Nautilus Book Awards is a book award event held annually and features books in the environmental justice and social genres. Having been awarded to prominent authors such as Deepak Chopra, Amy Goodman, The Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, Thich Nhat Hanh and Barbara Kingsolver, this event is considered as a major book award in the US which was established in the year 1998.

The award process.

The award comprises of monetary prizes and mainly aims at distinguishing books that inspire and transform readers in multiple categories. The categories include one silver and one gold awards made every year; 4 young adults/children categories and 24 adult categories.

The award winners in Nautilus Awards are selected in three stages and the process is presided over by a congress of professors, bookstore owners, librarians, writers, schoolteachers and editors. The winners are found through the consensus of the assembly of which is a hard thing to achieve. As a result, there are no books awarded in some years as the assembly doesn’t reach a consensus.

Major academic presses have previously been privileged to obtain the awards such as the; Princeton University Press, Stanford University Press and Columbia University Press among others and bulky commercial publishers including W.W.Norton, Penguin, Little Brown, Simon & Schuster and Random House. However, Bloomsbury and Island are some of the private independent presses that have previously worn the awards too.

Eligibility to take part in the 2013 Awards.

Unlike in the previous years where adult entries were limited to 24 categories and children/young adult to 4; there have been authorized 28 and 5 categories both in adult and children/young adult entry categories concurrently this year. In this year’s contest, self publishers, traditional publisher and small presses are all welcome to participate.

The focus this year is on books that endorse positive social transition, cognizant living and enhance spiritual growth. Value will be placed on books that guide the reader in discovering new avenues to better their lives and those of others around them by inspiring the reader.

Entries for the awards should be done for individual books and all the books registered for the contest must have an ISBN number. The entry forms should not be taped on the book but rather inserted between the front cover and the first page of your book, each book with its entry form.
Gold and silver awards shall e awarded to outstanding books that exceptionally make positive impact in contributing to positive values, nurture distinct level of wellness and exemplary leadership.

Securing entry.

You can either choose to pay your registration by cheque or pay online. Payment made by cheque can be delivered together with book and the entry form whereas you will be required to ship your book and entry form separately on making online payment, either by credit card or pay pal. Your registration will be complete once you make the payment.

In a span of over five years now, Amazon has been of great help to aspiring novelists by enabling them live their dreams. The international contest gives chances no novelists to venture the award event and try their luck to a doorway of success in their writing. Amazon Breakthrough novel Award is not only an evolving event but is also widening its cope to accommodate more writers by increasing the categories of books to be included.

2013 publishing is officially sponsored by Amazon publishing itself thus higher royalties, quicker publishing timeline, chanced to launch books in multiple formats including eBook, print and audio with global distribution channeled. The winning novels are quickly brought to the customers at their convenience thus saving you distribution and transportation costs.

Apart from giving aspiring novelists an opportunity to get exposure to peers and readers, this year’s event comes with added advantages to the writers as the categories have been maximized as well as the number of entrants.

Eligibility.

Age is crucial here as you need to be at least 13 years age to make an entry. If you are no of legal age according to where you reside, your parents should take charge to fill out the form as required.

Permanent residents or nationalities of Quebec, Syria, Sudan, North Korea, Cuba, Burma AND Iran are prohibited from participation, thus such a resident or nationality can’t enlist their novels for the contest nor take part.

You shouldn’t be engaged in a union; guild or organization that may hinder you in participation or restrict you in any way to fully participate.

You are not an eligible entrant if you are Amazon publishers’ weekly employee, independent contractor of or an employee of an independent contractor of any of Amazon’s publisher weekly affiliate. If you are related in any way with Amazon publishers’ weekly employee you can’t be an entrant

You should not be living with Amazon publishers’ weekly employee to become an entrant nor be a judge in the contest as well as a reviewer who takes place in the quarter finalist.

You must be available to travel to the venue except in circumstances totally beyond you ability in which the Amazon would wave your trip.

Conditions of entry;

Once you submit an entry, it represents that it is your original creation and hasn’t been copied in part or s a whole from any other work, shouldn’t infringe any copyright, privacy trademark publicity right of or intellectually right of any person.

Manuscripts submitted cannot be shopped until the contest is over.

Entries submitted with multiple authors will immediately be disqualified. You must be the only the authors of your own manuscript.

The American National Book Award, legendary price administering, was founded by the National Book Foundation in 1950. A number of writers such as Ralph Ellison, Katherine Anne porter, Lillian Hellman, Bernard Malamud, Saul Bellow, John Cheever, Walker Percy, John Updike and many others are among the authors who were awarded.

Who are eligible for participation?

Invitations are open to authors who receive entry forms each year with guidelines, who wish to participant in the contest. These National Book Awards are officially posted every year in the month of April on the foundation’s main database. In case an author has no access to those invitations or hasn’t received any; they can have access by emailing or calling the foundation and will instantly receive a copy.
However, authors should make their submissions through their publishers thus can’t submit their own books for the contest. On the other hand, it is to be noted that, these entries are only open to the Americans.

The award involves a number of things;

On the Awards eve, a private medal ceremony is held where the finalists are given a medal, a citation from the panel and a $ 1,000 each. All being in total 20 finalists, each read at the Finalist Reading from their nominated books. Four nominated winners are awarded each a bronze sculpture and a whooping $10,000 during the national book awards the following evening in the categories; Nonfiction, Poetry, Fiction and young people’s literature.

The panel is presented with books to read over summer and the number is about 500 of the finest editions of that year. They then select a total of 10 titles which are further thinned to 5 top books which are announced in fall.

Criteria for choosing winners.

Until mid-November in New York where the winners are unveiled, they remain unknown even to the Awards stuff. A winner is categorically chosen in unison by a panel after they collectively agree on the winner.
The foundation appoints judges who include a total number of 5 in each category. The judges are published writers who have made it and are still waxing great in their genre. Although initially these judges constituted of and were limited to writers, anyone can presently be accepted. One of the judges in the group of five is selected to chair the panel. He then in turn becomes the foundation in liaison and the panels’ spokes person. Their sole role is to deliberate on the proffered candidates and confirm or reject them.

Those winning the awards obtain permanent membership to the foundation. The foundation then keeps in contact with them, promotes their new books and also invites them to such ceremonies in future. Get the best book formats with, The Fast Fingers today and publish your book to increase your chances to win the awards next.

Almost 62 years ago, a group of book publishers have come up with an annual event to celebrate the literary prowess of authors from different genres. Their primary aim was to increase the awareness of the people towards the brilliance and creativity of American authors. Along with this aim is their agendum of making “reading” as an immensely popular habit.

For six decades, the National Book Awards have grown into a prestigious occasion which is annually graced by giving out of literary prizes and other recognitions to several authors who have had been exceptional in showcasing their literary talent through their creations. Winners are awarded with a cash prize worth $1, 000 and an emblem to represent their “laurels.”

Every year, the National Book Foundation chooses twenty people who will compose the panel of judges. Each category or genre will have a total of five judges. These people are highly-qualified in their own field of expertise and are renowned for their works. For each category, a judge is selected who will act as the chairman.

After thorough deliberations, the results will determine who the winners are. If an author becomes a finalist or a winner, he or she is entitled to become a permanent member of the National Book Foundation.  The 2012 National Book Awards happened today and named yet again four brilliant works under the categories of fiction, nonfiction, poetry and Young People’s Literature. The winners for each category are as follow:

Fiction: The Round House by Louise Erdrich

Nonfiction: Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo

Poetry: Bewilderment: New Poems and Translations by David Ferry

Young People’s Literature: Goblin Secrets by William Alexander

Even with the rapid development of technology, books are given a special recognition all over the world. The Costa Book Awards is held in United Kingdom, targeting the authors from Ireland and UK. It is considered to be the most prestigious book awarding ceremony in the country. A Costa Award is a dream of every book author in these countries. They do not necessarily be natives of the mentioned countries but they have to be residents in them for minimum of 3 years in order to be qualified to enter.

Being unique among most of other book awards, The Costa Award is given considering only in 5 categories. The limited number of categories gives more value to this award since they tend to select the best of the best for winners. The richness of the content and the interest to read are mainly considered when the award is given. The main award categories are as follows.

- First Novel

- Novel

- Biography

- Poetry

- Children’s book

In the last year the awards were given to a few exceptional books of all time. The first novel award went to Christie Watson for a different yet inspiring book “Tiny Sunbirds Far Away” while Moira Young got the best Children’s book award for “Blood Red Road”. Now All Roads Lead to France: The Last Years of Edward Thomas by Matthew Hollis got the award for the best biography and Carol Ann Duffy’s poetry book “The Bees” took the award for that category. The overall best novel award was taken by Andrew Miller for “Pure”.

There is a discussion to add another category for Short stories in the coming year to balance out the awards given. One of the specialties in this awarding ceremony is that they give the similar recognition for children’s books as other categories of books. The Costa Awards for the year 2012 will be announced on the January of next year.

The National Book Foundation finally proclaimed the finalists of this year’s National Book Awards last October 10 in the Morning Joe show. Winners of different categories—fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and young people’s literature will be hailed on a ceremony at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City this coming November 14.

The finalists for the fiction category are Junot Diaz for This is How You Lose Her; Dave Eggers for A Hologram for the King; Louise Erdrich for The Round House; Ben Fountain for Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk; and Kevin Powers for The Yellow Birds. All finalists were chosen by judges Stacey D’Erasmo, Dinaw Mengestu, Lorrie Moore, and Janet Peery.

On the nonfiction set, judges Brad Gooch, Linda Gordon, Woody Holton, Susan Orlean, and Judith Shulevitz selected the following books: Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe by Anne Applebaum; Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo; The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 4 by Robert A. Caro; The Boy Kings of Texas by Domingo Martinez; and House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East by Anthony Shadid.

Furthermore, these are finalists for the poetry books chosen by judges Laura Kasischke, Dana Levin, Maurice Manning, Patrick Rosal, and Tracy K. Smith: Bewilderment: New Poems and Translations by David Ferry; Heavenly Bodies by Cynthia Huntington; Fast Animal by Tim Seibles; Night of the Republic by Alan Shapiro; and Meme by Susan Wheeler.

Lastly, these authors reign in the young people’s literature: William Alexander for Goblin; Carrie Arcos for Out of Reach; Patricia McCormick for Never Fall Down; Eliot Schrefer for Endangered; and  Steve Sheinkin for Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World's Most Dangerous Weapon. All contenders for this set were selected by judges Susan Cooper, Daniel Ehrenhaft, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Gary D. Schmidt, and Marly Youmans.

Four of these qualifiers from each category will get $1,000 while the winner will receive a prize of $10,000. Additionally, all the finalists shall participate in the National Book Foundation’s website-related advertising.

Ten writers who have exceptional talents in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and plays are announced for this year's Whiting Writer's Awards. Each of the winners will receive $50,000.

The 2012 Whiting Writer's Awards winners are the following:

1. Ciaran Berry (Poetry)

2. Danai Gurira (Plays)

3. Alan Heathcock (Fiction)

4. Samuel D. Hunter (Plays)

5. Mona Mansour (Plays)

6. Anthony Marra (Fiction)

7. Meg Miroshnik (Plays)

8. Hanna Pylvainen (Fiction)

9. Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts (Non-fiction)

10. Atsuro Riley (Poetry)

Learn more about the Whiting Writer's Awards here.

<images via whitingfoundation.org>

It's time for your book to shine! The 4th Annual International Book Awards (IBA 2013) welcomes entries for 2011-2013 titles.

It's open to all books, published in the English language with an ISBN and currently available for sale online to global consumers.

Affordable Entry Fee! $69.00 per title/per category. Over 100 active categories to choose from including "best of" and design categories. Early Bird Entry Special! $49.00 per title/per category! Expires August 31, 2012!

Sponsored by USA Book News! USA Book News also runs the USA Best Book Awards, now in their tenth year. Thousands of authors and publishers have benefited from increased exposure during the holiday season.

Submit your entries now!

For more information go to internationalbookawards.com

For many independent authors out there, compiling a final product is the easier part, getting their material noticed being a gloomy affair. This scenario is familiar to many Indies; an author comes up with an interesting story to tell and enlists professional help such as The Fast Fingers book formatting.  Their story is copyedited, tweaked and refined up to international standards and put on high quality print and the best front and back cover designs. The book rolls off production lines into both online and brick and mortar stores, libraries etc.  While there are millions of such titles in the market, how does this author stand out of the crowd to get noticed?

The waters do not have to be murky for fresh entrants (especially independent authors) into the publishing industry. Book awards are a sound option for independent authors that may have been ignored by mainstream publishers and marketers. After spending a good fortune in book formatting services and releasing your title into the market, the last thing you need is to have it gather dust on bookstore shelves. You can make your product known and appreciated by a wider audience by winning a book award.

An author’s book enters the market to compete for consumer’s attention just as it is the case with many commodities.  As such, an independent author may find it tricky to meet the needed threshold of popularity, not withstanding his/ her book’s fine quality. Never mind the fact that even the not so popular authors in the market continue to pose formidable competition! What a self-publishing author needs is an extra-attention grabber that hands him/her an edge in the publishing industry.

Ever heard of the admonition, “Never judge a book by its cover”? Well, that was created to be violated because readers at the store do not have the time to judge your book by its content! Although most paperback formatting and cover design services strive to give the most unique and stunning looks for any book, an award sticker may be just what remains to propel sells to the next level.   A gold sticker on the cover of a book may serve as seal of approval from a credible authority that loudly proclaims to potential readers, “this stuff is world-class, a must read-grab it now”.  

An author that joins a book award stands a better chance at commanding a sizeable chunk of positive press reviews and quotes etc. There are so many books worth of publishing and review that there is not enough space for everyone. Most mainstream publishers will ignore independent authors and this is the treatment such authors experience as they seek positive reviews and publicity for their work. Attracting the tag “Book of the Year”, the Best Fiction” etc paves way for ground breaking trends in the market for any book.

So, you have packaged your book well for market entry. This was after enlisting publishing services from major players such as CreateSpace. What you need now is to walk that extra mile and join a book award programme. Winning such an award will boost your market visibility/credibility and this portends well for overall sales of your product.

The Walkley Book Award is now open for Australian or permanent Australian resident authors to send their entries for the 2012 Awards. Valid entries are those that are published between September 1, 2011 to August 31, 2012.

First round entries close at 5pm on Friday, June 29 2012 and second round entries close at 5pm on Friday, August 31, 2012.

For those interested Australian journalist and writers, fill up the form now! 

via walkleys.com