Frequently Asked Questions

The Best Indie Book Award® is an annual, international literary award contest recognizing independent authors all over the world. Entries are limited to independently (indie) published books, including those from very small presses, hybrid publishers, and self-published authors. When in doubt, ask us.

Literary Contest: Each year, the book submission deadline is Noon (EST), August 1st.
Book Cover Contest: The deadline for Cover submission is Noon (EST), August 1st.
Illustration Contest: The deadline for Illustration submission is Noon (EST), August 1st.
Submissions open on January 1st of each year.
Winners are announced by November 30th of each year.

Entrants receive two emails from BIBA®: one confirmation\receipt from us, and one email with log-in information to your author page. Once you receive these emails, your entry is already in the pipeline for judging.

Absolutely! It’s your book, you can do whatever you wish with it. You retain full rights to any work you submit.  Keep in mind, we are a competition, not a publisher.

We accept Mobi, ePub, PDF, Word Doc or Docx formats of your complete novel. (For PDF Versions: Single page only. No double-facing page, book-block versions.)

You will receive two emails: a receipt/confirmation of entry, and an email with author log-in information for your author account.  These emails will be sent to the email address associated with your billing information.  So, if the email address you used for payment is different from the email address you used as a contact on your entry form, you will want to check your billing information email address for the above-mentioned emails.  All other emails from BIBA will be sent to the email address you used on your entry form as a contact. Make sure you use an email address that you check often so we don’t have trouble contacting you at the end of the contest.  (We cannot guarantee that these emails won’t end up in a spam folder, because there are multiple factors that could affect these emails.  Servers, email services, and how the author handles emails on their end, all of which are beyond our control, can all affect whether or not an author receives what we send.  Because we are not the governing body of said email services and servers, we cannot change these issues.) Judging of your book begins within a few days of entry.  Winners will be announced on the BIBA® website in late November. 

We only need a cover image for the Book Cover Contest; we do not need it for the Literary Contest.

To alleviate any concerns you may have about your property rights, we do not make any book files available anywhere in the public domain. Only the contest coordinator and the judges will see your book file, and the judges only see what is locked to a Kindle. We do not send any digital file to a judge via email or via any attachment process. All files are deleted from our email, from our server, and from the judging Kindles six months after the given contest year ends. (We keep the file for six months in case the entrant has any questions.)

No. The book must be currently available to the public.  This is a published book contest.

Fiction entries are limited to independently published, full-length novels consisting of 45,000 words or more.
Non-fiction entries are limited to independently published books of 25,000 words or more. (We do make some exceptions.)
Children’s books do not have a minimum word count.
Novella; 15,000 to 45,000 words.
Short Story Collections should be at least 12,500 words.
Poetry Collections should have no less than 50 pages.

All entrants must be 18 years old or older.

Any books you enter must be independently published and your own work.  This means the book must be self-published by the author (You). In other words, you retain full rights to your book. Or your book must be published by one of the qualifying small presses. 

What qualifies as a small press?
Any self-publishing arm of any major publisher.
Any publisher that offers a reversion of rights with a 30-day notice.
Any small publisher not owned by a major corporation and has a small number of authors, generally publishing only a few books per year.
Independent partner and/or hybrid publishers.
University presses.
Any small publisher fitting the above criteria and is fully independent of any major corporation.

If you are self-published through sites like Amazon’s KDP, Smashwords, Createspace, or Pubit, or you are published through a vanity press where you retain your rights and remain autonomous, you can enter your book in the Best Indie Book Award® contest.

Not Acceptable: Your book is published by major, high volume  publishers, such as HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Penguin, or any other major publisher, or imprint of said publisher. If you have a conventional publishing contract, wherein you are not engaging in paying a vanity press or a hybrid press, and your publisher has hundreds of authors and publishes more than a few books per year, you are not eligible to enter BIBA®. 

Yes!  BIBA® (Best Indie Book Award®) is an international competition open to authors all over the world.  But books must be written in English. We do accept bilingual books, as long as the second, or first, language is English. Please note, however, that all judging criteria still applies.

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
Non-Fiction> Parenting/Pregnancy/Philosophy
Non-Fiction> Politics/Economics/Sociology
Non-Fiction> Psychology/Grieving/Caregiving
Non-Fiction> Religion
Non-Fiction> Self Help
Non-Fiction> Travel
*We do not have a category for erotica.

You may enter more than one book in the contest, but each entry must be accompanied by the entry fee. 
*Entry fees are non-refundable.

Yes. You may enter the book in multiple categories. The entry fee applies for each category entered.

Yes, you can enter as many subsequent years as you like, as long as the book was not previously picked as a Best Indie Book Award® winner. Your chances of winning change each year, depending on the books we receive in a given category for that year. We can never guarantee a win, but while your book may not win one year, that doesn’t mean it can’t win in a following year.

Over time, we have expanded the contest to suit the needs of the authors entering. As we grow, the categories grow. So, you may see new categories in later years that were not available in the early years of BIBA®. We may add categories at any time. In the event of a listed category having a large number of entries in a given year, we may split that category to give entrants a better chance. This is why you may see winning books listed on our website under descriptions that are not visible on our entry form.

When we receive a high number of well-written mixed entries in a combined category, we will split that category for that given year and award a winner in each respective category. (For example, if we receive a high number of fantasy books and a high number of paranormal books in the Fantasy/Paranormal category, we will split the category into a Fantasy Category and a Paranormal category to give the authors a better chance.

We maintain the Non-Fiction category as a stand-alone category for general non-fiction. But each year, as we receive entries and evaluate them, we divide the Non-Fiction category into sub-categories. We can divide into several categories every year depending on how many entries we receive and what the sub-category will bear. For example, if we see several entries in the Non-Fiction category that fall under a biology sub-category, and the writing is very strong, we add biology to the categories for that particular year, while still maintaining the General Non-Fiction category. This is happening behind the scenes; the category does not appear on our entry form.

Dividing Non-Fiction into more specific categories throughout the year allows authors more opportunity within the Best Indie Book Award® contest. This can encompass several non-fiction categories that are not listed on the entry form. Likewise, we do the same in other multi-genre categories available within the contest. Once the award winners have been chosen and we roll into the new contest year, we will once again open just the categories already listed on the entry form, and the process starts all over again. We open sub-categories every year depending on what type of entries we are receiving in the Non-Fiction category. Again, this is true of all the multi-genre categories, such as Science Fiction/Dystopian and Fantasy/Paranormal.

Entries will be judged based on multiple writing skills, which include story-telling ability, author’s ability to engage the reader, transitions, hooks, pacing, movement of the story, and author’s skill with voice, character, dialogue, narrative, grammar and punctuation.

There is nothing quick about the judging process.  In fact, the judging process is very intense.
Running a contest is hard work and very long hours. Trust us when we say: most people would not last in this job. Imagine working seven days a week, facing a deadline that you cannot miss, taking multiple emails and questions and dealing with multiple tasks every single day, all of which gets more and more intense as the deadline gets closer.

The most important thing for you to know is that we begin judging as soon as we begin taking entries. Your book begins evaluations within a few days of you pressing that completion button on the entry form; we don’t wait until all entries are in to begin the process. There are four major judging tiers in the BIBA® contest, followed by an intense finalist round that has several phases.  In the finals, the going gets even tougher for the authors, as they are then being stacked against other authors who have passed the first four tiers of the contest. Books are evaluated multiple times for multiple reasons as it travels through the process; this is true most especially in the final rounds. 

It doesn’t matter at what point in the year you enter the contest, your book will go through the same exact judging process.  Not quick at all.

A chapter-by-chapter outline helps the judges quite a bit in the lower rounds of judging, and therefore, it can be helpful in moving your book forward in the contest. But before you submit a chapter-by-chapter outline with your contest entry, please research how to write a really strong outline. Do not submit a regurgitation of chapter headers or one-liners. Do not submit the table of contents. If you really want to boost your chances, write a mini synopsis of each chapter. This means that the judges want to know how the story is moving forward throughout. This is not the time to be coy about action and plot lines. It is not the back cover blurb teaser. You want to tell the judge exactly what is happening in each chapter, as briefly and concisely as you can.
Example:

Chapter One: Bob is captured by the mafia hitman Gaspar Peretti and taken to a vacant warehouse in the Bronx, where he is beaten and tortured until he tells Peretti who else stole the game money.

Chapter Two: Bob manages to escape the warehouse and hightails it to a friend’s apartment. The friend gives him money and a fake passport then gives him instructions to meet up with a fisherman who smuggles him out of the city on his shrimp boat. ( And so on.)

Winners will be announced by November 30th of each year.

Authors can enter the BIBA® Book Cover or Illustrations Contest for their illustrator or book cover artists, but be aware that:

 If the author of the book submits an entry and payment for the BIBA® Cover Contest and happens to be the winner in that year, the author (payer) receives the trophy or plaque.  But we must have the cover artist’s professional name to list on our website, so make sure you fill out that field on the form. Likewise for the BIBA® Illustrations Contest. 

If the cover artist or designer or the book illustrator submits the entry and payment for the BIBA® Cover Contest and happens to be the winner in that year, the artist (payer), receives the trophy or plaque.  Likewise for the BIBA® Illustrations Contest.

There will be one winner for each category.
Each winner will receive:
A Physical Trophy or Plaque.
A digital Winner’s Emblem to use on your cover, website, social profile, and in promotions.
Front Page Exposure for at least one year on BestIndieBookAward.com
Permanent Exposure of your book via listing on BestIndieBookAward.com
Permanent Book Page on BestIndieBookAward.com with links to where the book is available for sale.
Ongoing Promotion of the winning book through social media, print advertising, online advertising, email lists, and more. (100,000+ followers)
Added to the BIBA® Winners list on Goodreads.
Custom Promotional Images of your book for you to use.
Promotion across multiple websites.

You simply upload your full book on the entry form. If you have any problem uploading your file, you can submit the form without it and then email the file, including the name of the book and author to bestindiebookaward@gmail.com (If your file is too large to email, you can use a free Dropbox account and send the book to bibastaff@gmail.com.) We do not accept any gifted Kindle books, nor do we accept locked book files, or links to books on a private viewing site. We only use Dropbox for transferring large files. We do not use any other service.

We do not accept books that have a watermark. We encourage you to consider just how many titles our judges are evaluating within a given contest year.  Watermarks cause more eye strain issues, so we don’t like to see them in the contest.  After evaluating hundreds/thousands of books, a judge is definitely not going to want to see that watermarked copy.

When you enter the BIBA® contest, if you win in any category, your book will automatically be entered into the BIBA® Book of the Year competition.  Each year, irrespective of category or whether or not the book is fiction or non-fiction, BIBA® judges will select one Book of the Year from the winning authors’ pool.  In addition to the BIBA® trophy or plaque for the category won, this single BIBA® Book of the Year winner will also receive the BIBA® Book of the Year $500 (USD) cash prize. We begin each year with the cash prize at $500 U.S. Dollars; this prize may, or may not, increase during the year, depending on the number of entries we receive in any given year. In addition, this cash prize is paid out in United States dollars. If you are in a different country and you win the Book of the Year and receive this cash prize, due to your country’s exchange rate, you may receive more, or less, in your country’s currency than the amount paid out by BIBA® in USD. We do not add more to the cash prize to offset your country’s exchange rate. This cash prize is paid out via Paypal. But again, only one winner per year is chosen from all the BIBA® winners in that contest year.

Yes, but be advised that if a publisher, publicist, or book promoter enters for you, you will not have an author personal page to reference at the contest end. Further, if the representative does not enter all required fields and provide us with your contact information, including your email address, physical mailing address, and phone number, your entry will be disqualified, and no refunds are given.

The Best Indie Book Award® contest has no publication date requirements. The book doesn’t have to be published in the current contest year in order to enter the Best Indie Book Award® contest. For example, you published a book in 2020, but the contest year is 2025. With no publication date restrictions, you may enter your book in any given contest year. However, your book has to be available for sale at the time of entry, and that has to be maintained for the duration of the contest.