Contests – Another Way to Market Your Book!


For more information, please email us.

Authors, especially new authors, need all the help they can get in promoting and marketing their book. After you run the circuit of blogs, book signings, interviews, and drumming up reviews, what are you left with? An often overlooked arena is submitting your book or story to websites that hold contests.

We’ve compiled a long list of some of the most popular book contests and award sites for you to check out. Go over each one and see where your book could be a good fit. All it takes is a bit of your time, a copy of your book, and perhaps an entrance fee. Consider this a business expense that will help you to promote yourself even more than you probably already have.

Do Your Research First!

Before entering any contest do some research. We did our best to collect only legitimate sites, but you still need to see when the deadline is to enter, what genre(s) they take, read over their list of rules, who to contact, where to send the book, and so forth.

Make It A Habit

Although many authors don’t want to waste their time on entering contests, it should be a part of every writer’s life, especially when you’re first starting out. You don’t have to spend hours a day hunting for places to enter your book, but do spend some time each week looking around various sites that could be a good fit for your title.

If your book wins, this is not only a huge ego boost, but you may win a cash prize, will be advertised on their site as a winner, and you’ll have full bragging rights which will build even more buzz for your book! Imagine being able to include on your author resume, website, social networking pages, and interviews that you were the winner of a book award.

Will Winning A Contest Increase Book Sales?

Not only can it increase your book sales, but it also gives a tremendous boost to your credibility as an author. For those trying to position themselves as an authority in their field, having a contest win (or two, or three…) is an excellent way to do so.

A Great Marketing Tool

When you do win a contest, be certain to use it to your advantage. Don’t simply jump up with excitement one day, collect your prize and be done with it. Send a press release to your local newspaper announcing your win. Have stickers printed up to put on your book that lets others know you won an award. Announce your triumph on the front page of your website, post it to your blog, and put it in the “Press Room” of your website. You can even add it to your email signature.

We’ve Done The First Part

We looked all over the internet and collected the list of websites below that offer ongoing contests. There are some other places you can look too. Your first move may be to check out the biggest sites such as Writer’s Digest, but look around at small contests even if the prize is modest. You’ll have less competition! Colleges, writer’s organizations, websites dedicated to writing, and even some blogs offer legitimate contests. Next, you may want to check out magazine and book publishers’ contests.

As an author you must be tireless in your pursuit to promote your book. It’s your book and you know it best. Now…here are some contests for you to look over and enter. Good luck!

For a great list of contests and deadlines:
http://www.pw.org/submission_calendar

ABC Children's Book Award

Ambassador Book Awards

American Academy of Arts and Letters Awards

American Book Awards/Before Columbus Foundation

Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards

Arizona Book Awards

Arthur C. Clarke Award in Science Fiction Literature

Australian Publishers Association Awards

Australian/Vogel Award

The Bancroft Prize

Benjamin Franklin Awards in Independent Publishing

Book Sense Book of the Year Award

Bram Stoker Awards in Horror

British Science Fiction Association Award

Chesley Science Fiction Awards

Chick Lit Writers Contest

Children's Book Council of Australia Award

CHOICE Outstanding Academic Book Award

Commonwealth Writers' Prize

Costa Novel Award

Costa First Novel Award

Crime Writers Association of Dagger Awards

Donald Murray Prize

Edgar Awards for Mystery

Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction

ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Award

Frost Foundation Award for Poetry

Gumshoe Awards for Crime Fiction

Hemingway Foundation PEN Award

Historical Society of New Mexico Book Awards

Honoring Alaska's Indigenous Literature Award

Hopwood Awards

Hugo Awards for Science Fiction

Independent Publisher Book Awards

International Latino Book Awards

James Laughlin Award in Poetry

James Tait Black Memorial Prizes for Biography and Fiction

James Tiptree Jr. Award in Science Fiction

Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize for Fiction

Jewish Book Council Award

John W. Campbell Science Fiction and Fantasy Award

John Newbery Medal

Kate Tufts Discovery Award in Poetry

Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award

Lambda Literary Award

Lannan Foundation Literary Award

Macavity Awards for Mystery

Man Booker Prize for Fiction

Miles Franklin Literary Award

Mountains and Plains Regional Book Award for Fiction

National Book Awards

National Book Critics Circle

National Poetry Series Award

Nebula Awards for Science Fiction and Fantasy

New Criterion Poetry Prize

Next Generation Indie Book Awards

Nobel Prize for Literature

Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction

PEN/Faulkner Award

Philip K. Dick Award in Science Fiction

Poetry Prize

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

The Pushcart Prize

The Quill Book Award

Randolph Caldecott Medal

Reader Views Annual Literary Book Award

Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize

Samuel Johnson Prize for Nonfiction

Southwest Book Awards

The Spur Award

Stonewall Book Awards

Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel Award

Wallace Stevens Award in Poetry

Walt Whitman Award in Poetry

Whiting Foundation Award

WILLA Award for Women's Stories of the West

World Fantasy Awards

Writer's Digest Self-Published Awards

Writer's Digest Annual Awards

Because there are so many contests and reviewers with so many rules, fees, etc. we ask the author to take the lead on contest entry or in sending review copies to reviewers that we are not familiar with.

Because of the importance and potential benefit of winning a contest, or getting a strong review, the management of Strategic Book Publishing and Eloquent Books want to make the price of each book as low as possible so we have designated a special category for you to purchase the copies you need. This category is called the RCC (Review and Contest Copy) category, and these can be purchased at the lowest price possible, which is the wholesale price. There are a few rules and regulations about the RCC category and those are explained below.

Review Copies and Contest Copies (RCCs) can be purchased at the wholesale price of your book which is typically 50% of the list price. (Disclaimer: This is not a hard and fast rule for every author. For some authors this cannot apply due to special pricing that is in place for some books. We will confirm this policy with your first order and let you know whether it applies to you and what the exact amount is). As you would expect. There are no royalties paid on these copies.

RCCs must be ordered by emailing a special email address which goes to our bookkeeping department. That email is RCC@AEGpublishingGroup.com


We do have varying limits on the number of RCCs that can be ordered to prevent abuse of this policy. Every case is different so just email us with your request.

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HOW TO ORDER RCCs:

Please copy and paste the following information into an email, and email it to RCC@aegpublishinggroup.com

Your Name:

Your Book Name:

Hard Cover or Soft Cover or ISBN:

How many copies are you requesting with this order? (We do have certain limits to prevent abuse of this system.

If this is for a Contest, please provide the URL of the contest(s).

If this is for a Review Copy, or a group of Review Copies, please provide the name and the followup contact address of each Reviewer(s). This can be an email or a physical address: A brief description of each reviewer and why you chose them would be appreciated as well.

Ship To: We will ship the book(s) to you unless other arrangements are made. For contest or reviews that need to come "from the publisher" we can provide you with a cover sheet that will allow you to mail the work.

Thank you for your commitment to your work. We will do everything that we can to facilitate your marketing efforts.

For more information, please email us.

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