Two days ago, I received an email telling me that "Imprints of the Past" had won the Gold Medal for Paranormal Fiction at the 2023 Global EBook Awards. As you can imagine, I'm excited! This is the first writing contest I've won since high school, which is a very long time ago. I can now say "I'm an award-winning author" and I get a thrill every time I do so.
The funny thing was that I'd begun to lose hope, and had begun to feel jaded about contests in general. They hadn't been on my radar when my mind turned to promoting my debut novel. Geri Dreiling, a good friend, published author, and one of my mentors through this process, extolled their virtues. She described how they had helped her books gain visibility and, of course, prestige. I duly did the research and turned up dozens of contests, some general, some genre-specific. Even after eliminating those for which my book did not qualify, I had a list of over twenty contests to consider. All required an entrance fee nearing $100 for each award category, so this was not a cheap endeavor. Opinion in the writing community is divided as to whether they're worth it. I decided to stick to a budget and entered my book in six contests this year:
Why these six? The main factor was the choice of categories. Entering an overall "Fantasy" category pits your entry against so many more really good books, so I opted for more focused categories: "Paranormal", "Urban Fantasy", "First Novel" (I've used this one up now!).
I failed to place in the first three contests, but I told myself that I was still up against stiff competition. Even so, when I entered the Best Indie Book Awards a couple of weeks ago, I wondered if I was wasting my time. I didn't begrudge any of the winners; this is truly a community where others' success is celebrated as the success of all. But would my promotional dollars be better spent elsewhere? Would I bother with contests with Book 2 next year?
Suffice it to say, Tuesday's email restored confidence in my decision. I'm not about to go enter dozens more contests, but I believe the advice and my strategy has been vindicated. For me. They're clearly not the best answer for all authors, who may be more fruitful with other avenues of self-promotion.
So what does it mean? What do I get out of this? This particular award doesn't come with prize money, or more than a virtual medal. There is no longer an award ceremony. The main benefit is exposure. The organization publishes the results and those in the industry do (I'm told) pay attention. More people will see the name of my book, and my name, and perhaps one or two of them will decide to read it. And, of course, I can say with a straight face that "I'm an award-winning author!"