If you are registered for Bouchercon this year (NOLA 2025) or were registered for last year (Nashville 2024), then under the Rules and Bylaws you are deemed a member and eligible to nominate works in all the categories. 

 

If you are a member and have not received a ballot yet, please email me atjratease@gmail.com and I will try to get you a ballot or allow you to register your personal nominations, if for some reason the ballot just won’t work with your specific email service (it happens).

 

Before you do that, though, please check your spam filters, and set your email preferences so that it does not automatically delete emails from Survey Monkey (www.surveymonkey.com).

 

For some reason, a very small portion of you have previously “opted out” of receiving ballots from Survey Monkey, probably by unsubscribing to some previous irritating survey (not ours, I’m sure). If that’s the case let me know.

 

You may nominate your own work. Please note that one nominating ballot (from you) does not mean that your work has been nominated. That will occur after the nominations are closed on April 30 at midnight, and we have counted all of them, after which the top five have been announced on a short list, which will then be voted on at the convention in late summer in New Orleans by those who actually attend.

 

The rules for nominating eligible works are here.https://www.bouchercon.com/bouchercon-standing-rulesRule 4 is the relevant Rule.

 

Whether you plan on attending the convention is irrelevant to whether you may nominate books or other works. It is your registration and subsequent membership that allows you to do that, and we value all opinions and nominations, which you’ve earned the right to make by being that member.In the same vein, whether you have actually read the book or work is also not a requirement for either nominating or voting at the convention. We don’t ask that question. The choice to nominate and vote is yours alone, provided the work is otherwise eligible.

 

If you misplaced or inadvertently deleted the ballot the first time it was sent, we resend the ballots that have not been answered a few times before the balloting closes on April 30. We do this at least 3 times after the nominations go out on February 28, so as long as your spam filters are not the culprit, and your dog stopped eating your emails, you should be patient, and you will receive another copy of your ballot.

 

The ballots are email-specific, so they cannot be transferred to another email (or friend) and voted.

 

If this FAQ doesn’t answer your questions, feel free to contact me at the above email.John Purcell – Anthony Co-chair.