Book award contests can be a great promotion tool for authors. When your book wins an award, you can promote yourself as an "award-winning author" and the book as an "award-winning book."
In addition, the award organizers often promote the winners and they usually provide some kind of a graphic (such as the one shown here) that you can use for promotional purposes.
For example, my book, How to Get Your Book Reviewed, won an Indie Excellence award. The award was for the paperback version, but the book is also available in PDF, Kindle, and epub formats. Here are some of the things that I did to promote this award:
- Wrote a blog post about book awards.
- Wrote an article in my newsletter about my award.
- Added the award graphic to the book's sales page and the media page on my website.
- Listed the award in the book description on my website, on Amazon and on the Nook site.
- Added the words "award-winning author" to my bio.
- Posted a press release about the award on a free press release site.
Award competitions are held throughout the year, but the major ones tend to have entry deadlines in the December to April timeframe. This article lists some of the most popular contests (click the link for each contest to see deadlines for the current year). The entry fees can really add up, so you'll need to be selective about which contests you enter and read the eligibility rules carefully. For example, some book award competitions accept only books published in the current year, and some do not accept ebooks.
Now is the time to start researching and planning for book award contests to enter. And if you have won any awards, be sure to get maximum promotional benefit from them!
Do you have any other ideas on how to promote book awards? Please share them in the comments area below.
