I recently published a guest post written by my friend Linda Rodriguez, winner of the 2011 Malice Domestic Award for best first mystery novel. (Book Contests Part 1: Why Malice Pays Off.) Linda’s story is the perfect example of the exciting benefits of winning a writing contest. Winners may receive a contract with a traditional publisher (without having to navigate the slush pile), the opportunity to use the phrase “award-winning author!” and a fast track onto bookstore shelves, among other things, like cash! If you’ve considered entering a contest, there’s no better time than now. Many book contests have significant entry fees, so do your research and choose wisely. Here are a few award programs:

The IPPY Award

The Independent Publisher Book Awards were conceived as a broad-based, unaffiliated awards program open to all members of the independent publishing community. The awards are intended to bring increased recognition to the thousands of exemplary independent, university, and self-published titles published each year. Since 1996, over 5,000 books have received IPPY Awards, and all the recognition, credibility, and increased sales that a book award can bring.

The National Indie Excellence Award

The Indie Excellence Awards celebrates small presses, independent presses, hybrid publishers and self-published work, and are a good fit for well written and well produced books. Indie Excellence is open to all English language books that are available for sale online and off.

ForeWord Reviews Book of the Year Awards

Per ForeWord, “If you published a book this year that expands a reader’s world, then it should be submitted to ForeWord’s Book of the Year Awards program. Entries are open to any independently published titles in any format, including ebooks. This includes self-published, university press, and POD books. Note: professional production taken into consideration when judged.”

Independent Book Publishers (IBPA) Ben Franklin

The IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards includes 55 categories recognizing excellence in both editorial and design. The award is administered by the Independent Book Publishers Association, with the help of more than 160 publishing professionals from the library, bookstore, reviewer, designer, publicity and editorial industry segments. The IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards program is unique in that entrants receive direct feedback from decision makers in the industry.

Reader Views Award

Established to honor writers who self-published or had their books published by a subsidy publisher, small press, university press, or independent book publisher geared for the North American reading audience. POD books are accepted. The Awards are open to all authors regardless of residency, however, books must be published in the English language, and targeted for the North American market. Work published by major book publishers are not eligible. Ebooks are accepted, but only if there is no print copy. (Scroll down through the entire webpage for all pertinent information.)

The Next Generation Indie Book Award

Open to all indie book authors and publishers, including small presses and self-published authors.

Reader’s Favorite

The Reader’s Favorite Award accepts manuscripts, published and unpublished books, ebooks, audio books, comic books and poetry books. There is no publication date requirement for published books and no word count restriction. They offer 4 award levels plus a finalist level in each of 70+ categories.

Dan Poynter’s Global Ebook Awards

They prefer (not required) that contest entrants have their ebooks on Smashwords. Read the entry instructions before you apply.

IndieReader Awards

The IndieReader Discovery Awards are open to indie authors who have self-published books with a valid ISBN. Accepts paper or ebook with no restriction on publishing dates All the info you need can be located via the link above.

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