Is My Book Eligible?
We’ve made this year’s guidelines clearer so you know exactly if your book is eligible for the Indie Ink Awards. However, if you still have questions on if your book qualifies, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us via email (indieinkawards@gmail.com) or through our contact page.
Book Eligibility
In order to qualify for entry into the Indie Book Awards, the nominated book must fit all of the below criteria:
- Books must be either self published or published by a small press as of November 1, 2023 and must not be out of print.
- A small press is considered a press that is not associated with, owned by, or considered a part or subsidiary of any large-scale publisher, such as Harper Collins, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, Hachette, Penguin Random House, Tor, etc.
If a book is picked up by a large scale (or subsidiary of) publishing company, the press release/contract agreement must be post November 1, 2023 in order to still qualify for the Indie Ink Awards.
- A small press is considered a press that is not associated with, owned by, or considered a part or subsidiary of any large-scale publisher, such as Harper Collins, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, Hachette, Penguin Random House, Tor, etc.
- Finalists from any previous year are not eligible. (Other indie books by the same author are eligible, but not the one that made finalist status.)
- Eligible books must be in the YA or Adult age categories. We do not have the capacity to review other age categories at the moment, but may expand in the future.
- Eligible books can be of any fiction genre category and be of novella or novel length. We do not have the capacity to consider graphic novels, memoirs, anthologies, or poetry books at this time.
- Book must be listed on Indie Story Geek. (See below for information on adding your favorite book to Indie Story Geek).
- Books written by WriteHive staff (board members, admin, or coordinators), Inked in Gray staff, or Indie Story Geek staff are not eligible, and any nominations will be removed during the voting review phase.
- Any judges for the year may not have a book in the running for that year’s awards.
As a general note, we do not and will not require or encourage an author to out themselves. For each award, including the Writing the Future We Need awards, we will send an email detailing the award categories the book was nominated for and request confirmation that the book(s) do fit the categories. We trust that the authors know their books and which categories they are best suited for.
How to Add a Book to Indie Story Geek
On Indie Story Geek, go to Suggest a Story, log into your account, and input the title. The system will search for similar titles, but if none are the correct book, the reader can continue on and input the information including linking to the author’s website, store links, Goodreads, Storygraph, etc. (Only one link is required- more are optional.)
After submitting the book, the Indie Story Geek team reviews it for accuracy. Once it’s approved (typically within a day), the user who submitted the book will be notified that the book is approved. At that time, the book is ready to be nominated. Every story on the site has a button that will allow it to be nominated, and then the reader can mark which awards they think fit. Each reader is limited to 5 nominations per book.
How and When to Nominate a Book
Authors are not allowed to nominate their own book, but you can definitely confirm your book is listed on the site. If you’re interested in competing, urge your readers to nominate your book for whatever categories they feel are applicable. Once we proceed to the voting phase, you can urge them again to vote (whether or not they nominated any books). Authors may be judges, but any judge may NOT have a book in the running for the competition or have a bias towards any book they are reading and judging.
Nominations begin November 1, 2023. Every book on Indie Story Geek will have a nomination button. Clicking that button will bring up a menu that will allow you to nominate that book for up to 5 different award categories.