The 2019 Selfies Awards winner is to be announced on March 12, in the London Book Fair’s HQ complex at Olympia London. With roughly half its membership in the States, ALLi, as its known, is the world’s leading support organization for the self-publishing community and its influence in its home market has helped many of the UK’s writers who are not aligned with trade houses to raise the quality of their work and output.

The UK’s self-publishing community is a robust one, not least because the market is the home of the nonprofit Alliance of Independent Authors launched in 2012 at the London Book Fair by its founding director Orna Ross. An effective and creative marketing and publicity strategy.An enticing cover and blurb that successfully addresses the target audience.And this was communicated to authors entering their work by describing the criteria beyond the writing as (quoting the organizers): In an interesting reflection of the task of self-publishing, the prize recognizes not only quality of writing but also, per the program’s media messaging, “the cover design, blurb and sales and marketing campaigns too,” a reminder of the breadth of activity demanded by self-publishing. While opinions are mixed on how much a prize might mean in the difficult world of indie book sales, it seems clear that an award cant hurt, and many independent writers will surely appreciate the arrival of this first year of the Selfies’ operation. Most established book awards programs consider trade published works but not self-published entries, meaning that indies work without as many chances for the marketing boost of an award. Produced by BookBrunch in association with the London Book Fair and the public relations and author services company Bookollective and IngramSpark, the Selfies represent the judges’ choice of a work of fiction self-published in 2018.Īs such, this awards program is something that many indie authors have long called for. And a new book awards program today (February 5) is adding to the wintry mix something almost as distinctive as the proverbial snowflake’s design: the Selfies Awards has announced its first set of self-published finalists. By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | An All-Women Shortlist At this time of year, shortlists, longlists, and calls for submissions swirl like snow showers up and down the UK.

A Spoke In The Wheel by Kathleen Jowitt