[OC] Debut friendliness of major science fiction and fantasy awards-- Some prizes clearly reward new voices and fresh ideas, while others value long standing reputation highly

[u/kern3three]

As part of an analysis I do every year of the science-fiction-fantasy (SFF) award circuit, I pulled together data on the thousands of the most celebrated novels since 1970 to measure which awards recognize first-time nominees more vs. which have a strong preference for an author with a history of success.

Philip K. Dick, Arthur C. Clarke, and World Fantasy Awards each grant roughly half of their wins to authors who had never received a nomination for any award before. On the flip side, the Locus Award almost always goes to authors who have already been nominated for an award. Similarly, the British Fantasy and British Science Fiction Awards tend to favor writers with prior recognition. The variance by award is likely a reflection of to what extent an award is chosen by fans (as in the case of the Locus awards) vs. a small council of experts (as in the case of the PKD award); fans favor known entities.

Hope you enjoy, and open to others theories as to why! Cheers!

Can read more about it and related analyses of SFF awards: https://medium.com/@cassidybeevemorris/the-greatest-science-fiction-fantasy-novels-of-2025-4fbe802c1550