On the importance of Awards
The Academy Awards recently handed out their little statuettes in a public ceremony. Movies like Birdman and Whiplash (films that didn't receive a lot of press or buzz before they were nominated) were given a huge boost by the exposure.
Literary awards are never as big of a deal as the Oscars. The closest is probably the Pulitzer prize and that's only really a big deal to people in the industry and the academic circles.
However, literary awards can help you boost your sales and your name recognition. But are they really worth it?
Therein lies the question.
I have never entered a literary competition before so I'm speaking as an outsider, but I have noticed that there are dozens of awards out there for independent writers.
Here is a short list:
Indiereader Discovery Awards Entry Fee: $100 Prize: Kindle Paperwhite and possible agent representation
Independent Publisher Book Awards Entry Fee: $95 Prize: Lots of promotion through Publisher's Weekly and a gold seal
eLit Awards Entry Fee: $60 Prize: Unknown
Writer's Digest Self-Published Book Awards Entry Fee: $99 Prize: $8,000 plus several promotions and endorsements
As you can see the entry fees are pretty standard between sixty dollars and one-hundred dollars. The prizes, however, are vastly different.
Writer's Digest seems to have the best prize to me. It's a reputable publication with a long history and they are the only ones that I can find that are offering guaranteed money to the winner.
Awards might bring in more sales. Hell, they might bring in a lot more sales, but eight-grand is eight-grand. You don't have to worry about luck or people being interested in your award winning book. An award winning book that doesn't sell isn't more valuable than any other non-selling book.
My final verdict is that some of these contests (and there a ton more out there) might be worth checking out. Many of them could be a way for people to try and make a quick buck off of writers looking to make a name for themselves.
I'm not calling them scams, because they aren't really that. I'm simply saying that if 1,000 people sign up for a contest that costs 100 dollars then that means the people running the contest just made 100,000 dollars. It certainly doesn't cost that much money to print up some gold stickers and write a good review on a few blogs about a book. If that's all the prize is, you'd be better off making up your own award, printing your own sticker and making yourself the only entrant and only winner.
The key in all of this is to research these things before you decide. A good rule of thumb is to look at the prize compared to the entry fee. A contest that costs $100 to enter and only has a top prize of $200 is not worth your time.
Beware of people just trying to make some money. Do your homework and I think that, maybe, some of these awards could actually provide you a good boost in sales.
Good luck out there.
Literary awards are never as big of a deal as the Oscars. The closest is probably the Pulitzer prize and that's only really a big deal to people in the industry and the academic circles.
However, literary awards can help you boost your sales and your name recognition. But are they really worth it?
Therein lies the question.
I have never entered a literary competition before so I'm speaking as an outsider, but I have noticed that there are dozens of awards out there for independent writers.
Here is a short list:
Indiereader Discovery Awards Entry Fee: $100 Prize: Kindle Paperwhite and possible agent representation
Independent Publisher Book Awards Entry Fee: $95 Prize: Lots of promotion through Publisher's Weekly and a gold seal
eLit Awards Entry Fee: $60 Prize: Unknown
Writer's Digest Self-Published Book Awards Entry Fee: $99 Prize: $8,000 plus several promotions and endorsements
As you can see the entry fees are pretty standard between sixty dollars and one-hundred dollars. The prizes, however, are vastly different.
Writer's Digest seems to have the best prize to me. It's a reputable publication with a long history and they are the only ones that I can find that are offering guaranteed money to the winner.
Awards might bring in more sales. Hell, they might bring in a lot more sales, but eight-grand is eight-grand. You don't have to worry about luck or people being interested in your award winning book. An award winning book that doesn't sell isn't more valuable than any other non-selling book.
My final verdict is that some of these contests (and there a ton more out there) might be worth checking out. Many of them could be a way for people to try and make a quick buck off of writers looking to make a name for themselves.
I'm not calling them scams, because they aren't really that. I'm simply saying that if 1,000 people sign up for a contest that costs 100 dollars then that means the people running the contest just made 100,000 dollars. It certainly doesn't cost that much money to print up some gold stickers and write a good review on a few blogs about a book. If that's all the prize is, you'd be better off making up your own award, printing your own sticker and making yourself the only entrant and only winner.
The key in all of this is to research these things before you decide. A good rule of thumb is to look at the prize compared to the entry fee. A contest that costs $100 to enter and only has a top prize of $200 is not worth your time.
Beware of people just trying to make some money. Do your homework and I think that, maybe, some of these awards could actually provide you a good boost in sales.
Good luck out there.
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