Build the award plan
Identify genre-specific awards
Find the awards run by and for your genre's community, where the judges and the audience already read what you write.
Why it matters
Genre readers pay attention to their genre's awards in a way general readers do not. A shortlist in a genre program can reach booksellers, librarians, and reviewers who specialize in that field. It is also where eligibility is most likely to actually match your book, which is not true of broad, all-genre programs.
Your part
- What you do
- Do it. You normally do this yourself.
- Who normally owns it
- Author and Publisher and Publicist. Author, publisher, or publicist researches; author records the results
- When
- About 6 months before publication, in time for windows that open around the publication date (Build the award plan: twelve to six months before publication, because eligibility windows close early)
How to do it
The full walkthrough
Most genres have their own award programs, usually run by a writers' organization, a convention, or a specialist publication. Mystery, romance, science fiction and fantasy, horror, poetry, children's and young adult, and graphic novels all have established programs with their own rules, and many have several. These programs tend to be judged or voted on by people who read the genre closely, which is exactly the audience you want.
The search is straightforward: find the professional organizations in your genre, look at their awards pages, and note which programs accept entries and from whom. Some are member-nominated, some accept publisher entries, some accept author entries, and a few are chosen by a jury with no submissions at all.
Traditionally published authors should check whether the publisher already submits to the main genre programs; it often does for the well-known ones. Hybrid and self-published authors should read eligibility carefully, because genre organizations vary in whether they accept self-published entries and may require membership.
Add what you find to the awards calendar with the same detail as everything else: window, fee, copies, submitter. Then decide which ones fit the book, not which ones have the biggest names.
Common mistakes
- Assuming a book that crosses genres is eligible for both genres' awards without reading the category definitions.
- Missing a membership requirement and discovering it at the entry form.
- Overlooking the smaller regional or convention-based genre awards, which often have less competition and a real audience.
- Entering a genre program because it exists rather than because the book fits.
What done looks like
- The main organizations and conventions in your genre listed, with their award pages bookmarked.
- Each program's submitter rules, membership requirements, and publishing-path eligibility recorded.
- Programs added to the awards calendar with official deadlines and the date checked.
- A conversation with the publisher about which genre programs it handles.
Ask your publisher
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Sources and last checked
- Official source
- No single official page for this step.
- Last checked
- Not checked against its source yet.
- How confident we are
- Verified