[ENnies] Best Publisher Nominees and more

[Denise]

Hi there.
I'm the Business Manager for the Annual Gen Con EN World RPG Awards, and I'm here to give everyone a quick update as to what's going on, and to solicit your opinion.

First of all, I'll be contacting the publishers who have product nominated (or honourably mentioned) tomorrow, July 8th.  This will give them a chance to create product sample pages or sales to help voters become familiar with their products.  We'll be announcing the nominees Thursday, July 10th.  Watch ennieawards.com for more details.

For all the product categories, a panel of fandom judges select their favourite products upon which the world at large votes.  However, when it comes to Best Publisher, The ENnies go to fandom directly and ask their opinion.  When the polls open on July 21st, we will include the names of all the publishers who were nominated and seconded in this thread or its ilk on other boards.

Here's how it works:
-One voice, one vote. This means you can either nominate or second a publisher once per board. Pick wisely. If a publisher gets nominated once on one board and once on another board, then I'll consider it seconded- unless it's obvious that it was the same person posting the nominations.
-During the nomination process, I will collate the nominations and post which publishers have been nominated and which ones seconded on the ENnies web site's Links page.
-Any publisher who released rpg or rpg-related product during the eligibility period (May 1 2007-April 30, 2008) is eligible to be nominated whether they entered the ENnies or not.
-Sunday, July 13th, I will close the nomination threads and compile their contents with those of the other designated threads to create the nominee list.
-Monday, July 21st, voting will begin to determine the fan's choice along with all the other categories. And just as with the other ENnie categories, you don't have to be an EN World member to vote- votes are tracked by IP. The voting period will last 2 weeks. Don't forget, it's one vote per person.
-Upon closing of the polls, the top five publishers will be notified and be asked to make plans for attending the award ceremony (unless they were already nominated for product, and will already be there).
-The winner will be announced live at the ENnies ceremony Friday, August 15th at Gen Con Indy at the Westin's Grand Ballroom. All publishers and fandom are welcome to attend- your Gen Con badge is your entry.  V.I.G.s get preferential seating if they book in advance

When selecting Best Publisher, try and take into consideration not only the quality of product, but also involvement in the roleplaying gaming community at large and customer support. Feel free to explain why you have chosen a particular publisher for nomination. If you are a publisher, you may nominate another publisher, but not yourself. Please don't waste your voice- any nominations for EN Publishing will be gracefully declined. A publisher need only be nominated and seconded, so you don't need to do third votes. You're very welcome to elucidate upon why you approve of a selection that's already been seconded, and then nominate someone else.

This is not the voting process- that will start July 21st. This is merely a nomination thread.

Don't forget, these don't have to be d20 publishers, nor "large" press- so long as they released product between May of 2007 and April 2008 they can be nominated. Heck, they don't even have to be book publishers- Aid/Accessory producers are equally eligible.

Finally, I will be accepting applications for judge position starting next week, so if you want to try your hand at being a judge, watch ennieawards.com and the boards!  Voting for the judges will take place the week of August 4th-10th.