The International Best Indie Book Award®
🏆Recognizing Indie Authors 🏆
Enter Your Book In The 14th Annual 2026 Best Indie Book Award!
(Take Advantage of the Early Entry Discount! Enter Your Book Now!)
2025 Best Indie Book Awards®
The annual Best Indie Book Award® (or BIBA®) is an international literary awards contest recognizing self-published and independently published authors from all over the world. Entries are limited to independently (indie) published books, including those from small presses, e-book publishers, and self-published authors.
We accept submissions from all over the world, but the books must be written in English.
Enter Your Book!
What People Are Saying About Us
A Truly Awesome Experience! I wanted to (once again) express my gratitude to the entire BIBA team for winning one of last year’s Best Indie Book Awards for my last collection Miserable Adventure Stories. I think it’s highly likely that last year’s award caught Skyhorse’s attention and moved them to offer me a book deal for the series. And for that, I am extremely grateful to BIBA! Good luck with this year’s candidates! It was a truly awesome experience being one of last year’s winners!
Highly Recommended. I was honored to win the 2017 Children’s Award, and ever since then, BIBA has done an excellent job of maintaining a connection and supporting me (and all other) authors in incredible ways. They constantly retweet my big announcements and work and help to get the word out about most things that I do! I’m not sure if this is typical of indie book awards, but regardless it is incredibly supportive and kind. Highly recommend them for their support of indie authors!
I highly recommend them! They are super friendly and a fantastic opportunity for my authors to submit their books for a chance to get noticed.
Best Award an Indie Author Can Receive! Thank you, Best Indie Book Award. I’m always so humbled by your relentless support of my efforts as a writer.
The Best Indie Book Award® is a legitimate writing competition.
Entries will be judged based on multiple writing skills, which include story-telling ability, author’s ability to engage the reader, transitions, pacing, movement of the story, hooks, and author’s skill with voice, character, dialogue, narrative, grammar, and punctuation. Winning a BIBA® is something an author can be proud of!
The Best Indie Book Award® has been mentioned by many best-selling authors and on many author-related websites and blogs. Previous winners include USA Today and New York Times best-selling authors, movie producers, actors, and independent authors from around the globe.
How Do We Define Independently Published?
Anyone who retains the publishing rights to their book is eligible to enter the Best Indie Book Award® contest. So, self-published authors, and authors published by small, independent presses, university presses, independent partner publishers, or vanity presses are all eligible to enter the BIBA®.
Literary Categories To Be Judged:
- Action/Adventure
- Children
- Children’s Middle Grade/Tween
- Christian (Fiction/Non-Fiction)
- Fantasy/Paranormal/Supernatural
- Historical Fiction
- Humor/Satire
- LGBTQ2
- Non-Genre/Literary Fiction
- Mystery/Cozy Mystery
- Novella
- Other Fiction
- Romance
- Science-Fiction
- Short Story Collection/Poetry Collection
- Suspense/Thriller
- Trilogy
- Young Adult
- Non-Fiction
- Non-Fiction> Academics/Teaching
- Non-Fiction> Biography
- Non-Fiction> Business/Investing/Marketing
- Non-Fiction> Cooking/Cookbook/Gardening
- Non-Fiction> Crafting/Hobbies/How-To
- Non-Fiction> Health/Fitness
- Non-Fiction> History
- Non-Fiction> Inspirational/Motivational
- Non-Fiction> Memoir
- Non-Fiction> New Age/Spirituality/Philosophy
- Non-Fiction> Parenting/Pregnancy
- Non-Fiction> Politics/Economics/Sociology
- Non-Fiction> Psychology/Grieving/Caregiving
- Non-Fiction> Religion
- Non-Fiction> Self Help
- Non-Fiction> Travel
There Will Be One Winner In Each Category.
Winners Will Receive:
- The Best Indie Book Award® Emblem to proudly display on their website and book cover. The emblem can be used to promote your book wherever you like.
- A physical Best Indie Book Award® trophy to display at book signings, in their office, or at home.
- Their winning book featured in advertising, email, social networks, and promoted by other means.
- Their book is displayed on the front page of the Best Indie Book Award® website, and listed on the permanent, archived “Winners” page of this site.
- Ongoing Promotion of the winning book through social media, print advertising, online advertising, email lists, and more. (100,000+ followers)
- Winners can proudly mention their award everywhere, including in their book blurb and bio.
- Added to the BIBA® Winners list on Goodreads.
- Custom Promotional Images to use.
- Promotion across multiple websites.
Book Of The Year Award
BIBA® will award a $500.00 cash prize (along with a trophy) to the author of the Book of the Year! In addition to this main category Book of the Year, BIBA will award a $500 cash prize (and trophy) to the winner of the BIBA® Children’s Book of the Year Award. Click here for more details.
Enter Your Book
BIBA Award Amplifies Credibility and Reader Impact
After Triple Win Leadership Coaching reached #1 bestseller on Amazon, receiving recognition from the Best Indie Book Awards (BIBA) gave the book an additional boost in visibility and credibility. BIBA is a meaningful award program that honors quality work and helps the right books reach more readers. As an author, I value recognition that ultimately serves the reader—and I’m grateful to be part of an awards community that champions books that truly add value.
Will Linssen
#1 Leadership Coach (Global Gurus), #1 Amazon Bestselling Author, #1 Coach Trainer (Thinkers50), Advisor at Harvard Business Review, Top Executive Coaching Voice (LinkedIn), Master Certified Coach (ICF MCC), CEO GCG – Global Coach Group
Dec 27, 2025
A Caring and Personally Invested Awards Team
My experience with the BIBA® has been entirely positive, and I will always be grateful for the waves of reader interest, industry attention, and media exposure that my win has generated for my recent book project. However, for me, the most important aspect of the judging and awards process was seeing how truly caring and personally invested the staff are, as evidenced by their consistent efforts to make the contest a pleasant, constructive, and rewarding experience for all participants involved. The BIBA® team’s attentiveness to detail, their obvious appreciation for the work of independent authors, and their genuine desire to seek out and recognize excellence in the realm of independent publishing has made this contest a worldwide leader, and I am thus truly proud to have been selected as the winner of the 2024 BIBA® in the Non-Fiction: History category.
Stewart Addington Saint-David
Indie Author – Editions Elgiad
May 23, 2025
An ally for indie authors
It can be challenging as a debut indie author. First you have the hurdle of publishing, then publicity and marketing. Unless you have a huge budget or are well known, getting out there can be hard. BIBA is a great way to put some eyes on your hard work, I’m grateful for the support.
Joshua Ferdinand
Director – Atomic Academia
Feb 16, 2025
I may not have been a winner in the 2024 Award competition, but I am completely satisfied with the process and the communication.
I feel encouraged to have known that my book, Power Your Vision, made Round 4.
Thank you for the feedback.
See you in 2025 🙂
Judy Mzungu Jabali
Author – Power Your Vision Publishing
Nov 12, 2024
A great outlet for independent authors
Writing a book as an independent author is hard, particularly if it’s your first book and writing is not your main job! The Best Indie Book Awards is a great way for independent authors to be noticed, get their message to a wider audience and receive the recognition they deserve.
Gary Burke
Managing Director – Rabbits From Hats
Jun 29, 2024
Thanks, BIBA!
I’m honored to receive the 2023 Best Indie Book Award for best short story collection. It’s difficult to succeed as an independently published author, and this award is a validation for all of the time and effort that each of the winners put into their books. Thank you, BIBA for the recognition!
Pete Simons
Author and Retired Financial Executive
Jan 15, 2024
Testimonial for the Best Indie Book Award
It’s with immense gratitude that I pen down my appreciation for the team at Best Indie Book Award. The relentless support and promotion of my book have been beyond exceptional.
The spotlighting of indie authors has been incredible. The frequent features on both BIBA’s Facebook page and Instagram channel have not only given my book visibility but have also connected me with a wider audience of passionate readers.
Winning the 2023 Best Indie Book Award was an unexpected surprise and a deeply fulfilling moment in my writing journey. The recognition has added a layer of validation to the countless hours spent crafting each word and refining the techniques shared in “Breaking Through: The Secrets of Bassai Dai Kata.”
To the entire Best Indie Book Award team, thank you for championing independent voices in the literary world. Your commitment to celebrating diverse narratives is truly making a difference.
Colin Wee
Chief Instructor – Joong Do Kwan
Dec 19, 2023
Thanks a lot!
Thanks for being present in every process, and thanks for believing in the magic of my poetry book “Pirate Love Unchained”. You guys are genuine, professional and inspiring.
Heriberto Figueroa Rivera
Teacher/Author
Dec 5, 2023
Indie at the service of humanity
Indie is the engine of human creativity, you have indeed helped me to transform my imagination into manifestation,continue supporting creativity,Your work is uplifting humanity, Thank you..!!!
Chanda Katongo
CEO – Khem motor cycles
Jul 25, 2023
Definitely worth entering!
Even though I didn’t actually win, the feedback I got was a very pleasant surprise. I didn’t realize I would get an in depth review of what was great and what could be improved about my book. That alone was worth the entry fee and I will be entering more books in the future!
Meggan Larson
CEO – Fly With Me Publishing
Feb 21, 2023
A Coveted Honor
I can’t adequately express my gratitude for the honor of this win. As an independent author, standing out among others in my genre gives measurable value to the hard work involved in producing a novel. Thank you BiBA.
Catherine Shuler, writing as C. E. Lane
Independent author
Jan 30, 2023
One of the best awards an author can win!
Winning a Best Indie Book Award is one of my proudest moments as an author! BIBA is a class act all the way around. Thank you, BIBA!
John Russell
Author
Jan 2, 2023
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