The launch of the Selfies in London prompts us to consider awards programs for indie authors—and how much impact they might have on sales and marketing
Last week, submissions opened for the Selfies, a new awards program by BookBrunch, a UK book trade newsletter, and the London Book Fair (LBF). The awards are meant to recognize work from self-published authors in adult fiction, with more categories to be added in the future. To enter, an author must be based in the UK and “predominantly or only self-published” in English. The prize includes £1,500 prize (US$1,883) and will be conferred during LBF in March 2019.
We asked Jo Henry, BookBrunch’s managing director, about the company’s intent with the awards. Henry tells us, “Amidst the plethora of awards for authors of every type, one particular sector of the book world seemed to be wholly under-represented—the self-published author.”
But do awards make a difference to indie sales? Orna Ross of the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi) answered us with a definitive yes. “Indies use them on their online sales pages; in their book catalogs; when making pitches to overseas publishers, movie agents, bookstores, and others. All other things (like editorial, design etc.) being equal, an award-winning book will score more highly with readers, reviewers, rights buyers, co-publishers, libraries, events organisers: just about everyone in the book business.”
Not all awards are created equal, of course. “Winning something like Amazon’s Kindle Storyteller Award”—for which Ross has been a juror for two years and which pays £20,000 (US$25,127)—“is obviously more valuable, sales-wise,” she says, “than a small award program run by a fellow author, which focuses on good writing. But the latter might earn you more kudos in the micro-niche of readers around that particular award.” Helpfully, ALLi offers an awards and contest ratings section, where you’ll find a huge list of awards, most of them marked in pink for “caution.” Ross says that one of ALLi’s main concerns about awards “is how many bogus ones there are out there, just set up to make money from authors.”
This is echoed by Victoria Strauss, who writes the Writer Beware column from the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America. “As I see it,” Strauss says, “the real problem with awards for self-published books is that so many of them are just thinly disguised profit-making schemes. There are dozens of these profiteering awards, charging huge entry fees, selling adjunct merchandise (such as official-looking seals for winners and honorable mentions), and maximizing income with dozens or even scores of entry categories.”
Among reputable programs, Strauss also cites the Kindle Storyteller and adds Writer’s Digest’s Self-Published Book Awards, the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators’ Spark Award, and the IPPY Awards.
Strauss adds that most of the profiteering awards aren’t specifically for indies, “but they do target them along with small-press authors by aggressively pitching themselves as a way to gain exposure, credibility, and sales. The canned self-publishing advice that’s so common on the Internet,” she says, “often includes the recommendation to submit for awards.” She’s encountered writers who have dropped hundreds of dollars on multiple awards of the profiteering kind.
Industry vet Amy Collins of New Shelves tells us, “I’ve spent my career either buying books for bookstores or selling books to bookstores. It’s my experience that only the very biggest awards matter to bookstores and librarians. Indie awards haven’t reached the point yet where they’ll tip a professional book buyer from no to yes.” In Q&A with some of her contacts, Collins says she’s finding that other bookstore buyers and librarians see little correlation between awards and acquisition decisions.
Collins told us, “What I heard is that a gold medal from an indie award, while a great accomplishment, is not a factor to the vast majority of buyers out there. To impress a librarian with an award for a children’s book, it has to be an established, prominent name. Caldecott and Newbery came up often.” However, she’s heard that Parents’ Choice Awards and the IBPA Ben Franklin Award may sway shoppers looking for books for kids, and a gold sticker on a book can make a difference. However, “the older readers’ books didn’t get as many benefits.”
Collins went so far as to walk into a bookstore in Pittsford, New York, this past weekend and ask 45 shoppers how much they take awards into account. She spoke with 31 in the adult section of the store, while 14 she questioned were in the children’s section. “None of the people questioned had used an award to decide on their purchases in the last year,” she says. “But four of the children’s book shoppers said that an award would sway them if they knew about it.”
Bottom line: Collins nails it, in our opinion, when she tells us that the real value of an award lies in how well it’s used, and this is particularly true for self-publishing authors who are working with less widely known awards that don’t come with the press attention that major trade prizes have. While children’s books may be likeliest to draw attention with awards—it’s understandable that parents would look for a seal of approval—simply “going after a top spot in an indie award is not enough,” Collins says. “You need to use that award for promotion. It’s a tool, and like any tool, you get from it what you put into it. It doesn’t do the work for you.”
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
