October 2024 Book Awards and You

If you are an author, you need to consider book awards. Here are a couple of reasons why.

My office contains a lot of books.

I’m in the process of preparing for some upgrades in the room that will require moving a couple of bookcases so I’ve been going through books and reorganizing, separating client books from business books, other books I’ve received from authors or from industry events, as well as the personal books and random other things on the bookshelf that really should be somewhere else.

On the whole, the book covers are a beautiful array of colors, typography and design.

But today, one of the books in the stack I was sorting caught my eye. The cover stopped me, so I paused with it in my hand to take another look.

Why? It had a badge on the cover that said, “AWSA Golden Scroll Award.”

That seal that literally caught my eye is exactly why you need to take a look at book awards and think about entering your book in a few of them.

The seal adds cache, an endorsement that some independent body declared this book excellent and a standout among many other books.

Note also this seal was printed on her book cover. The seals are artwork closely guarded by the organization that grants the awards. Once an author wins, they receive the right to use this artwork, and a digital file with the seal they can print on their book covers and other materials.

Some organizations sell winning authors actual physical stickers to place on their books, which is helpful after books are already printed.

But for author Carole Leathem, who won her award in 2023, once she went to a second printing of her book, she was able to add that seal on the cover. Note the award is won in a given year, but the award itself doesn’t expire.

OK here’s the part where I add a huge disclaimer. I am not an expert on this topic. In fact, there are so many award competitions out there, it’s a bit daunting. In fact, a number of years ago I asked a team member to research this and try to make a list. We gave up. There were too many and it was hard for us to differentiate.

But writing and publishing experts will tell you the tremendous value of winning an award or even coming close, because the value of that seal on your cover and the publicity words, “Award-winning” in a news release.

Here’s what I do know about these award competitions. Some of them are quite reputable and prestigious. The others just produce revenue for their organizers from all the entry fees, or so it seems to me, but again, I may be missing something.

Some organizations run award contests only for their members. Some are regional and require you to live or own property in a certain state. Some are for Christian books only; others are secular organizations but may have categories for Christian books.

Most of them have many award categories, and each contest has different ones. Some have categories for articles or a single devotion or chapter within a book. They all have award categories for different genres. Some give awards to first-time authors as well.

Some require the book be available in print, excluding digital only books.

And generally, you can enter your book in all the categories for which it qualifies.

Each entry will cost an entry fee, generally a fairly modest amount. The entry fee is only fair since it’s a lot of work and costs to gather entries, find a team of readers and judges, and make award determinations.

And of course, you can enter the same book in as many competitions as you have budget.

There are also generally parameters set on publication dates. And those vary as well. But they are commonsensical, generally, like a book published in 2024 can be entered in the competition for 2025 and possibly 2026. Those also vary by month of the year, based on the timeline of each award.

For example, the Christian Market Book Awards for 2024, which were presented at a luncheon event held the same early August weekend as the Christian Product Expo (CPE) we’ve spoken about here before, considered books published between January 1, 2023, and June 1, 2024.

And above all, what I can tell you is that there are a number of Christian awards that I know are reputable and beloved by others in the Christian retail industry.

The AWSA Golden Scroll Award referenced above is one of the awards given by an organization that is only open to its members. AWSA, the Advanced Writers and Speakers Association, is a membership organization “of nearly 900 top women authors who both publish and speak nationally.”

However, in 2020, AWSA added a second category of awards open to all authors who publish in the Christian market, called The Christian Market Book Awards. Liz A. Pitman, author and creator of the Pete the Puzzle Piece series, received the award for 2024 Children’s Book of the Year and she shares that info on her home page like this.

Originally, this was missive today was going to be a single post, but now, I’ve realized it needs to be the first of a series.

So, watch for more here soon on some of the awards you might consider checking out.