Book Awards: The Gift that Keeps on Giving

Once You Win a Book Award, be sure to get as much mileage out of it as you can.

     Winner of 13 book awards

1. Put award-winning book or award-winning author interchangeably with the name of your book or your name as the author. If you have won more than one award, use “multi-award winning.”

2. Go through everything you write and change it to award-winning. This can include your profile on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Look at your blog and Website. If you have previously written ezines or other articles, update them with your new awards. 

3. Use Google Alerts with the name of your book to see how much PR you are really getting. This will help you decide where to put your continued efforts. I like to google some key phrases periodically to see what Google alerts may have missed.

4. Write a detailed Press Release every time you win an award. I like to tell the history of the award and even list the other winners in my category. I may even write some nice things about the other winning books in my category. Then I write an email to those other writers with a copy of the link along with my congratulations. Sometimes these other winners will reciprocate by putting something about me on their blog or website.

5. Send copies of the Press Releases to anyone who might be interested in publishing the information. For example, send to your current newspaper and other newspapers such as your home newspaper or a newspaper where you previously lived. Send to your alumni associations, your employer and your professional organizations such as the local bar association or Rotary. Send to your local writers’ group newsletter. 

5. Put book award information on your signature on your email account so that everyone who receives an email from you will see this information. This is sent automatically and often, I will get a response like, “ I did not know you were an author,” or “My daughter is looking for a job and could use this book on interviewing.” If it is not relevant to your email, you canalways delete the signature before sending. 

6. Write blurbs or tips with "award-winning author" that people will want to share with others on Facebook or retweet. That will help your information go viral. 

7. Send the information frequently. You don’t want to be obnoxious, but sending something only once may leave out people who don’t check Facebook or Twitter on a regular basis. Some things do bear repeating. You can always tweak the post so it is a little different from earlier ones. 

Winner of 13 book awards

Winner of 10 Book Awards