Wow. What a conference! My head is stuffed full and I haven't yet been able to fully immerse myself in the material yet. It has been an amazing week and I am very grateful for everyone who participated in making this conference another, kick-butt success!
I know many of you are already scrolling through to see the winners so I'll get right to it!
PRIZES:
The following winners will receive a badge to be proudly displayed on their website and a cash prize!
COVER DESCRIPTION CONTEST
The goal of this contest is to recognize those indie books that best capture a reader’s attention. When readers are choosing from a plethora of stories, oftentimes all an author gets to hook a reader is an awesome cover and an alluring book description.
Thank you to Kelley at The Book Stalker, Kris at The Book Beacon, and Ren at A Little Bit of R&R. These are all powerhouses in the book blogger world–check them out when you're booking your next blog tour or looking for reviews!
We asked these bloggers to judge 75 entries, answering the simple question, “Would you read this book?” OR “Would you recommend this book to a friend?” As a result, they identified the best descriptions in their genre!
Children
Diamonds Are For Never
by Paul Aertker
Middle Grade Contemporary Fiction
After sabotaging a mass kidnapping in Paris, Lucas Benes faces a new and perilous threat from Siba Günerro and her anything-but-good Good Company.
When a briefcase-toting kid from the Falkland Islands joins the New Resistance, 14-year-old Lucas learns the truth about his mother and becomes a boy on a mission.
Lucas and friends speed in and around Rome—from the Colosseum to the Vatican—until they stowaway on a cargo ship carrying diamonds that could unlock the secret to Lucas’s past and destroy the Good Company’s future.
In this action-packed second installment of the Crime Travelers series, author Paul Aertker takes readers on a gripping world tour filled with adrenaline, humor, and pure excitement.
Young Adult
H.A.L.F.: The Deep Beneath
by Natalie Wright
Young Adult Fantasy/Science Fiction
H.A.L.F. 9 has taken his first breath of desert air and his first steps in the human world. Created to be a weapon, he proved too powerful for his makers, hidden from humans and sedated. But H.A.L.F. 9 has escaped the underground lab he called home, and the sedation has worn off. He has never been more alive. More powerful. Or more deadly.
Erika Holt longs to ride her motorcycle east until pavement gives way to shore. She bides her time until graduation when she’ll escape the trailer she shares with her alcoholic mother and memories of her dead father. But a typical night in the desert with friends thrusts Erika into a situation more dangerous than she ever imagined.
Circumstances push the two together, and each must make a fateful choice. Will Erika help H.A.L.F. 9 despite her “don’t get involved” rule? And will H.A.L.F. 9 let Erika live even though he was trained to kill?
The two may need to forget their rules and training if either is to survive the dangers of the deep beneath them.
Adult Fantasy/Science Fiction
Court of Nightfall
by Karpov Kinrade
USA TODAY bestselling author Karpov Kinrade brings together the excitement and intelligence of The Hunger Games, Ender’s Game, and The Mortal Instruments.
You think you know what is right and what is wrong? Then tell me if this man should die. He is my enemy. He is to be my end.
He is the one I love.
I have spent my life in shades of grey. I have died and returned to a world of color. I have fought an Angel and lived. I have kissed the Prince of Ravens. I have faced the Lord of Night and made him kneel. I was accepted into the Four Orders, and I created the fifth. I freed the Shadow of Rome. I sat upon the Twilight Throne.
The man asks for my surrender. He asks for peace. He is too late. The girl he knew is gone, and death is in her place. I am Nightfall, and this is my story. You think you know it?
Think again.
Adult General Fiction
Claimed
by Tarah Scott
Sometimes, the hero must be the villain…
Fourteen months ago, Lady Rhoslyn lost her husband and infant son to a fever. Now, by order of King Edward I, she is yanked from the healing tranquility of a convent to marry the king’s favored bastard knight. Rhoslyn has no intention of returning to the home where her husband and child died. Neither does she intend to hand over her fortune to the ‘Dragon’—no matter his sweet promises and warm kisses.
Talbot St. Claire tires of war. Seventeen years is enough. King Edward will never release him from service, but the king promises Talbot will find some peace in front of his own hearth. Talbot expects to find a horse-faced, hostile woman in the Scottish heiress Edward commands him to marry. Instead, he discovers a fiery Highland beauty worthy of a man’s respect…and love. Talbot determines to do anything to win his new bride’s acceptance. Anything except the one thing she demands: betray his king and embrace his Scottish heritage.
Non-Fiction
Tsunami: Images of Resilience
by Birgitte Rasine
Adult Non-Fiction
They say an image speaks a thousand words—these images speak millions.
The Indian Ocean tsunami of December 26, 2004, which devastated the shores of 11 countries and took the lives of over a quarter of a million people, burned through the world’s consciousness for months afterwards. Just as the wave shattered everything in its path, so the stories of those who lived through it forever changed, torn apart and unraveled. The sea forced them not only to rebuild their lives, but to rewrite their stories.
So they did. They rebuilt and they rewrote.
This is the book that tells their stories, in more colors than words could ever paint.
A profoundly moving look into the unseen moments of survival, strength, and resilience among the survivors of the massive 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, this collection of rare photojournalistic images stands as testament to the extraordinary human capacity to survive the most devastating of natural disasters.
Congratulations to all the winners!
*Winners will be contacted by email. If you are a winner, and don't receive an email by Tuesday, April 21st, please email Ali.
I am actually glad to glance at this website posts which consists of tons of valuable facts, thanks for
providing such information.
Wow, what a surprise! Thank you everyone that voted and thank you to event organizers for providing the opportunity to highlight our books.
I’ve learnt so much from reading the winners’ excellent book cover descriptions. The organisers are to be congratulated on this competition which also sets standards for book cover descriptions in different genre for new indie writers.
Congratualtions to all the winners. Really well done.
Wow! I worked so hard on the copy for the cover of this second book in the Crime Travelers series. It means so much to win! Thanks you for a great conference. My favorite line was from HM Ward: With Indie publishing “you’re with the cool kids.” Yeah baby!
Congratulations Paul!