First awards for Canadian self-published books to debut at Whistler Writers Festival
The inaugural Whistler Independent Book Awards, jointly produced by the Whistler Writing Society and publishing and editorial services company Vivalogue Publishing, will launch at the Whistler Writers Festival in Whistler, B.C. this fall. The awards are the first to recognize the country’s self-published authors, and offer a $500 prize each in the categories of fiction, non-fiction, crime fiction, and poetry.
“Self-publishing has moved from what used to be called ‘vanity press’ to something increasingly recognized as a viable business decision,” says Lynn Duncan, Vivalogue’s Canadian co-founder and a member of the awards judging team. “Except there’s no way to differentiate books by people that are true professionals and have spent the time and money to craft a professional quality book, from books by the hobby author. There’s no way for consumers to know and there’s no incentive for self-published authors to invest the time.”
To be eligible, an author must have paid for the cost of production of the book and must retain all its rights. A book must be available – or have the potential to be available, as with print-on-demand platforms – in physical format. Duncan is one of a three-person team that will determine longlists, after which the Vancouver branch of the Canadian Authors Association will select three finalists in each category. Panels comprising one member of the Whistler Writing Society and one renowned Canadian author – Genni Gunn for fiction, J.J. Lee for non-fiction, Linda L. Richards for crime fiction, and Evelyn Lau for poetry – will name the winners.
The team will also send a personalized evaluation for improvement to each author who doesn’t make the longlist.
“One of the challenges for self-published authors is that they don’t get feedback. If you send us something that we don’t think is ready, we will tell you, ‘This is what we think is good and this is where you need to spend your effort.’ Because how are they going to find out otherwise?” Duncan says. “We hope there’s a lot of work ahead of us because we want to recognize authors putting out quality books and having a hard time getting them acknowledged or recognized because of a big sea of undifferentiated titles.”
Along with a cash prize, recipients will each participate in a festival event or reading, and will see their respective titles sold at Whistler bookseller Armchair Books for three months following the festival. Winners will be named at the festival, taking place Oct. 13–16. Submissions are open until June 3.