How to Become an Award-Winning Author
Last Updated: April 21, 2025
While reasons may vary, every author wants to get their book into the hands of readers. We write, publish, and market our books with that goal in mind. It’s how we sell books. One of the ways we can interest new readers in our books is by letting them know of our success. We share review snippets and let them know if we are best-selling authors. We highlight our accomplishments to let them know our books are worth reading. With that in mind, I wanted to share another way that we can add to our credibility as authors–by becoming an award-winning author.
Book awards are a great way to give you and your book more credibility in today’s market, and they can also help get more exposure for your book. Each book award will display the winners on their website, and all of the winning authors will promote their category. It’s great publicity. In this post, I’ll share about our favorite book award contest and let you know how you can enter. But first, let’s cover a few basics you’ll need to know before submitting your book for any award.
3 Award-Winning Tips
#1. Editing is Important
Every book award has a different focus. Some focus on your overall book, others focus on formatting, and others will focus on something else entirely, but no matter what the focus of the award is, editing is important. If your book is riddled with typos and spelling errors, you’re essentially shooting yourself in the foot and wasting the money it cost to submit it for the award. Before submitting your book, you should always get at least one person other than yourself to edit it for you. Self-editing can only take you so far.
If you need more information about editing your book, we have a list of editors we recommend on our site here and 5 steps to self-editing your writing here.
#2. Formatting Counts
I already mentioned that some awards focus specifically on the formatting of the book, but even if it’s not the main focus of the award, a poorly formatted book will count against you. Making sure your book has a professional look could be the tie-breaker between it and another book in the running.
If you think your formatting needs work, we offer a list of recommended outsources here and list some resources for formatting your own books here.
#3. Categories Matter
Most award contests will have different categories that you can submit your book to. It’s important to do your research beforehand to see which categories they have, what type of books won the award for the categories you are interested in during previous years, and how many entrants there were (if disclosed). Choosing the correct category for your book is just as important (if not more) as choosing your categories on Amazon. Submitting your book to the wrong category can ruin your chances of winning before they even read your book.
What it Comes Down To
Before submitting your book for an award, you need to make sure that it’s the best that it can be. This should be true of every book that you publish, but if you’re submitting it for an award it’s even more so. Pay attention to the details. Editing, formatting, and categories are just three of the things you should consider, but the better your book is all around, the higher your chances of becoming an award-winning author.
So now that we’ve covered those three tips, I want to tell you about Shelley and I’s favorite book award contest…
Readers’ Favorite Book Award Contest
Readers’ Favorite is a website dedicated to helping readers find quality books. Their annual award contest is open to all authors, and each year they receive submissions from indie authors, small publishers, and big name traditional publishing houses. They have over 100 categories that authors can enter their books in and offer 5 awards for each category. Shelley won an award from this site back in 2012 for a book she co-authored with her husband.
Entering this award contest is extremely easy and affordable. The entry fee is currently $89, however if you want to enter your book in more than one category there are additional fees. You can attach a digital copy of your eBook (9 different file types accepted) when you register your book, fill out all the information, and you’re done!
The contest is open until the end of April, so there’s still time to enter your book. And who knows, maybe 2014 will be your year to become an “award-winning” author.You can find out more at: https://www.trainingauthors.com/readersfavorite
More Book Marketing Opportunities
Want to discover more opportunities to market your book? If you’re a Christian authors, check out our post, “100+ Places to Promote Christian Books.”
I really enjoyed your site. It was informative and so interesting. I am an author and would love to submit my next book for consideration of an award. When will the next deadline be After April because my next book will not be complete until after April? Thanks……PH
They usually run their awards once per year so you could apply around this time next year.