A Book Award Adds Value to Your Book

By Sarah Bolme

Book awards bring exposure to books. Exposure generates sales. Sales mean more money in your pocket. Pursuing those book awards that allow publishers or authors to nominate their own titles can be a worthwhile activity for your book marketing efforts.

The literary community hosts a myriad of book awards. These awards differ as to who can nominate a book for an award. For some awards, publishers or authors can nominate their books and a committee or select group of people vote on the nominated titles. Other awards choose to have a nominating committee decide which titles should be considered for an award. Some awards have a select group of people (such as retailers, teachers, or students) nominate titles. There are a few book awards that are based on the number of copies a title has sold or lifetime achievements of an author.

Small and self-publishers can pursue those awards that allow publishers and authors to nominate books. Generally, these awards come with an entry fee. These entry fees can range from $40 to $200.

While entering a book award contest is not a guaranteed win for your entry fee, it certainly more than pays off if your book is picked for an award. Some book award programs publish the runners-up as well as the award winners. If your book falls into either of these categories, you receive a marketing gem.

Book awards, like book reviews, can be harnessed to promote your title in endless ways. One benefit of a book award over a book review is that an award warrants press coverage. Newspapers, magazines, and newsletters like to highlight authors and books that have won awards. Another benefit of a book award is that consumers tend to want to read books that have won an award. An award tells a consumer that a book is worth the money to purchase and time spent to read it. An award signals booksellers to purchase the book for their stores as book awards almost always guarantee sales.

When a book award is bestowed, the award should be used repeatedly in your marketing campaign. In addition to alerting the press about a book award, any book award received should be posted on your website, printed on all your marketing materials, used in advertisements, and added to your book’s cover on subsequent print runs. Also, make sure that you let your distributors know about the award and send an announcement to those publishers associations and discussion groups where you are a member.

Following is a list of a few book awards that are geared toward small and self-publishers.

Annual Writer’s Digest International Self-Published Book Awards
Sponsored by Writer’s Digest, these book awards are the only awards exclusively for self-published books.

Christian Small Publisher Book of the Year Award
Sponsored by Christian Small Publishers Association (CSPA), this book award honors books in three categories (fiction, nonfiction, and children's) for outstanding contribution to Christian life.

Ben Franklin Awards™
Publishers must nominate titles.

Best Book Awards
Best Book Awards actively promote the winning titles through their website and through the media.

Indie Excellence National Book Awards
The Writers Marketing Association presents these awards for non-published manuscripts, POD books, and books by self-published or small press authors. Awards are presented in over 50 categories.

ForeWord Magazine’s Book of the Year Award
ForeWord’s Book of the Year Award was established to bring increased attention from librarians and booksellers to the literary achievements of independent publishers and their authors. Print-on-demand titles and ebooks are accepted for nomination.

The Hurston/Wright Legacy Award™
This award, given by The Hurston/Wright Foundation and sponsored by Borders Books, is the first national award presented to published writers of African descent by the national community of Black writers. The award is offered for four categories and nominations must be submitted by the publisher with permission from the author.

Independent Publisher Book Awards
The Independent Publisher Book Awards are sponsored by the Jenkins Group. These awards are for independent, university, small press, and self-publishers who produce books intended for the North American market. Print-on-demand titles are acceptable. The award offers 60 award categories.

The Nautilus Book Awards
These awards are sponsored jointly by Marilyn McGuire & Associates and Independent Publisher Online. Their purpose is to recognize and promote books that change people’s lives and help heal our planet. Awards are offered in 20 categories including both adult and children’s titles.

Writers Notes Annual Book Awards
These awards are sponsored by Writers Notes Magazine to recognize extraordinary books by independent publishers. Awards in 11 categories are offered.

As mentioned earlier, there are a multitude of book awards given each year. Some are specialty awards and others are more general. These are just a sampling of the more popular and well-known book awards for small and self-publishers. Go ahead and apply for some book awards. If your latest book wins an award or even if it is named a runner-up, you will have cause for celebration!

Sarah Bolme, is the author of Your Guide to Marketing Books in the Christian Marketplace and the director of the Christian Small Publishers Association.

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