You've seen the little "stickers" on book covers, right? "Winner blah blah Award!"

What exactly do all these awards mean? You wonder. 

Some, a lot. It's an honor to win it and it gives an author a warm fuzzy glow inside.

Others, it's a load of crap. To be honest. Since I've published my books I've discovered there are a lot of so-called awards out there that books have been "honored" with. In reality, many of these awards no one really gets nominated for. An author pays a fee and the people in charge of the award decide if your book fits and they enter it. (If ya pay generally you get in the running, haven't heard of anyone NOT getting in) 

What happens next? You do basically the same as you do for any contest: You beg everyone you know for votes. 

That's how you get an award and a little sticker. 

It's bull crap for the most part. 

1) a lot of self-published authors don't have tons of ready cash to enter all these BS "awards contests" (Some can be over a hundred dollars)

2) I've seen books win that, quite honestly, suck. The writing is horrible, the cover is cringe worthy and it makes the contest look bad in my opinion. All because the person was good at hustling votes

It's pretty much the same for writing contests that are vote based. Things win that simply don't deserve to win. If you know enough people and can beg them to vote, you win. Talent doesn't matter. 

It's why I've stopped entering contests like this. They're unfair. It's a popularity contest and that is all. Your talent means very little in comparison to your ability to talk people into voting for you. They don't even have to actually read your book. *cough cough Watty awards* 

Yes, people with great books can and do win. Too often, I've seen it go the other way, however. Frankly, I'm tired of it.

How well written the book is should be what is considered first. Not how popular the author is. If the story makes sense, if the grammar is correct. IF YOU CAN READ THE BOOK WITHOUT CRINGING! I could care less if the author has thousands of followers and a million votes. I want to be able to understand the writing and get past the first page without being nauseated by how awful the writing is. If you can't string two sentences together or write in text talk. If every other word is OMG! I'm not going to be reading your book. If you don't know the difference between, there, they're and their. Ciao!

Yet, people running these contests don't care how a book is written. They hold a hand out for cash and enter you. It's rather sad. 

Self-published authors get a bad rap because any fool with a credit card can now publish a book. It doesn't matter how talented you are, hand over a credit card and *BAM* you can tell everyone you're a published author. 

Those of us who put in the effort. Editing, formatting, cover design. We get attitude from people because of that. You tell folks you're self-published and there's a look. 

It's like, why the hell would you do that? Why? Because I want to maintain control of my work. If you go with a traditional publisher, yeah you get into bookstores easier, but you lose control. I've seen it with a few of my author friends who went with traditional publishing houses. They decide on the cover design, you get almost no say. Editing and changes to your storyline, all kinds of bull I don't want to deal with. 

I know my characters, my story and what I want the cover to look like. Back off. Do not tell me how my characters would react to a situation, you didn't write the book, you haven't lived with them like I have. 

Don't knock self-published authors because of some badly written books. The indie publishing community is growing by leaps and bounds. My indie publishing group (that has only been together for about 3 months) has over 50 members already. Together we help one another with promotion, questions about the industry, anything anyone needs. We are not in competition. We are a community and we are all here to help one another. 

Some people forget that. 

So help an indie author out. Give us a chance. Don't judge us based on some badly written books. Awards may or may not mean anything, but good writing does. 

If you read it and love it, please leave a review. Those are our lifeblood. Reviews help us out so much. When we reach a certain number of reviews on Amazon, they help promote our books.