2011 Indie Book Award Winners Announced
Independent Book Publishing Professionals Group has named the best indie books of 2011.
The books are winners of the 2011 Next Generation Indie Book Awards, a non-profit awards program judged by leaders in the indie book publishing industry to identify indie books that deserve to reach a wider audience.
"We like to think of our awards program as the ‘Sundance’ of the book publishing world," says Catherine Goulet, Chair of the 2011 Next Generation Indie Book Awards program.
In an article at CNN.com titled "If it's cool, creative, and different, it's indie," journalist Catherine Andrews wrote: "The term 'indie' traditionally refers to independent art -- music, film, literature or anything that fits under the broad banner of culture -- created outside of the mainstream and without corporate financing."
Independent book publishing companies are independent of the major conglomerates that dominate the book publishing industry. The indies include small presses, larger independent publishers, university presses, e-book publishers, and self-published authors.
According to Goulet, "Like other independent artists, many indie book publishers face challenges that the industry giants don't experience. They typically have to work a lot harder to get their best books into retail stores and ultimately into the hands of readers."
"Authors and publishers who compete in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards are serious about promoting their books," adds Goulet. "They aim to stand out from the crowd of millions of books in print."
According to Bowker, publisher of the Books in Print database, preliminary data for 2010 shows more than three million new titles were published last year alone. Of these, over 2.7 million were "non-traditionally" published books, including print-on-demand and self-published titles - an increase of 269% over 2009.
To help Indie authors and publishers reach a wider audience, the top 60 books in the 2011 Next Generation Indie Book Awards will be reviewed by New York literary agent Marilyn Allen of Allen O’Shea Literary Agency or one of Ms. Allen’s co-agents for possible representation in areas such as distribution, foreign rights, film rights, and other rights.
The top prize winning books in the 2011 Next Generation Indie Book Awards are:
Top Non-Fiction Books
First Place Winner ($1,500 Prize)
Last Chance: Preserving Life on Earth, by Larry J. Schweiger (Fulcrum Publishing)
Second Place Winner ($750 Prize)
Touching: Poems of Love, Longing, and Desire, edited by Sari Friedman and D. Patrick Miller (Fearless Books)
Third Place Winner ($500 Prize)
Serve to Lead®: Your Transformational 21st Century Leadership System, by James M. Strock (Serve to Lead Press)
Top Fiction Books
First Place Winner ($1,500 Prize)
Carny: A Novel in Stories, by James Hitt (Aberdeen Bay Press)
Second Place Winner ($750 Prize)
The DeValera Deception, by Michael McMenamin & Patrick McMenamin (Enigma Books)
Third Place Winner ($500 Prize)
I Can Only Give You Everything, by Bradford Tatum (self-published)
Other Winners
A prize of $250 was also awarded for Best Design to Wisconsin's Own: Twenty Remarkable Homes, by M. Caren Connolly and Louis Wasserman, photographs by Zane Williams (Wisconsin Historical Society Press).
In addition to the grand prize winners, top indie books were named as winners and finalists in 60 publishing categories ranging from Action/Adventure to Young Adult. A complete list of 2011 winners and finalists is available at the Next Generation Indie Book Awards website at www.indiebookawards.com.
About The Winning Books
Last Chance: Preserving Life on Earth, by Larry J. Schweiger (Fulcrum Publishing) is an inspiring and engaging exposé and call to action on the issue of global warming, penned by the president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation. This gripping and important book offers practical solutions and a plan of action, while making it clear that saving the planet is the responsibility of everyone.
Touching: Poems of Love, Longing, and Desire, edited by Sari Friedman and D. Patrick Miller (Fearless Books) showcases distinctive and compelling new voices in contemporary poetry. They range from promiscuous barflies to lovers who celebrate "the breakthrough of pure joy" to those who are seduced by "this slow-burning that fills me completely." A moving and exciting literary collection.
Serve to Lead®: Your Transformational 21st Century Leadership System, by James M. Strock (Serve to Lead Press) is a groundbreaking book about leadership in the 21st century. This thoroughly researched and practical manual shows how doing the right thing by serving customers, employees, and other stakeholders is becoming a competitive advantage in business.
Carny by James Hitt (Aberdeen Bay Press) is a surprising array of stories that combine to give the reader an unstoppable read about life among the people of the Warbling Brothers Road Show and Circus as it travels the back roads of Southern California in 1949. Who would have thought that a story about carny folk could touch with such intimacy the values we all share in our search for real family connection, respect and fulfillment?
The DeValera Deception by Michael and Patrick McMenamin (Enigma Books) brings the authors' insightful understanding of Winston Churchill and his times into focus through a thriller that places Churchill in jeopardy, making the reader experience that danger as well as the intelligence of a brilliant man at work for causes greater than his own personal ambitions. An exciting read.
I Can Only Give You Everything by Bradford Tatum (self-published) is an explosively honest examination of the lives of a man and his daughter after the cancer-caused death of a beloved wife and mother. The startling truth and stark writing are neither pretentious nor predictable. Instead the reader is invited into the compelling love story of a father’s deepening affection and acceptance for his daughter that could only grow out of such loss.
About the Literary Agent
Marilyn Allen has over 25 years of sales and marketing experience, including serving as Senior Vice President, Associate Publisher, and Director of Marketing for Harper Collins and directing sales and marketing teams for Simon & Schuster, Penguin Books and Avon Books. Ms. Allen has worked with many best-selling authors including Stephen King, Ken Follett, Barbara Kingsolver, John Gray, Mary Higgins Clark, and many more.
About the IBPPG
The aim of the Independent Book Publishing Professionals Group is to promote professional standards in independent book publishing (also known as "indie" book publishing), and provide support and recognition for the independent book publishing profession.
2012 Next Generation Indie Book Awards
Entries are now being accepted for the 2012 Next Generation Indie Book Awards. The awards program is open to fiction and nonfiction books from independent authors and publishers worldwide released in 2011 or 2012 or with a copyright date of 2011 or 2012. Visit the Next Generation Indie Book Awards website at www.indiebookawards.com for more information.