Best Book Awards for Indie Authors



As the New Year begins, so you should start gearing up for book awards. Entering book awards is not as difficult as it seems. In a previous post I outlined the pros and cons of entering, and having achieved eleven awards and nominations, I find there are definite benefits. Your book’s recognition enhances its status, no doubt about it, and tells people you have reached a standard of excellence that meets the industry’s demands. I recently read four posts by industry marketing experts with their take on why you should enter book awards.

Advice from the Experts

• Donna M. McDine on children’s book awards:  The importance of entering children’s book award contests goes well beyond a win. There are two sides you can capitalize on. The obvious, if your book achieves book award recognition you and your publisher can reap the benefits of promoting you as an award-winning author. Second, even if you don’t place in the contest your book does gain additional exposure through the judging process.

Donna includes a list of helpful places to find the best contests.

• Dana Lynn Smith on choosing wisely: Begin by considering which contests are most appropriate for your book. Some are very general, while others focus on a specific type of book. Some book award contests accept entries with the current or previous year’s copyright date, while others allow entries spanning several years. Some are geared toward self-published books and others accept all books. When deciding which contests are the best fit, look for those that offer book categories most related to the type of book that you write. For example, “historical romance” is much more specific than “romance.” Also consider the entry fees and the relative prestige and publicity value of the contest. Some contests even offer cash prizes for the top winners.

Dana also includes a list of popular/best known contests. Her advice on e-book vs. print is: If a contest accepts both e-books and printed books, it’s usually best to submit a printed book if you have one because it’s more tangible.

• Sherrie Wikolaski has advice on getting the best out of your entry fee: Investment. Book awards can range from as little as $10 per submission to a few hundred dollars. Most fall somewhere in the middle, plus the cost of mailing in a copy of the book for review. It’s one of the most cost-effective ways to market your book, especially if you win.
• Marketing your winnings. Congratulations! You’ve won! Now what? When the time comes and you’ve found out that your book has won an award, you should maximize the win. Find out what the awards committee is doing to promote your award status. Take advantage of everything they are offering to you. If they invite you to guest blog, take it. If they want to promote a book excerpt, let them. Whatever they offer be sure to work with their marketing team to maximize your exposure.

Sherrie includes a list of top book contests as well as marketing tips to maximise on your win.

• Smith Publicity, book promoters for authors in every genre worldwide, includes a long list of book awards ranging from general fiction to science fiction, mystery, indie, self-help, non-fiction, cultural and youth.

The Indie Issue

Many indie authors are put off by thinking that so many contests only accept traditionally published books. Not true. I am a self-published author and by keeping an eye on industry events, I was able to enter and achieve something in most of the contests. I have compiled a list of indie awards, by date, to make it easier for authors to enter their books. Expense is also a big issue with authors battling to pay for editing, layout, cover images etc. The beauty of the e-book revolution is that many contests organisers now accept e-books. This makes entering a whole lot easier. Please visit the links from the experts above. They have many tips to offer ranging from why enter, to how to organise your entries, to the benefits, to author beware.
Here is a calendar of the most useful contests for indie authors

January:

Childrens’ Literary Classics Awards (e-book accepted if print copy not available)
Foreword Book of the Year Awards (print and e-book)
Eric Hoffer Awards (e-book accepted)
e-Lit Awards (e-book)
Beverly Hills Book Awards (print only)

February:

Next Generation Indie Book Awards (e-book accepted)
Wise Bear Book Awards (e-book accepted)

March:

Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY) (print and e-book)
Indie Reader Discovery Awards (both print and e-book)

April:

National Indie Excellence Book Awards (print only)
Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards (print only)
Global E-book Awards (e-books)

May:

Readers Favorite Awards (e-book accepted)

June:

Readers Digest Self-Published Awards (print only)

September:

Rubery Book Awards (e-book accepted)
National Best Book Awards (e-book accepted) 
Sharpwrit Book Awards (e-book accepted)
Nautilus Book Awards (print only)

December:

Reader Views Literary Awards (e-book accepted if print copy not available)

Start planning and remember you can't win if you don't enter!

If You Build It, They Won’t Come: A Guide to Author Websites — Publishing Trends

How To Boost Book Sales, Win More Fans & Attract Readers

If You Build It, They Won’t Come: A Guide to Author Websites — Publishing Trends

For the fiction author interested in attracting more fans and readers, this article is a must. For any serious author a website presence is an absolute given! Visiting an author's website is the prime method used by book lovers to get to know and appreciate their favorite authors. This holds true regardless of age.

How else are readers going to know your book exists unless there's a web link to who you are, what the book is about, a cover image and any other graphics details, links to purchase sites, links to great reviews, links to book awards ... the list goes on. In addition, website visits translate directly to book sales.

These days readers want to know more about their favorite authors, what makes them tick, what makes them real, accessible and human, what makes them touchable and yet still special. With more and more buyers preferring to browse online, a virtual bookstore may just have become more important that a real one. Fans are more likely to visit an author's website than the author's page on the publisher's website. With such a strong trend as evidence of the reader's thinking, authors would be foolish not to spend that extra bit of time and/or money giving readers and fans something special and worthwhile.

A big plus is giving readers unpublished material. Maybe an extract from a forthcoming book? Letting readers know where you'll be to read from your latest work is also a drawcard. Readers love seeing authors in the flesh, and many relish the opportunity to ask questions about the author's work, get an autograph or a copy of the book personally signed.

So, when designing your book or author website, give some thought to including your voice, your attitude and your unique angle as a writer and a person!

The Benefits of Book Awards

This is an unexpected blog because I was actually going to talk about something else. However, I just received news that my book The Secret of the Sacred Scarab was a winner in the 2009 Readers’ Favorites Book Awards. My book has received two finalist nominations and a winner slot for 2009. I believe in the value of book awards when marketing your book/s so I thought a good topic would be to highlight the benefits of entering book awards and competitions.


• When thinking about marketing your book, don’t forget to consider book awards and competitions. Why should you enter? For some people it seems a bit daunting; the idea of competing with so many other writers can be off-putting or a challenge they don’t want to meet. However, a vital point to consider is that it’s not so much about winning as being seen.

• Competitions broaden your author profile because people in the industry will read your book. Very often you are asked to send in more than one copy, which means several people will be reading your book, and those people are in the book industry in some way or other. Or else you can submit your book for multiple categories in one competition, thus broadening your readership by judges.

• Even if you don’t win, you may get a Best Runner-Up, a Finalist or an Honorable Mention, and that’s the kind of detail you will put in your press release, on your author sites and other social media you use for marketing. Besides that, the organizers of the book competitions will include all the books that have made it to the stage of being mentioned in their press, online and publicity details. This is because they also need to add to their profiles, enhance their press releases and create a positive impression of the awards. In addition, they send out press releases to thousands of subscribers and opt-in media representatives, journalists and bloggers.

• Awards ceremonies are also sometimes part of the competition and that’s when publicity increases if you are a lucky winner or finalist in your category. Many competitions also link their awards ceremonies to a Book Fair, giving winners and finalists an opportunity to actually meet publishers, agents, editors and book sellers.

• Don’t panic if your book is not printed yet because some competitions accept manuscripts as well.

• Often cost is a consideration because there is usually an entrance fee and some competitions require more than one book. In that case, consider what competition will be best for you in terms of target audience. Have a look at previous winners to decide if this is the right competition to showcase your book.

I have included a list of the top national competitions that are worth entering. There are even more when you consider regional and state competitions. You can find more by subscribing to e-zines and publishing newsletters.

Mom’s Choice Awards; Readers Views; Moonbeam Awards; Foreword Magazine Awards; Eric Hoffer Award; Nautilus Book Awards; USA Book News Awards; Indie Book Awards; Writers Digest; Indie Excellence Awards; Independent Publishers Awards; Readers’ Favorite Awards; International Book Awards.