Body of Work

Some awards are given for a specific work (e.g., the Best Novel Hugo) while others are given for a body of work (e.g., the Best Fan Writer Hugo). A body of work award is awarded considering all work done by the person during a specific period (the previous year in the case of Hugo Awards, a lifetime in the case of some other awards.)

Awards which base the body-of-work award on a single year are plagued by the difficulty even the most expert electors have in separating a specific year's body-of-work from the oeuvre of a longer period, and the yearly awards consequently tend to be "sticky" wherein once a person has earned a strong reputation, they tend to win for a series of years, even if they were not the best in every one of those years.