Authors: Get Your Book Into the Hands of Publishing Industry Leaders
Book awards give up-and-coming authors the chance to be discovered by top literary agent

NEWYORK (December 15, 2009) — With the New Year creeping up, many aspiring and seasoned authors are feverishly formulating their goals for the coming year. On the top of their to-do lists is to have their work recognized by both readers and the publishing industry. However, if you’re an author you know that getting noticed isn’t easy in today’s competitive publishing world.

The data from Bowker earlier this year indicated that there was an even larger increase in books published last year with more than 560,000 books published in 2008.

So how can you, as an author, rise above the heap and reach publishing industry decision-makers in one easy step? By entering the 2010 Next Generation Indie Book Awards™ (the “Indie Book Awards”), presented by the Independent Book Publishing Professionals Group.

With 60 award categories, the 2010 Indie Book Awards honors authors with books published in 2009 and 2010 across the literary spectrum the chance to win cash (over $10,000 in cash prizes will be awarded), prizes and recognition. Awards include:

  • $1,500 Cash Prize and trophy for the best Fiction Book
  • $1,500 Cash Prize and trophy for the best Non-Fiction Book
  • $750 Cash Prize and trophy for the second place Fiction Book
  • $750 Cash Prize and trophy for the second place Non-Fiction Book
  • $500 Cash Prize and trophy for the third place Fiction Book
  • $500 Cash Prize and trophy for the third place Non-Fiction Book
  • $100 Cash Prize and a Gold Medal awarded to the winner of each of the 60 categories
Most importantly, the best 60 of the 2010 Indie Book Awards™ book entries will be reviewed by leading New York literary agent, Marilyn Allen, with a chance to be represented to some of the industry’s leading publishers.

Ms. Allen, of Allen O’Shea Literary Agency, has had top roles at major publishing houses such as Harper Collins, Simon & Schuster and Penguin Books, among others. Allen has worked closely with many best-selling authors including Stephen King, Ken Follett, Barbara Kingsolver, John Gray and Mary Higgins Clark.

"Independently-published books have become a major source for quality fiction and nonfiction, but often go unrecognized by the mainstream publishing industry,” notes Allen. “Finally, an awards program has been created to recognize talented authors from this important segment of our industry. Our agency represents over 100 authors and we’re always looking for new talent, so it is a great pleasure to be part of this program. We look forward to reviewing the works of the 60 best entries this year and helping these authors gain the recognition they deserve.”

To learn more and enterThe 2010 Next Generation Indie Book Awards™, visit indiebookawards.com