We aim to announce winners by the end July.

Winners will be announced on our website. We also send an email out to everyone who has either subscribed. Winners will also be contacted directly to receive their prize.

We have a pool of judges that we regularly call upon. We also like to add new ones. We usually have two for the Book Award. However, previous judges that are not necessarily listed as a judge for one specific year are often still called upon as readers. So you can be sure that if your category is not represented by the named judges your work will be read by someone with an interest in your area. An example of this is poet Jeff Phelps, who in 2014 was not a judge but helped with the reading and selecting process. In fact, poetry was our first prize winner for 2014.

​We do not accept unpublished books for the Book Award.

You need to read all the information on our website which clearly explains how to enter the award.

​As we are international we accept several different currencies. You will need to see the entry page for details of currencies. Select a currency to pay in and the entry form will load for you to fill in and make the payment.

​If your book is postmarked by the closing date then your entry will be accepted.

​Currently we prefer to receive both if possible. If you don't have an ebook version we would greatly appreciate it if you could upload your Final copy, for example in a Word document... or if you prefer a PDF.

​For ebook submission we accept mobi too.

No. Books can have been published in any year.

​The premise of what we do is to give well-deserved recognition to authors of independent publishers and self publishers. Big publishing houses do not need us to give them recognition - they can afford to pay the large entry fees to enter prestigious awards or be placed on tables of book shops.

We would not accept entries from publishers such as:

Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Hachette Book Group, and Simon & Schuster.

​Yes but this would be counted as an additional entry, with another entry fee. Both versions will be registered and seen by our readers and/or judges.

​We decide which categories will be represented once we have received all entries. Please don't worry though, your book will be judged on its own merit and the correct category. We may not be able to represent ALL categories to give prizes to as it depends greatly on the quality and quantity of entries received. If your book is in a category that is not represented in the final line-up please be assured that it was not at a disadvantage at all and was judged in the category it was entered under.

​While every entry is given careful consideration our judges cannot read all the books entered. Our experienced readers assist our judges so you can be sure that each book has been carefully considered.

​Feedback is not a service that we offer.

​We will send an email out to everyone on our mailing list to let them know that the shortlist has been announced. If you do not receive this email the chances are your server is either blocking our email or it was sent to a jun folder. Sometimes this happens on one occasion but not on another. It is completely out of our control.

We also announce winners on Facebook and Twitter.

We only contact the winners who receive a prize.

​Most competitions will charge an entry fee unless they have financial backing from a major company or it is a business model, like Amazon, that makes money elsewhere to finance the competition.

In the UK it is common to charge £10 for a short story sometimes with a maximum of 2500 words. We consider our entry fees offer better value when comparing on a cost per word basis for the Book Award.

However, to break things down a little more:

We have to take into consideration the number of costs we have. These include but are not limited to: administrative staff, prize money, plaques, payment to our readers and securing well-respected judges, posting the books and plaques out, website costs. Please note this is not an exhaustive list.

There is a lot happening behind the scenes here. We feel that the entry fee is fair given the time involved in reading and considering entires (some will be read more than once). The fees are not as large as those requested by the BookTrust or by other competitions when an author is shortlisted. For example, WH Smiths requests £25,000 for a book that is selected by the new Richard and Judy book club (correct figures in 2010). These extra costs that publishers are expected to pay are not generally publicised but they exclude authors and independent publishers who cannot afford these prices. We feel that our entry fees are more reasonable and obtainable for authors and publishers with a modest budget.

​The next book award will launch in September.

Here is the page to our terms and conditions.