FAQ

What are the Indie Lit Awards?
The Independent Literary Awards are book awards given by literary bloggers. Lit bloggers write about books and literary related items. They are the fastest growing form of publicity in the literary world, though most are still independently run and do not receive compensation for their reviews or recommendations. All directors and voting members for theses awards are completely independent and do not receive compensation for reviews nor their work on the award board.

What genres are awarded through the ILAs?

Biography/Memoir *
GLBTQ
Literary Fiction
Mystery *
Non-Fiction
Poetry *
Speculative Fiction

* = new genre represented in the 2011 awards year.

Who are judging the books for these awards? Can I be a judge?
Glad you asked. Directors (the leader of the genre teams) and the Voting Members (teams who read, discuss, and vote on the books) for 2011 have already been chosen. You can see the teams here!

If you are dying to be on a team, please stay tuned. Early next year (2012) we will open a list for people who would like to be considered for serving on a 2012 team. If we have any openings available, we will refer to this list as our starting base for considering new team members.

When do nominations open?
September 1, 2011- December 31, 2011.

Can I nominate?
Nominations are open to all readers who do not make their income through the sales of books (i.e. not authors, publishers, or publicists) — hence “independent” from the publishing industry.

How can I help support what you are doing?
Read books published in 2011 and then nominate in September. You can also (whether a book blogger or other type of blogger/ website) mention the ILAs on your site and/or put one of our buttons on your page.

Everyone (bloggers or not) can ask their favorite bookstores if they have heard of the ILAs. If not, fill them in on what we are doing. Suggest they offer Shortlist books at a discounted price — or at least make sure they have them on hand so readers can find them easily!

I am a book blogger and I want to participate in nominating. How do I get books that were published in 2011 (I don’t want to spend all of my money on hardcovers)?

There are several ways. First, you can purchase new books on your e-reader of choice… these are usually $10-$15 cheaper than print versions. Second, you can borrow them from your local libraries. Third, you can vist the genre page of your choice and use Mr. Linky to add your contact information to the list. Publishers will use that contact information to send books to select bloggers.

Note: this feature is an option that we are providing to publishers so they can easily find book bloggers willing to review their books. The act of signing-up does not guarantee that books will be sent to you and will depend on your particular blog, traffic, etc.

What’s with the ‘literary’? Are you all about fancy books?
Literary literally (sorry, had to do it) means: adj, pertaining to or of the nature of books and writings; bookish.

So, no — not fancy, just bookish. A more formal way of saying “bookish awards”.

How do I follow you to keep current in what is happening with the awards?
Subscribe to the site: Independent Literary Awards
Follow us on Twitter: @indielitawards

I have a question that wasn’t addressed here, what should I do?
Visit our About and Updates pages. If you still don’t have your answer, feel free to leave your question here in the comments section and we’ll get back to you!