There are a number of prestigious book awards–and that number is exponentially dwarfed by the number of “fly by night” book awards that earn a profit off of the entry fees–that can do amazing things for increasing an author’s credibility and a specific title’s sales figures. The inherent promotion of the contest itself can increase a book’s visibility, while the resulting traffic of increased searchability can lead to more household-name recognition for the author. Take a look at this article detailing a 2015 contest and its results for a clearer picture of the correlation between a major-name book award and the resulting increase in sales.
One of the more popular reader-centric book awards is the Goodreads Choice awards, which have been staged since 2009. This competition relies on nominations based on user feedback on the site, then the nominees receive votes from actual Goodreads users. The result is a three-phase voting round to determine the winner in each category.
“We analyze statistics from the millions of books added, rated, and reviewed on Goodreads to nominate 15 books in each category,” states the eligibility details on the contest page, in reference to how books are selected to be in one of the twenty different contest categories.
While there are only a matter of hours left in the opening round of the contest, the semi-final round will begin on Tuesday and run for almost a week. Following the close of semi-final voting, the final round will begin on November 15th and run through the 27th. As with so many other book competitions, even being nominated in the opening round lends a certain level of credibility to the book’s quality, especially since the opening round is based on existing traffic for that book by Goodreads users.
To see the complete list of current nominees in the opening round and to cast your vote, visit this link and click on any given category. Voting will close shortly after midnight tonight ET, and will resume on November 8th.
Mercy Pilkington is a Senior Editor for Good e-Reader. She is also the CEO and founder of a hybrid publishing and consulting company.
