Billy’s Comments (group member since Jun 26, 2013)

Billy’s comments from the Editio Self-Publishing group.

The Wishing Shelf Book Awards is delighted to recommend Down to Earth: Demystify Intuition to Upgrade Your Life
Down to Earth offers a rigorous, practical framework for harnessing intuition to make better decisions, improve relationships, and enhance self-care. Unlike typical books that simply advise readers to trust their inner wisdom, this work sets a new standard by guiding readers to treat intuition as a skill—one to be cultivated, questioned, and blended with critical thinking. Author and intuition teacher Nil Demircubuk delivers actionable, research-informed methods for identifying and developing intuitive insight, encouraging readers to evaluate their hunches as they would advice from a wise friend. The book features techniques tailored to diverse learning styles and demonstrates their application to real-world challenges—at work and at home—making intuitive skill a repeatable advantage for readers seeking lasting growth.
https://a.co/d/bBNmqgF

THE WISHING SHELF BOOK AWARDS 2017
FINALISTS
Below is a link to the 2017 FINALISTS in The Wishing Shelf Book Awards. The children’s books were read and judged by children in 8 UK primary and secondary schools, the adult books by 2 Reading Groups, 1 in London and 1 in Stockholm. The books were marked according to EDITING, THEME, STYLE, COVER and, in the case of many of the children’s books, ILLUSTRATIONS. Every book that was awarded over 30/40 is a finalist.

The WINNERS will be announced on April 1st, 2018.

If you happen to be looking for a good read, the readers at The Wishing Shelf Awards thoroughly recommend the following:

https://www.thewsa.co.uk/finalists2017/

Cheers,

Edward

The Wishing Shelf Independent Book Awards
www.thewsa.co.uk.The Wishing Shelf Independent Book Awards
thewsa.co.uk
The Wishing Shelf Book Awards is growing fast. Check it out at www.thewsa.co.uk. It's a new breed of book awards run very differently from any other book awards on or off the web. The entry fee is very, VERY low and everybody 'EVERYBODY!' who enters gets feedback from the judging, a catchy quote and reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. But the best bit is the judging. The children's book are read and judged by children in 7 schools in the UK; the adult books by readers in two established Reading Groups, 1 in Stockholm and 1 in London. Every book entered is read by a minimum of 15 readers and you will get all the feedback.

If you're interested, please do visit the webpage

Hi, my name is Billy Bob Buttons and I'm a UK-based children's author. I'm pretty successful. My books, Felicity Brady and the Wizard's Bookshop, The Gullfoss Legends, TOR Assassin Hunter, TOR Wolf Rising and I Think I Murdered Miss sell thousands a year, many of them directly to UK primary and secondary schools. Not bad, I guess, for any independently published author.

But for all my success, I detest entering book awards. Not that I don't do okay. I was a runner-up in the Rubery Book Awards and the prestigious UK People's Book Prize. But the problem with many book awards for independently published authors is they don't seem particularly interested in the books. All the organisers seem to want to do is sell 'Winner!' and 'Runner-up' stickers.

So, two years ago, I (my real name is Edward Trayer, Billy Bob Buttons is simply a pen name) set up The Wishing Shelf Book Awards. I wanted to offer other independently published authors a very different award to what was presently offered on the internet. I wanted authors who enter to feel 'involved' and I wanted them to know we will judge their books thoroughly.

I visit approximately 200 primary and secondary schools a year giving literary workshops. Here, I thought, was the perfect judging panel. I convinced a number of the headteachers (six, in fact) to allow their students to read and judge the children's books entered in the award. This way, not only are the finalists and winners decided by the intended readers and not a panel of so-called 'experts', but the feedback they send to us we then send on to the authors.

The adult books are judged by two Reading Groups, one in London where I often work and one in Stockholm where I live. They love reading the books and discussing them for hours over coffee and cake.

The next problem I faced was cost. I wanted to keep it cheap so as not to exclude any authors; but also the award cost a lot to run. I had to set up and pay for the website, cover the cost of posting the books between schools and Reading Groups, have a 'very cool' certificate designed and printed and, most importantly, I wanted to advertise the finalists in a high-circulation magazine. In the end, I set the price at £28 ($48) per book; a lot cheaper than other awards. And I decided to advertise the finalists with a quarter page, full colour advert in The School Librarian. It costs a fortune but I think it's worth it and it helps the authors to sell their books.

The problem with other awards is, if you win, you win. Fantastic! But if you don't, you get nothing. With our award, every entrant, finalist or not, gets all the feedback from the judging, a catchy quote for the back of their next book or reprint and a review on Amazon and Goodreads. Then, if you are a finalist, you also get a logo, a certificate, marketing on the web and their book in The School Librarian. This year, we even organised for the all finalists in the children's category to have their book reviewed by The School Librarian. The authors were very happy.

With so many awards right now, particularly for self-published authors, the author is simply a '$' or a '£' sign. Even if they win, by then the organisers are concentrating on getting next year's authors to enter. But we answer every email personally and we ask authors to send us the blurb of their book prior to entering; if we think it's not the sort of thing our readers will enjoy, we urge them not to enter (we turn away approx. 10% at the moment; I often read the first chapter on Amazon (Look Inside) and if it's full of errors and needs a good edit, I tell the author not to bother). There is even a Facebook page so the authors can make suggestions on how to improve the awards and how to best spend the entry fees to best market their books.

If you are interested in entering The Wishing Shelf Book Awards, everything you need to know is on the webpage www.thewsa.co.uk. I can promise you your work will be respected and the benefits will far out-weigh the cost. In fact, I'm so confident in how well the award is run, if you're not happy at the end, I will refund you your entry fee.

All the best and good luck with your writing.

Billy Bob Buttons
(Edward Trayer)

Hi, my name is Billy Bob Buttons (my pen name, my real name is Edward Trayer) and my children’s novels have been independently published in the UK. I do pretty well but I’m so fed up of entering my books in American book awards. They cost a fortune and I doubt many of the books even get opened. So I decided to set up my own book award for independent and self-published authors of hardbacks, paperbacks or e-books, living and/or selling books in the UK.



I write children’s books, I’m a secondary school English teacher and, every year, I do a 200 school book tour , so I thought I’d mix the three things up and organise for the children’s books to be judged by the children in the schools I visit. The adult books, not so much my forte, will be assessed by members of established reading groups that include teachers, authors and PhDs in medicine and business.



I also thought 75 dollars to over 120 dollars (90 odd quid) to enter a book award was a gigantic rip-off. They must be making a bloody fortune over there. So I thought £28 would be okay; cover the cost of posting the books to the schools and reading groups, hosting the website, advertising the finalists in a literary magazine and designing and printing a certificate for all the finalists.



This bit is very important. This is only my third year doing this and I’m not promising chests of gold, and I very much doubt Oprah will be knocking on the doors of the winning authors. But I do promise your books will be read cover to cover and judged by children and adults who love reading, and the entry fee will be used to cover the costs of running the Award plus a prize or two for all the finalists.



Also, every entrant will be given feedback, whether they win or not, and, if you do do well in this Award, you can publicise your success in any way you see fit. I just discovered many of the independent book awards in America charge a licencing fee if you wish to publicise the fact you won! Cheeky or what!?


Interested? Check out our webpage - www.thewsa.co.uk

Cheers,

Edward