The competition has three phases: the nomination phase, the voting phase, and the reading phase. 

Judge Selection Process

Judge selection process starts in October. Judges are encouraged to fill out an interest form that lets Indie Ink Awards staff know what award categories they feel comfortable reading for. 

• As a general note, we do not and will not require or encourage a judge to out themselves in order to review within any Writing the Future We Need award category. 

Nomination Phase

In November 2023, nominations will open up for one month. During this month, nominations are open for all applicable books (indie/self pub, excluding previous finalists).  All nominees will retain the Nominated badge on their story page (so long as the author agrees the nomination is a good fit). 

• As a general note, we do not and will not require or encourage an author to out themselves in order to be nominated for any Writing the Future We Need award category. We will only email to confirm the nomination is a good fit for that category.

Readers can go on IndieStoryGeek.com and nominate their favorite indie books for the awards. (See FAQ for more information on this.) 

All books must be on Indie Story Geek to be nominated. Readers may add indie books to Indie Story Geek if they are not already in the system, however, they must wait for them to be approved by Story Geek admins before they are eligible to vote. The verification process ensures that the added book meets the eligibility criteria and usually is complete in less than a day.

Every story on the site has a button that will allow them to be nominated, and then the reader can mark which awards they think fit. Each reader is limited to 5 nominations per book.

Nomination Review Phase

In December 2023, we’ll reach out to authors of nominated books to make sure the nominations make sense, and then, based on their feedback, we may adjust the awards the book qualifies for. 

Voting Phase

The Voting Phase will last two weeks. Readers must be signed into Indie Story Geek to vote. Readers can enter one vote for each award, the book they feel fits that award best out of all the nominees. 

The ten books with the most votes will be the finalists for that award.

Voting Review Phase

 In January we’ll reach out to each finalist to see if they want to continue on in the contest by including an electronic review copy for our judges. If an author doesn’t wish to continue, their finalist spot will go to the next most-voted-for book for that award.

Once we have our finalist pool confirmed, we’ll open up assignments for judges. 

Reading Phase

February 2024 to July 2024 will be the Judges reading phase. 

Awards Ceremony

The actual date of the Awards Ceremony will be determined in the future to allow for the completion and compiling of judges’ reviews. As soon as a date is finalized, judges will be notified. Like last year, any judges who would like to present the finalists and announce the winner are welcome to volunteer–just let us know which award(s) you’d like to present!