Book Awards Are a Blessing

In my book Your Guide to Marketing Christian Books, I list over 25 book awards that are open to books by indie authors and small publishers. There are more than 25 book awards that one can submit a book to, but I chose the best-known and the ones that accept religious books through at least one Religious category.

Why so many book awards?

1. With over 2 million books published in the United States each year, numerous book awards are needed to bring recognition to great books.
2. Awards matter. They help consumers know that a product or service has quality, often easing purchasing decisions in a world of too many choices.
3. Book awards bless and encourage authors who have worked hard to get a story or message out to the world.

It is always a pleasure when we get notify the winning authors of the Christian Indie Awards each year. We often get responses from these authors like the following:

• Thank you so much! What a blessing and an honor!!
• Oh, praise the Lord! Thank you!!
• Wow! Thank you so much. This means so much for me!
• I am stunned!! Praise the Lord and Glory to God!

While my book lists over 25 book awards, there are only a select few book awards that are solely dedicated to Christian books. The Christian Indie Awards is one of them.

If you have published a Christian book in 2019 or 2020, I encourage you to nominate it for the Christian Indie Awards. These awards recognize 18 outstanding Christian books (and authors) each year.

The honor could be yours. However, you don’t have a chance of receiving such an honor unless you nominate your book.

To nominate your book for the 2021 Christian Indie Awards, visit https://www.christianaward.com and either complete the online nomination form or print the nomination form and mail it with a copy of your book.

The Christian Indie Awards are sponsored by Christian Indie Publishing Association (CIPA). However, you do not need to be a Member of the organization to nominate your Christian book.

Related Posts:
Book Awards Help Promote Books
Awards Make a Difference
The Hidden Benefit of Winning a Book Award

Don’t miss out on any of the great information shared in this blog. Subscribe to receive each post in your email box. Just click here.

Nominations Now Open for the 2021 Christian Indie Awards

“Go after awards. An award sticker on the cover may give you an edge, and sometimes that’s the difference you need to propel your book into best-seller territory.”  ~Scott Lorenz, Book Publicist

Winning an award does give you an edge when selling your book. Research shows that having an award sticker on a book’s cover makes a difference for buyers. When book buyers are presented with two books on the same topic and one is an award winner, book buyers consistently prefer the book that has won an award.

Nominations are now OPEN for the 2021 Christian Indie Awards. Any independently published author or small publisher can nominate a Christian book published in 2019 or 2020 for the award. Nominations can be made on the Awards’ website at https://www.christianaward.com.

Check out these 10 reasons to nominate your book for the Christian Indie Awards!

Related Posts:
The Hidden Benefit of Winning a Book Award
Book Awards Help Promote Books
The Value of Book Awards

Don’t miss out on any of the great information shared in this blog. Subscribe to receive each post in your email box. Just click here.

Announcing: The 2020 Christian Indie Awards Winners!

The votes are in and counted. The winners of the 2020 Christian Indie Awards have been determined!

Christian book lovers and retailers voted on 170 nominated titles in 18 categories. The winners in each of the 18 categories are:

Bible Study

Letters from Jesus: Finding Good News in Christ’s Letters to the Churches, Paul Ellis, KingsPress        

Biography & Memoir

Growing Up Yanomamo Today: By Faith, Not by Sight, Michael Dawson, Grace Acres Press

Business & Finance

Leadership with a Servant’s Heart, Kevin Wayne Johnson, Writing for the Lord

Children’s 4-8

I Am: God’s Affirmations For Little Girls, Belinda N. Mays

Children’s 8-12

Power Up, Jessie Mattis, Elk Lake Publishing, Inc.

Christian Education

Living IN Jesus, Ben Brezina, Mark Fields, Tom Price, Greg Cleland, Christian Families Today

Christian Living

Are You a Kingdom Woman?, Dr. Elewechi Ngozi Okike, Assurance Publications Limited

Devotional

She: Delighting In The Examples Of The Women Of The Bible, Delight Thyself Design Ministries, Delight In Him Publications

General Fiction

After the Benediction, Sherabim Joy

Gift

The Greatest Things in Life, Terry Jackson, Jason Fowler, illustrator, The Peppertree Press

Historical Fiction

In Black and White, MaryAnn Diorio, Topnotch Press

Mystery & Suspense

Spiritual Warriors: The Rise of Night The Rise of Light, Nakia L. Brown, Pearly Gates Publishing, LLC

Personal Growth

Inside Of Me, Wendy Shipman

Poetry

My Little Book of Poetry and Prayer, Virginia Martin, Chad Joseph Thieman

Relationships & Family

No Longer Little: Parenting Tweens with Grace and Hope, Hal and Melanie Young, Great Waters Press

Romance

A Worthy Love, Mariah Glove

Theology

Apparent Faith: What Fatherhood Taught Me About the Father’s Heart, Karl Forehand, Quoir

Young Adult

Something I Am Not, Cher Gatto, Lighthouse Publishers of the Carolinas

Congratulations to all the winners! The Christian Indie Awards are sponsored by the Christian Indie Publishing Association (CIPA).

Are you looking for a great book to read? Try one of the winners of the Christian Indie Awards!

Related Posts:
The 2019 Christian Indie Award Winners!
Announcing: The 2018 Christian Indie Award Winners
The 2017 Book of the Year Award Winners

Don’t miss out on any of the great information shared in this blog. Subscribe to receive each post in your email box. Just click here.

Cast Your Vote for the Christian Indie Awards!

If you read Christian books, you are invited to VOTE for the 2020 Christian Indie Awards!

You can vote online right now at www.christianaward.com. Cast your vote for one book in each of the Awards’ 18 categories.

The Christian Indie Awards aims to recognize outstanding Christian books by small publishers and independent authors. Often smaller publishers and authors produce fresh, innovative books that inspire readers and fill niche needs. Yet, these books go without recognition in an industry that recognizes bestsellers and famous personalities.

The winners of the awards are determined solely by the votes of Christian book lovers and retailers alike. The winners of the 2020 Christian Indie Awards will be announced by May 1, 2020.

The Christian Indie Awards are sponsored by Christian Indie Publishing Association (CIPA).

What are you waiting for? Go Vote! And, invite your friends to vote also!

The 2019 Christian Indie Award Winners
The 2018 Christian Indie Award Winners
The 2017 Book of the Year Award Winners

Don’t miss out on any of the great information shared in this blog. Subscribe to receive each post in your email box. Just click here.

Awards Make a Difference

Before the FDA, the Good Housekeeping Institute existed. Since 1990, this team of engineers, scientists, analysts, and products experts have rigorously tested products so that Americans can rest assured they are not wasting their money.

Appearing on everything from cookware to computers to clearing supplies, the Good Housekeeping Seal of approval says that consumers can trust the product to deliver what it promises. The Good Housekeeping Seal has been around for over 100 years because it works. People trust it.

Studies show that seals of approval, awards emblems, and best-seller stickers all make a difference for consumers. Maybe you are wondering just how much of a difference they make when it comes to selling books.

Interestingly, a study done by BookNet Canada in 2018 looked at what influences book buyers’ decisions to make a purchase. This study found that award emblems were just about as influential in influencing a purchasing decision as a book’s cover design.

Numerous studies have indicated that cover design is important when choosing a book to buy. But, just how important?

The BookNet study found that 6.9% of book buyers ranked a book’s cover design as the number one influencer in their book purchasing decision. Awards and bestseller stickers or badges were reported as the number one influencer in book purchasing decisions by 6.5% of book buyers in the study.

This means that six or seven out of every hundred people will buy a book because it sports an award or bestseller sticker.

If you have been skeptical about whether a book award really makes a difference in selling a book, you can now put that question to rest. The study by BookNet Canada showed that book awards do make an impact on readers book choices.

If you have a quality book, money spent on book award entry fees is not wasted. I believe it is smart use of your money to designate a portion of your marketing dollars to entering book award contests.

There are numerous contests to enter. You can find a list of Christian book award contests at www.christianbookaward.com. A longer list of book award contests with religious categories can be found in my book Your Guide to Marketing Christian Books.

In addition, nominations are still open for the 2020 Christian Indie Awards. You can nominate your Christian book published in 2018 or 2019 at www.christianaward.com.

Related Posts:
What Influences Book Purchasing Decisions?
Are Awards Worth It?
Book Awards Help Promote Books

Don’t miss out on any of the great information shared in this blog. Subscribe to receive each post in your email box. Just click here.

Photo courtesy of Sophieja.