{"id":16169,"date":"2018-09-17T16:39:49","date_gmt":"2018-09-17T21:39:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lisatener.local\/?p=16169"},"modified":"2024-09-30T08:56:44","modified_gmt":"2024-09-30T12:56:44","slug":"how-to-win-book-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/2018\/09\/how-to-win-book-awards\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Win Book Awards (and Write an Award Winning Self-Help Book!)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Award
Alice McDowell with her award-wiinning book, Hidden Treasure<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When Alice McDowell wrote to tell me that her book, Hidden Treasure: How to Break Free of 5 Patterns that Hide Your True Self<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0had won a fifth award, I wrote back to suggest I interview her about how to win book awards. Perhaps Alice’s insights (and resources) will help you write an award winning book!<\/p>\n

Micaela Karlsen, Bring Your Book to Life\u00ae Program graduate and author of A Plant Based Life<\/a>,<\/em> first introducted me to Alice McDowell<\/a> to help her with the book she was writing, a book that distilled almost four decades of work in the realms of personal growth and spirituality. One of the things I loved about working with Alice is that I tried many of the exercises in her book, Hidden Treasure<\/em>:<\/p>\n

How to Find Out About Book Awards<\/h2>\n

Lisa:<\/strong> How did you find out about the awards\/contests?<\/p>\n

Alice:<\/strong> My publisher, She Writes Press<\/a> (SWP), stressed how important it was to have a publicist. I chose Stephanie Barko<\/a> because she had a similar philosophy to mine and specializes in both non-fiction and fiction. She and SWP suggested I apply for awards and gave me a list of possibilities. I looked at the awarding categories for each organization to see where there would be a good fit. I didn\u2019t apply for any category that was too general such as non-fiction or ones that included books from the major publishing houses. Stephanie suggested that I pick categories I thought would have the fewest entries.<\/p>\n

Lisa:<\/strong> Did any require more than just sending the book (such as writing about why it should win a book award) or was the process just to send your book in?<\/p>\n

\"NIEA
Hidden Treasure was a National Indie Excellence Awards
winner in the Personal Growth category
(and finalist in the Self-Help category).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Alice:<\/strong> In most cases I had to send in two to four books for each category along with an application sheet placed in each book. Thankfully, I did not have to write anything about why the book should win.<\/p>\n

Lisa:<\/strong> How many book award contests did you apply to, in order to win book awards?<\/p>\n

Alice:<\/strong> I applied to 7 contests and got awards from 3 of them (5 awards, in total).<\/p>\n

Lisa:<\/strong>\u00a0Wow. That’s an impressive result! What particular websites would you recommend for research?<\/p>\n

Alice:<\/strong> Here are the websites that Stephanie recommended, along with a few I found:<\/p>\n