Writers Digest's Self-Pub Awards
The Winners Speak

This year, marked the first time Print On-Demand books were allowed into the Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards. POD title Monkey Wrench, by Harland W. Carson, won its category (Genre Fiction) and six others received honorable mentions. JDWrite talked to the authors to learn their secrets. Last time they shared the judges comments. This time they share their emotions.

Each of the authors expressed pleasure at having their book selected as a winner or for honorable mention in the WD self-published book contest. Their reactions, however, were surprisingly mixed.

Genre fiction winner Harland W. Carson was understandably ‘exhilarated’ at receiving the call from Writer’s Digest editor Melanie Rigney. Carson says that the comments from the judges were positive and that he knows the competition was fierce. He also noted that he is receiving requests from agents to see the full manuscript or to see future works – something that didn’t happen before the publicity surrounding the contest.

Children’s book runner-up Robert Barlow Fox noted wryly,

“So fine a line between winning and honorable mention.” He added that it is the winners who “usually get calls from agents who successfully market the book to a ‘Big’ publisher.”

Fox has yet to be approached by agents.

Likewise author Carlos Ledson Miller expressed his reaction as ‘sweet and sour’. As with the other authors Miller had received many compliments on his two books, Panama and Belize, in the past. This encouraged him to persevere.

He explains his reaction to the honorable mention,

“The ‘sweet’ is having had professionals validate of the quality of these two books, and justify the man-years I put into writing and producing them.  The ‘sour’ is knowing that despite the books' quality, scores of agents and editors rejected them.”

Genre fiction runner-up James Ignizio, adds that it is not just agents he wants to read the work, but regular readers.

“My book (GONE AWRY: a virtual tour through high tech hell) has, in all honesty, received nothing but glowing reviews. Such reviews are great for the ego, but have little to no impact on sales.”

Paula La Sala talked about the difficulty of marketing a Print On-Demand book (many major review outlets resist reviewing self-published or POD books leaving the author with little independent promotional copy). The contest placement and judge’s comments might, however, provide an equally powerful sound-bite for these authors’ marketing campaigns. La Sala intends to enter her next novel into the contest.

Dadah Means Death author Jonathan Linn, like many others, says that the award reinforced the conviction that the book is good, for the author as well as the reader. Linn sums up all the authors’ responses, saying:

“Well, it’s not the Nobel, or a Booker, but it still feels good.”

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