Guest Blog 15
A Book Award Judge Tells the Inside Story about Contests, Awards, and Shiny Gold Stickers
By Sandra Wendel
Do book awards sell books?
I’ll tell you right up front: nobody knows. But stick with me because shiny gold stickers can’t hurt, and winning an award gives you a novel marketing hook, bragging rights, and a touch of professional recognition.
I admit, I am a judge for national book awards. I’ve been asked to preserve confidentiality of the process, so I can’t name names.
I’ve also been on the other side, hoping my books will be recognized for their merit, and, yes, my books have won awards, but I’ve also not been mentioned in a sea of hopefuls for plenty of other contests.
Right now, I have a stack of business books on my desk awaiting my review for a prestigious award. Believe me, we judges feel the pressure to examine and evaluate and be fair. As a book author and editor myself, I know the work, the agony, angst, and anticipation that the author has put into Every. Single. Book. On. Every. Single. Page. As a judge, I want to honor your work, whether you “win” or not.
How to find book awards
You can perform a Google search to find “book awards” or “book awards for independently published books” and read the requirements (some might be a copyright date within the last year; fiction only; independently published only; join the organization to be considered). If you are traditionally published, this task is often done by your publisher (maybe they need a nudge).
You can also check out awards programs in this post from the Book Designer or this from BookBub. Many competitions allow you to choose from a huge list of categories in both fiction and nonfiction, even cover design. Fees range from free to several hundred bucks.
You never know if your book competed against hundreds or thousands of entries. You won’t find out who the judges were (possibilities are book agents and publishers, editors like myself and writers or somebody’s aunt who loves romance novels). I made that last one up. I just don’t know.
I can’t speak for other judges, but I do know that I feel honored to judge a book by its cover and everything else, and I take my role seriously. I know how much work you put into your book.
Costs versus rewards
Now, would I give up the designations my coauthor, a physician at Mayo Clinic, and I have won as a Foreword Book of the Year INDIEFAB winner or Benjamin Franklin Silver from the Independent Book Publishers Association for How Not to Be My Patient? No.
But the reality is that any award program that doesn’t have Nobel, Pulitzer, Caldecott, Edgar, or Booker in the name is less prestigious. That’s just a fact. However, readers generally don’t know the difference.
Entering has its costs (and some rewards). For many awards, you send a copy or three of your paperback and a check for anywhere from $40 to hundreds.
Are the organizations sponsoring the awards making money on the entry fees? You bet. Do the organizations pay judges? Generally no.
Beware of the award that sounds like a pay-for-play scheme and is simply a money-making endeavor for a little-known organization.
But wait, there’s more. Some awards will offer you stickers, banners, a press release, and other swag to promote your honor (and their award to enhance their bank account). A free .jpg of the award may be all you need to revise your cover and book’s website. And be sure to add the mention on your Amazon description page.
What do judges look for?
As a judge, I am sent a copy of the book and asked to comment on the content, the quality of the writing, the cover design and title, the overall look in regard to the genre, the absence or presence of numerous typos, content, the author’s voice, the interior design.
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Judges look for compliance with general book industry standards. So a DIY cover that looks Photoshopped will get lost in the shuffle and not be taken seriously. A rambling narrative in a memoir that doesn’t hang together without a chapter structure wouldn’t become a finalist. A novel with plotline holes and poorly developed characters wouldn’t get a second notice.
Your book is a package you are presenting to a reader to be opened and enjoyed. Judges are looking for the complete package: look, feel, professionalism, writing, story line.
In general the obvious areas of review are these:
Is the cover design appropriate for the genre and does the look convey what the book is about?
Is the genre clear from the cover and title together?
Is the book professionally designed inside too?
Is the book professionally edited (typos on every page mean your book goes to the bottom of the ranking)?
Is the story easy to follow? Is the writing free from errors and typos? Has the author created a logical flow with chapters? Is the author’s voice appropriate to the genre? Has the author done the homework on any research and appropriately documented sources? Is the memoir heartfelt and compelling? Is the fictional story thrilling and sparkling?
First impressions are everything
When I open a box of wanna-be winners’ books, I can clearly see those that have been professionally designed both inside and out. The pages are easy to read in a serif font. The covers are striking. Photos all have detailed captions. The back cover copy is enticing. I do what potential book buyers in a bookstore do: they look at the cover, turn to the back cover, and then open and riffle through the pages.
Then we judges start at the beginning with the contents page, the introduction, the first chapters. You have about fifty pages to grab a reader.
Am I grabbed? Even on a topic I’m not particularly interested in? Yes or no.
The books I send up for awards with my highest recommendations are fascinating. When I find myself lost in the words and not judging the numerous typos or lack of style or poor organization, gratuitous use of color, when I can’t put the book down, I know I’ve got something that needs to be honored.
I can even overlook production issues such as tight gutters and a funky font if the topic is so well written, I lose track of time. Those are rare.
Does the writing flow? Is there enough paragraphing or do I see big gray walls of text? All these conventions of layout and design complement the author’s words to make the readers’ experience enjoyable.
A word of caution: If you are asked to send three copies of your paperback to a contest/award, I would bet only two judges are given your book to review. You have to wow two people who may not like your memoir of growing up in Nazi Germany, or one may love it and the other hate it. Your tales of hunting in the wilderness may end up with a judge who hates guns and killing animals. Your humorous book about marriage may be sent to a judge who is recently divorced.
See how sometimes the judging becomes the luck of the draw?
As a judge, I force myself to read through (or skim read) books on topics I don’t know about or would never choose to read for myself. In nonfiction genres, I’ve judged books on hunting and abuse and computer technology and craft beers and gamification and schizophrenia and circus performers and tried to determine if the books have the qualities to be an award winner. It’s tough. Apples cannot be compared even to other apples.
When rankings are tallied, you have to be on the top of two or three judges’ lists.
Some award programs provide feedback from the judges. Others do not. You may get a paragraph blurb you can use in marketing, or not. If you aren’t a winner, you may get just a “sorry you didn’t win” email.
I’m particularly frustrated when I see the list of award winners and my books are not among the finalists or winners. (Being a finalist is prestigious, too, so don’t discount it.) Don’t be discouraged.
Your best bet: Keep writing good books.
Sandra Wendel is a nonfiction book editor and book award judge for two major industry organizations. Her book, Cover to Cover: What First-Time Authors Need to Know about Editing, has already won three industry awards, and she has her fingers crossed for three more to be awarded in 2022.
