during the qualification period, nommed, and then completed during the nomination period?
This has been changed since the last session. The judges have decided that if a WIP was a WIP during the nomination period, it stays in that period regardless if it was completed afterward.
HOw[sic] about collections? For instance, I have a collections in progress. Would they qualify?
As long as each item in the collection can stand alone and isn't dependent on the previous or following parts to be understood-- if each part is independent on its own-- then it would qualify as "complete". If the collections are dependent on one another and therefore "incomplete" it would not qualify for our completed categories.
For Best New Author, it says completed stories only. So, if the author published their first completed story during the eligibility period, does that make them eligible (even if they published their first uncompleted story during the previous submission period).
Hrmm... this is a tough one. I'm going to be lenient here and say that if they completed one story "first" (before another) within the eligibility period, then it is allowed for nomination.
Regards,
paynesgrey, Shikon Moderator
Updated on 01/01/08