The PBAs for Beginners
The Papa Bear Awards is an annual game in which we elect the very best work in Hogan's Heroes fanfiction from the past year. It usually takes place between January and April, and has been around for several years – I believe since 2003.
We have several story categories, but we also elect the best portrayal of characters, the best quotes and the best teasers. Categories and rules have varied a bit over the years, but the basic idea has been the same: to elect and honor quality in Hogan's Heroes fanfiction.
The election process starts with a nominating round. Every HH fanfic author and every HH fanfic reader may nominate his favorites – this year 1 favorite in each category. It's not necessary to have read every story before you nominate – you can just nominate the best from among the stories you've read. And every nomination counts: one nomination is sufficient to continue to the voting round. (Only the most prestigious category "best story of 2017" works a bit differently. For more details, see the FAQ section!)
When all the nominations are in, they get published. Especially when there are so many stories to choose from as these past years, you may regard it as a very great honor to have your work nominated out of so many others!
Once the nominations are published, the voting round begins. In this round, everyone has 3 votes in each category. But we do ask that you try and read everything nominated in a category before making your decision in that category – for how can you make a well-considered decision if you're not acquainted with all the good stuff that others nominated? Regularly, you'll discover some real jewels among the nominated work that you had missed during the year!
Of course, it's not obligatory to participate in every category. If you are pressed for time, or if for example you're not interested in a certain category, you can just skip entire categories. As a matter of fact, the whole PBA is not obligatory at all. You can even choose to lurk in the dark, just having your stories out there and see what others think of it!
However, you don't have to feel obliged to stay away from nominating and voting just because you have stories participating this year. The majority of the nominators and voters in the PBA are in this position. As long as you can make an honest decision as to which story is best (and it may not always be your own), you are very welcome to participate. And rest assured: in order to prevent authors from shamelessly promoting their own work, we have a strict rule that authors cannot nominate their own work. Still, if someone else has nominated your work, you are indeed allowed to vote for it in the voting round :-)
Once all the votes are in, they will be tabulated. And the three winners in each category will be awarded a gold, a silver and a bronze Papa Bear Award. (Don't get your hopes up; it's nothing fancy – just a computer made pdf or jpg file
And a few things to keep in mind:
The Papa Bear Awards are just a game. It's not a matter of life or death to win a Papa Bear Award.
Winning a Papa Bear Award will not grant you global fame. But it does feel good to know that your fellow HH authors appreciate your writing!
Participating in the Papa Bear Awards is free of charge. You won't win a million dollars with it either.
All HH stories that were completed in 2017 are in the PBA election by default. So you don't have to register to have them participate. (But feel free to tell us if you'd rather not have them participate.)
There is no reason to withdraw your work just because you feel shy - let others be the judge of your writing, and you might just be surprised at their opinion.
FYI: every year, there is a fair number of new authors who win awards. Even gold awards!
The number of votes in the voting round are not made public. Thus, if your story got nominated, but doesn't get any votes in the voting round, you'll never know. Nor will anybody else. So, no embarrassment.
With so many stories out there as this year, it really is a great honor to get your work nominated out of so many others, even if you don't win an award. And if you don't get anything nominated, look around at the fierce competition and you'll know there's no reason to feel bad. Just concentrate on the positive reviews you got for your work, and don't be discouraged: keep writing!
There is no reason to suddenly hurry your stories to an end. It's fairly certain that there will be another PBA next year for you to participate in.
The Papa Bear Awards is an election of the best fanfiction work.
It's about the quality of writing.
It's not a contest to see who has the most friends.
If you'd like to check out the winners of the earlier editions of the PBA you can find links to them in the ffnet community "PBA Winners" and on .com.
The Papa Bear Awards are organized by HH fanfic authors and readers just like you. We dedicate a lot of time to it, and have a lot of fun doing it, but we don't make any money with it.
So, who are we?
Katbybee (this year's director)
Book 'Em Again, Belphegor, L. E. Wigman and Harceus (assistants in practical matters)
Konarciq and Snooky-9093 (this year's PBA committee – they advise and supervise)
And remember:
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask! We're only a PM or an email away!