Traditionally published books do not corner the market on great works. Amazing works are produced by small press and self-published authors, and they often go unrecognized because their budgets for marketing are often smaller. So WriteHive, Inked in Gray Press, and Indie Story Geek joined together to celebrate great works of fiction published by small press and self-published authors, giving them the recognition they deserve.
A small press focused on uplifting books and art created by marginalized creators
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Books by marginalized authors, self-published books, and books by small presses often get overlooked. The Indie Ink Awards is a unique event that brings together the writing community to celebrate books that have made an impact on us. This is our way of highlighting the future we want to see in books — by uplifting those that shine.
All awards are segmented into two categories: Best-In and the Writing The Future We Need awards.
The Best In awards focus on highlighting certain aspects of books such as Best Morally Gray Character, Best Mentor, Best Villain, etc. Nomination for these awards should exemplify exceptional execution in their category.
For the Writing the Future We Need awards, we are looking for works that exhibit exceptional inclusion and diversity.
The goal of the Indie Ink Awards is to highlight exceptional indie and self-published works of fiction. In order for a book to be nominated, the book must be self published/published by a small press AND listed on Indie Story Geek in order to be considered. Those published by a subsidiary of a Big 4 are not eligible.
If your work is not on Indie Story Geek, you may create an online account and submit your published work. You are not allowed to nominate your work, but you may inform your readers that the Indie Ink Awards are taking place. If you would like to be notified of when the Indie Ink Awards is open to nominations, we suggest signing up for the WriteHive or Inked in Gray Press newsletters.
A huge thank you to all the judges for volunteering their time to read and score all of the entries. Please check out the judges and give them a follow!
