Genre
Living Now Book Awards
Jenkins Group
In short
The Living Now Book Awards are a paid-entry contest run by the Jenkins Group for books about health, wellness, food, home, relationships, aging, inspiration, personal growth, or Christian living. Winners receive gold, silver, or bronze medals plus seals that appear on covers in those sections, and the recognition circulates mainly among independent authors and their readers. Authors and publishers may enter, one fee per category. Check whether your publisher wants to enter; if not, you can enter and pay yourself.
Deadline June 24, 2027Checked September 13, 2026 (opens in a new tab)
Every label is a fact from the official rules, never a judgment about whether the award is worth entering. How we describe awards.
The Living Now Book Awards, run by Jenkins Group since 2008, cover lifestyle, homestyle, personal development, wellness, and Christian-themed books in more than 30 categories. Jenkins Group also runs the Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY) and the Axiom Business Book Awards, and the entry mechanics are the same across the three.
The 2027 awards take English-language books from authors, illustrators, publishers, and self-publishers worldwide with 2025, 2026, or 2027 copyright dates; the Evergreen categories accept books from 2000 onward. No ISBN is required, galleys are accepted, and ebooks may enter designated categories as well as the general categories. One copy per category is required, as a physical book, a PDF upload, or audiobook gift codes depending on the category.
Submissions reopen September 17, 2026. Fees rise across three deadlines: January 13, 2027 ($79), March 10, 2027 ($89), and the June 24, 2027 final postmark deadline ($99), with books required to arrive by July 8, 2027. Results are emailed August 5, 2027.
Why it may matter
This is a category-specific program: it makes sense for a book about health, food, home, relationships, aging, inspiration, or personal growth, and not for anything else. Recognition circulates mainly among independent authors and publishers in those subjects, and the gold, silver, and bronze medals appear on covers in the self-help and wellness sections. The three fee tiers reward entering early in the cycle.
2027 cycle: 2027 Living Now Book Awards
- Eligible publication dates
- January 1, 2025 to December 31, 2027
- Entries open
- September 17, 2026Checked September 13, 2026 (opens in a new tab)
- Early deadline
- January 13, 2027Checked September 13, 2026 (opens in a new tab)
- Final deadline
- June 24, 2027Checked September 13, 2026 (opens in a new tab)
- Deadline note
- Submissions reopen September 17, 2026. Fees rise after January 13, 2027 and again after March 10, 2027. Final deadline June 24, 2027 by postmark; books must arrive by July 8, 2027. Eligibility is by copyright year 2025 to 2027 (Evergreen categories accept books from 2000 onward).
- Entry fee
- $79 per entry through January 13, 2027; $89 through March 10, 2027; $99 through the June 24, 2027 final deadlineChecked September 13, 2026 (opens in a new tab)
- Results
- Judging begins July 8, 2027; results emailed August 5, 2027 and posted August 11, 2027; virtual ceremony September 9, 2027
- Notes
- The home page gives the reopening date as September 17 without a year; September 17, 2026 follows from the 2027 deadlines
| Tier | Deadline | Fee |
|---|---|---|
| Early-Bird Deadline 1, per entry | January 13, 2027 | $79 |
| Early-Bird Deadline 2, per entry | March 10, 2027 | $89 |
| Final Deadline, per entry | June 24, 2027 | $99 |
Worth knowing
Our reading, not a rule the organization published. We judge an award on the rubric in how we describe awards.
An earlier link to an eligibility page returned a not-found error; the guidelines page carries the current rules. This record previously showed the 2026 cycle as closed on June 25; the site now shows the 2027 cycle with a June 24, 2027 final deadline. The use of artificial intelligence tools is discouraged and may factor into judging.
Rules and deadlines change. We last checked this information on September 13, 2026. If you see something that needs updating, please tell us.
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