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Hi everybody,

So, here we go! The 2018 Wishing Shelf Book Awards is now shut; no further entrants allowed. If you do still wish to enter, you can, but you will be entering the 2019 awards, not the 2018.

Now, when I enter awards with my books, I often find the organisers very – how can I put it? – I know, ‘secretive’. But we don’t work that way. So, below, you will find lots of info as to who is doing what, when they are doing it, what they are doing and who they are doing it to. Enjoy!

HOW MANY ENTERED

Firstly, let me tell you how many authors entered the 2018 Wishing Shelf Book Awards? In Category 1 (Pre-School Picture Books) there were 53 books entered. In Category 2 (Books for 6 – 8 Year Olds) there were 26 entered. In Category 3(Books for 9 – 12 Year Olds) there were 39 entered. In Category 4(Books for Teenagers) there were 58 entered. In Category 5(Books for Adults - Fiction) there were 152 entered. And, finally, in Category 6 (Books for Adults - non-fiction) there were 51 entered.

The biggest change from last year seems to be Category 1. Last year, there were only 30; so, the number in this category has almost doubled. Oddly, Category 3 dropped markedly from 56 last year to only 39 this year. The rest did not alter by very much. In fact, Category 6 went up by 1!

WHAT HAPPENS NOW

For the children's books, we have chosen six primary and secondary schools in the UK, mostly in London, to do the initial judging. The children, with the help of their teachers, will be assessing the books and deciding on the finalists in each category based simply on: which book(s) did they enjoy the most and why. They will assess the books according to:

EDITING Is there a flow to the text or is it a scratched record? Is it full of tiny/gigantic errors?

THEME Is the book current/interesting/original/exciting?

STYLE Is it a page-turner? The beginning grips you and the end knocks you for six.

COVER AND ILLUSTRATIONS Eye-catching? Age appropriate? Do they add to the book?

A smaller, select group of children then look at the chosen top books and pick the gold, silver and bronze winners for each category.

The adult books will be assessed by two Reading Groups, one in London where I often work and one in Stockholm where I live. They will decide on the finalists and from these they will pick the gold, silver and bronze medal winners. The members of these groups will not be professional editors or 'BIG' in the publishing world, but they love to read and know a good book when they see it. They will be assessing the books in a similar way to the children but perhaps the judging will be a little more in depth.

WHAT WE SPEND THE ENTRY FEE ON

If you did not know, the Wishing Shelf Book Awards is run not for profit, but to help the authors who enter. The motto for the awards is: Working to Promote Excellence in Independent Publishing. I know it sounds a little cliched, but that is what we honestly try to do. So, the entry fee is spent on the following:

1. Owning, hosting and updating the webpage.
2. Cost of posting the picture books between Reading Groups and schools.
3. Designing the (super-cool!) certificate for all the finalists and winners.
4. Advertising all the finalists on Goodreads (it costs a fortune, but it helps the authors find new customers).
5. The cost of promoting the winning adult books on Goodreads.
6. The cost of designing and producing the winner medals.
7. Every year, we support Blind Children UK (Guide Dogs) with a financial donation.
8. To cover the Reading Group organisers' travel costs.
9. To cover the cost of 1 part-time member of staff who helps with organising and sending out all the feedbacks. I (Edward) do it for free!
10. Membership/partnership of ALLi and general marketing of the awards.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

On March 1^st, we will be announcing the list of finalists. It will be announced on the Facebook page, in a newsletter, on Twitter and on the website: www.thewsa.co.uk. Remember, every book that is awarded over 30/40 will be a finalist. So, it is perfectly possible for every book in a category to be a finalist; it is also possible for there to be no finalists in a given category! Don’t worry, it’s not happened yet. We will then be adding the list of finalists to the website along with a link to the book’s Amazon page. Also, the finalists will be able to download a certificate and a ‘Finalist’ logo – in lots of different formats – which they can put on blogs, book covers, etc. etc.

Also, during March, we will be sending out ALL of the non-finalists’ feedback to the authors who picked Opt. 2 when they entered. Although all the non-finalists’ feedback will have been completed by March 1^st, we will only send out approx. 5 a day. Then, if the authors wish to, we can properly discuss the feedback with them, and not be overwhelmed. Keep in mind, if the author is insulting in any way, we will not try to help them. Sadly, every year, two or three authors get very, VERY angry with me if the feedback is not what they want it to be. Remember, the feedback is there to help you to improve your writing. The readers in the Reading Groups are very honest. So, if they find three hundred spelling errors in the story, they did. They are not making it up to upset you.

Then, at the beginning of April, we will announce the Gold, Silver and Bronze Winners! After that, we will be sending out all the finalists’ feedbacks, sending out the winners’ certificate, listing the winners on the website, promoting the finalists/winners on Goodreads with a $500 advert, and sending out the medals to the winners. The medal for the winners is covered by the entry fee. The finalists will also be able to ‘purchase’ a medal. They cost a fortune, so we can’t cover that too.

If anybody wants to ask me anything regarding the awards, they are welcome to do so. I can always be contacted at thewishingshelfawards@gmx.com. Finally, I wish you all the best of luck. Remember, you have all written a book. And, that, I think, is the biggest accomplishment of all.

Chat soon!

Edward

(B B Buttons)

Hi,

As most of you probably know, the gold, silver and bronze winners now get wonderful MEDALS! The medals are amazing; individually designed for the awards, gold-plated in a velvet padded box. Last year's winners loved them. Anyway, I'm just organising them for the 2018 winners (to be announced April 2019; I'm so organised) when I remembered a number of finalists from last year asked if we could have medals for them too.

The thing is, they are not your typical school sports day medals i.e. they cost a fortune. All the winners get them for free - it's covered by part of the entry fee - but if I had them produced for all the finalists, the awards would go broke!

However, what I could do is this. As a past finalist in The Wishing Shelf Book Awards, if you would like a finalist medal, let me know ASAP. We would charge the exact cost of having them produced (if I remember correctly it's £25) plus whatever the postage is. Then, when I have a full list of all the past finalists who want a medal, I will order them and then send them out.

So, if you wish to have a medal, reply to this message with a 'Yes' and with your FULL NAME and POSTAL ADDRESS (don't forget to include the 'country' at the end).

They really do look wonderful; big and heavy too! They will look amazing at booksignings, on a bookshelf or even on your writing desk.

Remember, we will only charge the cost of producing and sending them; the awards will make no profit whatsoever. We just thought you all might be interested.

Edward

Hi everybody,

I just got a message from an author who won the bronze in The Wishing Shelf Book Awards asking if this will help her to sell her book. Well, here’s the thing. It will, if you see the medal as a tool in your marketing tool box.

For example, when I won the UK People’s Book Prize, I put it on my author page and I put it on the front cover of all of my books. This helped a little. But it helped BIG TIME when I was trying to twist the arms of schools to allow me to visit them and present my literacy workshops to the students there. In the past, when I sent a message to schools offering to do my workshops, I’d get a response of approx. 1%. But, when I put ‘Winner of The UK People’s Book Prize’ in the box at the top of the message, I got a response of approx. 12%.

You see, 99% of readers have no clue how good or bad a literary award is. They simply see ‘Award-Winning Book’ and they think, ‘Oh, it must be good’. In my case, the teachers in the schools see ‘UK People’s Book Prize Winner’ and think, ‘Oh, he must be good’ and they book me up for a visit.

So, to sum up then, yes, being a finalist or winning a medal in The Wishing Shelf Book Award can help you to sell your books, but only if you have a marketing strategy whereby you utilize the win to further that marketing strategy. Let me put it this way, after winning the award I now sell an average of 75 books at every school I visit. Before I won the award, I sold an average 45 books. The difference: I had a marketing strategy and every poster I now send the schools says ‘Winner of the UK People’s Book Prize’ in bold, red letters at the top. And the letter the schools send to parents to tell them a children’s author is visiting and they can buy a signed book – well, I bet you can guess what it says in big, bold letters at the top.

See winning an award as a tool in your tool box. But it you don’t take the tool out, it’s not going to do you any good.

I hope that helps,

Edward