Award Judges
We are now accepting applications to be a judge for the 2023 season of the Indie Ink Awards. We are looking for individuals who are avid readers of fiction (specifically adult and YA categories). You do not have to be a blogger or influencer to be accepted.
All you need is a love of indie books and a commitment to fulfilling the contest expectations. Please feel free to extend an invitation to any other readers you think might be interested.
Expectations
Any judges for the year may not have authored/edited a book in the running for that years’ awards. In cases where there is a conflict of interest (the judge has edited/published/is friends with the author/has beta read the book) the judge must not be assigned for those books. (For example, Judge is friends with Author of Book which is a finalist for Awards 2, 3, and 5. Judge should then not be assigned to judge any of the books for those awards to prevent any unconscious bias.)
We are still asking judges to commit to reading 5 books during the 6 month reading phase. As before, if the book doesn’t work out for you, if you find troublesome content, or if you’ve previously read the book, please let us know and you can either drop the book or swap for a different one. If you would like more books, you’re welcome to more.
There are three judging rounds that you can complete on your own: first 5 pages, first chapter, and full book. You’re welcome to read all your assignments in their entirety and hold off on scoring until you’ve read the entire book if you choose. You are also welcome to drop your least-liked book at the end of the first 5 pages (after scoring it) and then your next least-liked book at the end of the first chapter (after scoring it).
However, if you decide to drop books, we ask that you’ve read at least 3 of your assigned books fully through by the end of the reading period, and each of your assigned books needs to be scored at least once. If you score a book multiple times (for instance, once at the end of the first 5 pages, then again at the end of the first chapter, then again at the end), your final score will be the one that is counted for that book.
In regards to the Writing the Future We Need categories, we do not and will not require or encourage a judge to out themselves in order to review.
Reader judges get goodies after the ceremony. As a thank you, we will send you some unique stickers representative of the awards and a virtual Judge’s Badge to display on your blog, website, etc.
How Judging Works
A more detailed explanation can be found in our Judges Handbook. **This year, all judging will occur on Indie Story Geek. As a judge you will have your own dashboard to self-assign books to read as well as input scores on each book assigned to you.
Judges will each need an account (free) on Indie Story Geek. This account will be marked as a Judge account, and you’ll have a judge dashboard (in addition to being able to use the normal site features of adding and reviewing indie books). On the judge dashboard, you can see your assignments, select more books, and score the books you have assigned to you.
To assign themselves books, go onto your dashboard and view the finalists by genre, age group, and award. By clicking on a book, more information will be given including TW/CWs and all the awards that book is up for. Judges can then self-assign books, opting out of any awards they can’t judge for. Once the book has two judges for a certain award, that book will no longer show up for that award.
Because of this first-come first-served element, assignments will take place in two phases. Judges can self-assign three books (with however many awards per book) at first, and then after judges score books, they can assign themselves the remaining two (this allows all judges to have a chance to self-assign books that might be more popular). If a judge wants more than 5 books, they can self-assign more books after scoring for the books they already have. Judges can have 3 active books at a time.
S. Kaeth will be monitoring in the background to communicate with the judges if there’s any books that are being missed, to ensure books get at least one judge, preferably two. We’re hoping the self-assignments reduce the shuffling and amount of dropped books and increase the enjoyability.
On your judges dashboard, you’ll see all your assignments, and you can judge the books straight from your dashboard. The scoring form will be tailored specifically to the book/award combinations you are assigned to reduce confusion. After scoring for the awards, you can optionally post a review on the site if you’d like (using the Indie Story Geek story shapes), linking back to your review site if desired (you can update this link later when you post your review).
Learn More about the Process
To find out more information about the awards, check out the eligibility guidelines, the FAQ, and the Award Categories below.