Episode 81: How to Write an Award Winning Novel
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Hello, my beautiful cinnabar moths or any kind of moth you’d like to be welcome to The Writers Triangle, a podcast about publishing and all things books. And today we’re going to be talking about how to write an award winning novel. I do think that there is a system in place where you can write a novel in a way that it will most likely win an award. And I think that writing with the intention of winning awards for me, would feel heavy, cumbersome and very fraught. And I wouldn’t advise it, what I would advise instead is how to pick an award. And understanding what the benefits of each award is. And one aspect one benefit of an award is an industry awareness of you as an author. Once you have industry awareness, you are more likely to be able to get your press releases picked up, you’re more likely to be able to win other awards. Because once you have award winning, it does make it a lot easier, it does open up some doors, and sort of gives a level of of credibility. And there are an AI. In our awards episode, I go into detail about the different types of awards, and how much money the awards cost, and everything. And today, I want to talk about sort of what to do as an author, if you want to win a book, a book award. And I’ve had success with a couple of a couple of our books, about third of our books have received either placement and an award or have won an award, we’ve been very fortunate in that we have, you know, our team does spend time when I talk about all the time, we have that research day. And we really do get to know the awards and get to know the people behind the awards and the community that’s around the award and sort of get a feel for for what their tastes are. And I think that’s a really important part of picking out an award. And deciding which award you want to go for is looking at past winners, and reading past winners and see is your writing different and similar enough that you think it would be on the taste, but of that not award person, the person who decided right.
K
So there are some awards that have a single judge some awards that have 15, judges some awards that have, you know, a whole body, a whole community that that votes on it. And I think looking at who the judges are, and how the judging is conducted is going to be a great way for you to pick awards that work for you. awards that are community based, I think you’re good review, you’re good read and Amazon reviews and your library thing reviews will give you a good idea. If you have a good community based award a book for that’s going to do well with one of those types of awards. And if you if you’re getting a lot of positive reviews, look at what those positive reviews have in common. And look at what your negative reviews have in common. And then look at what the purpose what the stated purpose of that award is that you’re looking into. So like, allow me specifically it’s for promoting LGBTQ i plus authors and stories. And the bar Bellion is for authors with disabilities and Shirley Jackson is to promote horror. So all of these different awards, they have a sort of mandate of what they’re trying to promote uplift and spotlight in the world. And there’s like the young readers Association Award and the library awards are so many there’s a word for for every kind of book I think that every author can find an award that is a good fit for their book, if that’s what drives them if that’s what motivates you, right if you’re really keen on winning an award and you think that that is going to be the thing that raises your status up gets you noticed and sold books. I want to be really honest and say that awards don’t actually sell books. Sadly, I think like you know a call the cop that’ll sell books a HIGO a nebula, those really big, well known books, sell books. But even some of the more medium and small size, indie awards and such, I don’t find that, that they really sell books. But I do find that it helps with creating promotional material. And I think that there is something to be said for having content, and having content creation, and having collabs and having awareness and IV rewards as being a slow burn rather than a quick hit. And I think that having, you know, a medallion to put on the artwork for your cover, that creates a whole new generation of promotion and content that you can create for whatever is the highest level medallion that that your book receives, whether it be a placement, a list placement, or runner up placement or or an actual win, having that new content is worth its weight in gold. And I’ve read that because we’re on five different social media platforms. And the five different social media platforms all have like two or three ways that you can create content and different content that you have to create. And we’re fortunate that I have a team that can do that. Because there’s no way I could keep up. And what I advise authors to do when it comes to content creation is to pick a day and go through and just make right up 30 pieces of internet create 30, 30 pieces of content and you know, do one or two pieces of content a day on on every platform. And it’s a lot. And just like when I sit down to you know, do the podcast, I don’t record just one episode, I sit down and do a couple of episodes, because it is time consuming. And that, to me is such a precious commodity. That’s the one commodity we can never get back. We can never get our time back.
K
And that’s why I say that if you’re writing and wanting awards, if that’s what’s motivating you, the thing that it’s going to cost you the most of is your time researching those awards. And I do think that for me, there is a step ladder in the awards. And for our books, I found that once our book started getting noticed and smaller Awards, the bigger awards were sort of looking at us and being like, okay, they’re the they’re the real deal. They’ve got something going on here because we are a microprocessor. And so they’re looking at, okay, are you going to be around next year was for our first year. And you know, now we’re in year three, and people are like, okay, they sort of trust us to be around and trust that, that we have good quality of books, because our first year they figure Oh, well, that could be a fluke, right? Just got lucky. Or you were working with these authors for a long time. And with the second year, it felt like, Okay, everyone was like, Okay, you’re here, you’re established now. And this year really feels a lot more welcoming, like people are taking us more seriously. And with a lot more respect, and I think it would be the same process, right? When it comes to awards and committees, and chairs and such. I know that our position in the industry has changed because we’re being asked to sit on panels and to judge. And because we do have some genres that we don’t have any books and for that calendar for the 2023 calendar year. And so we’ll be judging some awards that we’re not submitting our books too, because we don’t have any in that genre. And that’s just a level of okay, people are coming to us and seeing us as a resource and wanting things. And the same thing happens for indie authors. When you’re in, in that award space, look around and see are there awards that are asking for judges, and put yourself forward to be a judge, because the judging community, there are people that just judge a lot of different awards. And getting in that community and talking to other judges. And also getting the sheet that goes out to judges is a lot of information on that sheet on that criteria on what they’re asking you to judge on and what how, how the rating system those will give you a lot of insight and how to present your book and what appeals to judges.
K
So deciding that that you’re going to go down this path of of winning an award. It’s not about writing an award winning book It’s about finding the award that your book could win. And I think that’s a really important distinction to make. Because by the time you write the book, you know, if the whole landscape could change, a book could come out that realize revolutionize everybody’s thinking about a specific genre, or a way, a way that a book should be written. I know that, for example, Twilight, right, the Twilight series, whether or not you like the series, it’s, it’s out there as this is the way to write vampire lore, it absolutely changed the way vampires are written, as did Interview with the Vampire, that series changed the way vampires were written for a while and how vampire stories were written. So when books reach popularity, and when, you know, movies are made based on books, and all of that, it does sort of change the way books are viewed and changes expectations of readers in terms of what they’re wanting. And popular popular content or popular writing popular fiction doesn’t always result in award winning fiction. I do think it’s important for authors to network and get out there and put themselves out there. And if reviews are what drives you more, if reviews and, and awards and accolades drives you more than sales, and it’s okay to be motivated more by more by accolades than by sales. And I do believe that accolades over time, result in sales, I have seen that with some of our books, it’s not immediate, it does, it does change the the way that that the book is marketed, and it does change the way that the readers perceive the book when you have that award winning and it does open up some minds to your book. And I think, you know, if you’re self published, or you know, an indie press that the first thing we have to do, right, is change everybody’s mind and convince them that we’re valid. And what we’re doing is valid. And awards provide that validation, good batter, otherwise, that’s just the reality of it. That’s just a real of it.
K
So I do think it’s worthwhile to pursue awards. And I do think it’s worthwhile to spend some time and think about what awards would actually be a good fit for your book. And when it comes to like, the the nebula, Nebula, and a lot of those big awards, if you’re dreaming of that award, please research it. A lot of people dream about being submitted to the HIGO. And a lot of our authors requests that we submit to the Hugo and we can’t submit the book, some books have to be nominated and Associates in the touch, which I talked about in the award episode. And so make sure that you understand what it is you’re billing for what it is that that award is wanting, and what that award is expecting. So just a little short one today, I know I I used to go for about 30 minutes, but I just had like this sort of bouncing around in my head. As I, I talked with people and I think to I’m right now reading books for awards and judging them. And so that’s really been on my mind. Like, hmm, this book feels really, I read a book that felt really formulaic, I’ll be honest, I was reading for an award. And I was like, I’m not gonna say the award. And like I said, I’m judging for because my identity has to be a secret. That’s one of the rules, you can’t advertise it. You’re one of the judges who was reading it. And it just, it felt like someone had looked up the award and looked at previous winners, and had just gone straight paint by numbers like, Okay, this is the opening, this is the midpoint, this is the rising and falling action and just, I don’t know, felt really forced to me. And I don’t know, I feel like sorry, to this author. And then there are other books, I’m like, this is an amazing book, but not for this award. And that was shocking to me, I didn’t think that I would get a good book, and not be able to put it forward and not be able to say that this book deserves to enter this award. So I do think, look at awards that have multiple genres. And sometimes, with awards, you will submit for one genre and be put into another genres category. That’s because a judge like myself really champions your book and says, Hey, y’all reading for this category. You should read this book, because it’s amazing, but it doesn’t quite fit my category. And I think that that’s awesome. I think that’s something really cool. And I felt I felt really happy for the author. And I felt like cool I can there’s still have a chance for this author to win, I really, really, really liked the book really good is on my tastebud. And it made me think, Hmm, so I’d be picking my chakra reading better. But the problem is the genres that I’m reading, I have books in those genres. And once you’re judged for an award, you can’t submit for any of the genres. So you have to be really, really careful if you’re working for a publisher, or if you have a lot of different books that you want to put forward. Like, be really, really careful which judging panels you decide to be on, because it also kind of burns the, the award for for a year or two.
K
So I know for me the awards I’m judging, I was looking at our roster. I’m like, I don’t have anything this year. I don’t have anything next year. And I was like, you know, two years out from judging, asking them, you know, two years out from judging, is it cool for me to submit and all that? And they’re like, Yeah, that’s fine. So knowing and planning out your books, and knowing what you have coming down the pike will help you with determining whether or not you want to be a judge, and what genres and what awards you can judge for. I do think it’s beneficial to judge it’s time consuming, it’s really time consuming and really messed with my TBR list. I’m really behind on things I need to read for the press, because I’m reading for the for the judging opportunity. But I thought it was such a great opportunity to see the inside track of what it is to be a judge for an award. And what do they ask judges to do you like are you just freestyling reading and thinking your thoughts? And the answer’s no, you’re not freestyling it they have at least the the awards. I’m on judging like they have like really specific criteria. And really strict like, does this book meet x y Zed? And you have to be honest and be like, yes, it does, or no, it doesn’t. So that’s my whole spiel on on how to write an award winning novel, and how to you know, get some prestige from it and what are some of the benefits of awards? And yeah, that was my little ramble for today. If you enjoyed that, please hit the Be sure to like subscribe and all that and it really helps us out and turn the notification bells so that you can be notified every time we upload and you know the goal for 2023 I’m hoping for that first 100 followers on or subscribers on YouTube. And so if you’re listening to this on on Spotify or Apple or wherever you get your podcasts if you could check out our YouTube channel and give it a like and subscribe that would be super awesome. We so appreciate it. Or you can rate us on Spotify or Apple wherever you’re you’re having wherever you’re enjoying my dulcet talent my dulcet tones what a turn of phrase on that happy note. Thank thank you to all of our beautiful sort of our moms for listening. You don’t have to be a cinnabar month you can be any kind of moth you want to be or even a butterfly but I’m not Mariah Carey I’m not trying to bite her rhyme bye