My friend wrote:
Now that my book has been unleashed on the world, I’ve been getting lots of emails about various indie publishing awards. I know you’ve been honored with several awards, and would love to hear your thoughts about them, if you don’t mind sharing your personal observations. Specifically:
· Did you submit entries yourself?
· Did you have to pay for those entries? If so, what did you consider a reasonable entry fee?
· Are there any awards that are more prestigious or better respected than others?
· How do you know you’re not getting involved in vanity/scam projects from less-than-honorable outfits who are just out to make a quick buck from authors?
Yes, indeed, I have entered my books into contents in the past. In fact, Watch Me Disappear was a finalist in the Kindle Book Review's Best Indie Book Awards in the YA category in 2013, and The Latecomers Fan Club won an IndieReader Discovery Award for Chick Lit in 2014.
I did enter them myself, and both did require fees ($20 and $150, respectively, at the time of entry). And when I learned that my books would be honored, I felt quite a bit of self-satisfaction!
Frankly, thought, the awards, even with winner badges on my book covers, did nothing whatsoever to improve sales, so I didn't exactly earn back the cost of entry. They did, however, lead to local newspaper coverage, which led to speaking engagements, some of which were paid speaking engagements.
That said, would I enter contests like that again? Honestly, I doubt it. The costs keep going up and what you get for it keeps going down. For instance,when I entered IndieReader, all entrants got a review on IndieReader, so you got something win or lose. Now you only get a review if you win. That's a bad deal, in my opinion.
I would likely entered contests such as PEN New England or something, something that has a great reputation and isn't solely for self-published books.
My advice: If you're thinking of entering a contest, look up past years' winners on Amazon. Do you like what you see? Do the books look professional and have lots of good reviews? What's the sales rank? That will give you insight into whether or not the award carries much meaning.
This is all just my two cents, and I realize I'm basically offering a "Do as I say, not as I do," bit of advice here, since I have entered contests. But I'm learning from my mistakes, and you can too. There are lots of people out there making lots of money off of the dreams of indie authors, so definitely buyer beware.
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