(1) The #1 desired prize:

(a) Everyone loves stickers. They are an obvious visual marker of achievement.

(b) It is a special bonus if you are able to provide a selection of stickers that the winners can choose from.

-For example, if a book cover is themed entirely in red and black, an orange and yellow sticker might be visually unappealing. If you provide even two to choose between, it's likely that the winner will be happier with one sticker over another.

-Stickers in black and white go best with everything, if you are only going to have one sticker.

-This is especially the case if the winner decides to change their book cover's color scheme one day. If they have a choice, they can save both stickers, and change them in the future if need be.

-For this reason, unless a winner asks for help, you should let them apply any stickers by themselves. That way they will be able to place it where they are happiest, and move it, if needed, in the future.

(c) Keep in mind that stickers will be rendered very small on the winning book covers, especially if multiple awards have been won.

-Thus, it is ideal to make them very easily legible when shrunken. Everyone wants their '1st Place' to be easily apparent.

-I've heard that stickers that were originally designed in very large sizes actually appear more pixelated when shrunken down. I honestly don't know much about this, but thought it was worth a mention.

(2) Other possible prizes:

(a) Make sure the authors know that the winning works will be publicly listed in the contest book itself. (A form of public recognition.)

(b) Create reading lists of the winning works, and leave them on your profile. (Another form of public recognition.)

(c) Offer to read and/or comment on the winning work. Keep in mind books can be up to 200 chapters.

(d) Offer to read and/or comment on the author's other works (not the one that won).

(e) Offer to follow the winners. (Note that promising to follow permanently isn't really practical.)

(f) Offer all entrants the chance to review the judges' scorecards for their entries.

(g) Offer to make a new book cover for the winning entry.

(h) Make all the prizes optional for the winners.

(3) Further considerations:

(a) Do award some form of prize, however minor, to everyone that places.

(b) Some people care a great deal what the prizes to be won in a contest are. Thus, it's a good idea to mention that in an earlier chapter.

(c) If your contest is held regularly/repeated, make sure you keep the chapter(s) listing any previous winning entries.

-Firstly, it is a public acknowledgement of achievement for the winners. It's irritating when all evidence of a victory is erased.

-Secondly, this will help you keep track of the previous winners, to ensure that they don't re-enter the same stories.

(d) It's a cool idea to have an ultimate-best winner, selected from the first place winners of all the categories. However, that's really pretty difficult to judge fairly. Ideally, it would be selected by having multiple judges read the first place winners and scores being averaged, but that is often not practical.

(e) If a given category was never filled with entries, simply combine it with another category. Alternatively, you can just award fewer places. Example:

-If there were many entries in a category, you might award a 1st-3rd and an Honorable Mention.

-If there weren't many entries in a category, you might only award a 1st and 2nd Place.