READ THIS PAGE BEFORE REGISTERING
Submission period: February 1 to April 20
Have you published a new book in 2022 or 2023? Or are you on the cusp of wrapping one up now?*
If so, we are looking for you! And you just might be looking for us. Placing as a finalist with a respected book award, or winning it, can help you reach new audiences and markets. It also delivers a satisfying cap to all the hard work that goes into putting out a fine book.
What do we offer?
Quality and increased visibility. Taking high marks in this awards program is all about the quality of the work, and we celebrate that quality. Winners and finalists receive a digital certificate, a digital seal for the ebook cover, and a quote-worthy paragraph of judging praise. They are showcased on the IPNE website. And they are honored at the online awards ceremony, for an evening spent in celebration of these fine books — a high point for the year's events. IPNE will also be sending out press releases to select organizations and media.
We care about helping books reach their intended audiences. About recognizing authors who've achieved excellence. About highlighting those books for readers.
How it works
We accept print books only.
You needn't be a member of IPNE to submit a book. You needn't live in New England to submit a book.
Your book can be author-published, hybrid-published, or traditionally published via small press, independent press, university press, or academic press. You or your publisher can enter it.
This year’s focus: books with a publication date of 2022, 2023, or early 2024.* Submissions close April 20.
(* This year also, the legacy series swivels to nonfiction. Details below.)
To submit a book, register the book’s details (author, publisher, publication date, page count, and so on, as specified in the form), pay the fee ($65), and then mail four print copies to the address you’ll receive with confirmation of registration.
We’ll match your book with three qualified judges drawn from our panel of literary scholars, authors, librarians, developmental editors, booksellers, and other qualified reviewers vetted and selected for this process.
Each book competes within its category, and also for the top prize as Book of the Year. The judging wraps up in late fall. The online awards announcement ceremony follows in January, on the third Saturday. Mark your calendars!
The legacy series continues! This year, with nonfiction
This year, the legacy series will feature nonfiction backlist titles. If you have a nonfiction book published (even if this is not a first, but a subsequent, edition) from 2010 through 2020, you may submit this work as a work of legacy nonfiction.
If the book was published previously, this new version must represent a bona fide new or substantially revised edition. Not a reprint, a rerelease, or a republish. What constitutes a new or revised edition? Enough of a change to the contents so that it's not quite the same book. Typically, this means significant rewriting and/or restructuring, new material added, outdated material removed, and so on. The book will also carry a new ISBN.
The categories
Our judges look at books in the following categories:
- Informational nonfiction
- Narrative nonfiction
- Genre fiction
- Literary fiction
- The Rest of the Stories fiction (see below)
- Poetry
- YA fiction or nonfiction
- Children's books (MG fiction, MG nonfiction, picture books)
New fiction category
"The Rest of the Stories" is our working title for this new awards category that helps give all novels and short stories a more equal footing. Because fiction isn't all about, delightful as these two are, genre or literary. There are whole other worlds out there, summoned up most beautifully on the page. Books that combine or cross genres in ways that extend beyond what's typical (general, aka mainstream, fiction). Books that seem to have no genre at all, which just means they read like everyday life, really its own "genre" (contemporary fiction). Books with, as is sometimes said, "literary feel, but market appeal" (upmarket fiction).
These varieties can be difficult to pin down and the market categories certainly aren't hard and fast. But "The Rest of the Stories" (or whatever we'll call it) awards category enables books not strictly either genre or literary to find a competitive edge.
Category descriptions
Before registering a book, review your intended category in this set of detailed category descriptions.
Judging criteria
Our judges look at the whole book: the quality of the writing, the quality of the information or story, the quality of the presentation.
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Here's what to have ready for registration
Any major players on the project (designer, illustrator, editors), publisher info, publication date, ISBN. Page count, word count. The book description from the back cover. Your book's Amazon URL and any other URLs you'd like to include. Other collateral, if you would like. (No book reviews, please!) Info on any potentially sensitive themes. And a high-res image of your book's front cover.
Some of this information is important for the end game, should your book place or win. Some of it is so that we can better match your book to judges who best represent your target audience. Those are the reviewers you want. And some of it is so that we don't give your book to anyone who's worked on it. That would be a Bad, Bad Thing.
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How to register and submit your book
- Review the info on this page. Feel free to raise any questions you have with the awards coordinator.
- Have your book details and contact info (as outlined just above) handy before you begin.
- Click the Register button, above left, to begin the registration process. You will fill out a form with the details you have ready.
- Finish the registration process by submitting your payment online.
- Look for and open the email confirming registration. The mailing address for your books is included.
- Mail four copies of your print book to that address.
Questions?
Reach out to the IPNE book awards coordinator.
Notices
Depending on the number of submissions for a category, IPNE reserves the right to combine, divide, or otherwise modify the award categories. In the event that categories are added, consolidated, or eliminated, submission(s) will be judged in the categories most relevant. All entries will be held to basic publishing standards with respect to length and legibility. Entries that clearly violate such standards will be disqualified.
The book awards are coordinated and managed by a volunteer committee. All judging is undertaken by an independent panel of professionals. IPNE's board of directors has no visibility into, nor is it directly involved with, any of the details or proceedings. The awards coordinator acts as liaison to the board around all things awards.
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Independent Publishers of New England participates in several major cooperative book-marketing events on behalf of members, and a number of smaller ones. Many of these are in-person and/or hybrid events! Please see more on the "Big Three" New England co-op events and click here for exhibit curation checklist.