Encouraging Awards
Updated: Oct 6, 2021
Last month (Oct 2021), I decided to enter my recently published novel, No Bed of Roses, in an international writing competition hosted by Best Indie Book Award.
No Bed of Roses is just one book in a series of a fairy tale-inspired fantasy adventures, and it's a twisted reimagining of the Princess and the Pea (free for a limited time, by the way, so pick it up if you haven't already!). All books in the series are set in the same world but can be read as standalones.
I've been pleased to have had a couple of near-wins with the Chanticleer International Book Awards since I began self-publishing...
In 2016, Deathbed of Roses (book 2 in my Campervan Bushman Mystery Series) reached the finals of the Murder & Mayhem category.
And in 2019, Up a Creek Down Under reached the semi-finals in the Non-Fiction category.
Having entered several writing competitions years ago, both international and local, and doing well in those, I was spurred on. Along with the ebook revolution around 2010, it's what encouraged me to look into self-publishing. I even got to read some of my stories on St Austell Bay Radio, near where I live, after coming placed in local library competitions a couple of years running.
Next stop, the Booker Prize. Ha!
Of course, coming placed in such competitions doesn't really give you any significant exposure or help to sell your books (you need to actually win notable international competitions for that!), but it does boost the old confidence at times. So I'd heartily recommend them to budding authors. There are plenty of competitions out there for all types of writing - poetry, short stories, and novels. Just start typing into Google to see what's out there.
Anyway, the judges will be announcing the winners of the Best Indie Book Award on 30th December 2021, so who knows, maybe I'll top the semi-finals and finals this time with No Bed of Roses.
Wish me luck!
