Self-Published Book Awards: Are They Right for You?
Image Credit: Franz Diwischek
By Marcy Kennedy (@MarcyKennedy)
Even though the stigma of self-publishing has decreased over the last few years, it can still be difficult for indie authors to find ways to gain recognition and respect for their books.
Book awards are one way to help overcome that hurdle. Some of the best awards give the winners media exposure (leading to more book sales), cash prizes, and opportunities to speak with agents/editors from traditional publishing (if that’s a path the winner wants to consider). Beyond that, having an award win, or even an honorable mention, adds credibility to you and your book.
But not all awards are created equal. Some are scams. Some won’t give a good enough return on investment for your time and entry fees.
Before we enter any contest, we should ask ourselves a few questions about our book and about the potential competition.
If you’d like to read the rest of this post, please join me at Janice Hardy’s Fiction University where I’m talking about “Self-Published Book Awards: Are They Right for You?” as my regular monthly guest post.
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Jul 24, 2014 @ 11:36:36
I tried to comment on the Fiction University site, but it was difficult and eventually ate my comment. 🙁 I don’t have books published, but I have often been wondering similar things about contests for short stories. Pretty much all of the information you shared can be used for thinking about literary magazine contests. That helps me weigh the cost of entering against the possible winnings. Fifty bucks from a tiny magazine no one has heard of probably isn’t worth the 20 dollar entry fee. But some of them are probably worth Googling. Thanks!
Jul 30, 2014 @ 14:38:55
Yeah, I’ve found that with commenting there as well. It’s unfortunate because Janice has put together a fantastic site full of resources.
The tips do apply to short story contests as well. I started developing the ideas in the post when I was entering contests. It helped me decide where to focus my energy and where not to. When I finally decided to take a hiatus from entering, I’d only won a few contests but what I won through them more than compensated me for what I’d spent in both time and entry fees for all the contests I’d entered.
Jul 24, 2014 @ 13:08:25
Hi Marcy,
When I first started in this business years ago, I thought, “Wouldn’t it be nice to win X?” Over time, while reluctant to call these awards and their associated contests out-and-out scams, I came to the conclusion that winning one is highly unlikely in the statistical sense–not as bad as Power Ball, but close. Moreover, I did the calculation for one particular magazine’s contest (I won’t name it here) and found that they rake in many $$$ and their monetary awards represent only a small fraction of those $$$–i.e. they make quite a tidy profit (which, of course, is why they do it–don’t believe it’s some altruistic need to help struggling authors). Because of this and the fact that the cost of entering eats into the production budget for my ebooks, I eschew all such contests.
In fact, I can only recommend this: If you need a morale boost, enter only those contests that are free. (These ARE often an expression of some altruistic need to help struggling authors.) I won an award for a short story in one such contest early on, and that was morale boost enough. But knowing at least one person (besides me, of course) reads and likes a short story or novel of mine is also reward enough. Readers rule, and my job is to entertain readers, not enter contests!
r/Steve
Jul 30, 2014 @ 14:40:30
You make a really good point here in that contests are a nice boost, but our main focus should be on making our readers happy. If we were to win a contests, but readers weren’t loving our books, then that contest win would be for nothing. If we never win a contest, but readers adore our books, then we’ve won in the end.