We are looking for judges!
Do you consider yourself someone who loves ebooks and can help us identify a winner? Then we may be looking for you!
What are the qualifications? Well, you don’t have to have experience doing this, but you do need to understand the process by which review awards work.
How do you get started? First, go to the following page to fill out the form after you read this.
After we receive your form entry, we will use your information to publicize you as one of our judges (unless you prefer to be anonymous). We welcome book bloggers, librarians, book club and reading circle members and we also welcome professional critics and subject matter experts from the category they prefer. We are also judging ebook readers, so we have tapped the reviewing resources of a popular ereader blog and we will be announcing more details about that soon.
You’ll be asked to evaluate all the submitted ebooks in the category of your choice. You can click on the link for their ebook and see their website or Amazon page to get an idea of what others thought as well.
We do want all ebooks to be evaluated by a judge. We expect you to score each entry based on a scorecard. We will pick the top entries as finalists by score and announce a winner.
We’ll give you some criteria to use for judging and then we’ll compile your feedback and announce those finalists and then the winners.
We can’t do this without you, so please contact us today and ask to be a judge!
eBooks may be entered in the Global eBook Awards by their authors, publishers, publicists, illustrators or other interested parties.
The eBook must be published on or before the date submitted and offered for sale online on the author’s website or blog, Amazon.com, iTunes, etc. Entries must include at least one URL where the book is for sale online and may provide additional URLs for book cover and book reviews which will aid the judges in their evaluations.
On receipt, the screening judges will check the entry for completeness and suitability. This will be done before judges see the entries. The Global eBook Awards supports the First Amendment but books considered inappropriate or unsuitable by the general public will not be accepted; if Amazon won’t carry it, then it’s probably unmarketable and so we won’t promote it or allow it in our contest.
Applicants will be notified when their eBook is accepted into nomination by email which will include access to our Nomination “sticker” that may be used in promoting their eBook.
The ebook will be listed on its own page, and by category entered, on the Awards website. Each eBook page will list the title, author, publisher, category, book cover image, and the URLs provided by the applicant so that people can find the book on the Internet. This will increase the SEO value of each link provided by the applicant and will also make the book more searchable by Google and other Internet discovery methods which helps to market each and every book entered.
On July 1, all nominated books and applications will be sent to category judges who will use all the information provided by the applicant to help with their evaluation of the books and to select Finalists and Winners.
Joseph — Quite different from when I first read the process. The video makes it more understandable and it sounds like a less daunting process to get inolved in.
Now it appears that you pay a fee to enter the contest. This is similar to the Amazon contest, the IPPY awards, and the new contest from Writer’s Digest.
Then the judges look at the material you provide and decide if you are nominated. If you are nominated you move into a category for judging. What is the judging process at that point? It doesn’t look like the judges ever read the books, they just use the information provided by the applicant.
Do I still have an application on file in the contest?
Mitch Davies
Thanks for the feedback, Mitch.
You are correct in that the judges will review the information provided rather than reading the eBooks first. We have concerns about keeping everyone’s eBooks on our servers and getting hacked. You may or may not know that in the past 90 days, both MySpace and Gawker (the blog network) had their sites hacked for their passwords; we feel it is better and safer to require authors to email the books directly to the judges using a secret address that will only be revealed to finalists.
The judges WILL read the books that they select as finalists and we will have at least 3 judges for each category.
You don’t have your application on file, so please feel free to enter when you are ready and let me know if this helps!
Hi Mitch, I thought I should answer publicly since you posted here and we corresponded privately. Yes, the judges do review your page on our site which includes links to your eBook as well as links you provide which are directed to reviews/comments online by others (including Amazon reviews). All the judges in your category will be reading the same group of eBooks that they select as Finalists. Much of it depends on what you provide to us, but there is also another element we are bringing to the competition which will help bring more readers to your eBook and to the link you provide to your site so that someone can buy your eBook. We are working on the wording right now.
Hi,
I was wondering how the entrants will be judged? Specifically, will winners be selected from each category (for example, horror, mystery, romance, etc.) or will all the fiction & non-fiction titles be lumped together and competing against each other in their respective fiction or non-fiction category?
Thanks!
Hi Tamara,
This is a great question and I apologize if it wasn’t clear enough to you or others.
EACH category will have its own finalist(s) and EACH category will have its own winner. We are also working on some other ideas, so any input you all have to help us make this the best ebook awards competition ever is worth the time it takes to post it here or email us.
Joseph Dowdy, Director
Dan Poynter’s Global eBook Awards
Great write up! Who did it, and how do I vote?
Thanks Joseph : )))))
I’ve had a children’s picture eBook recently published by a reputable eBook publisher now on sale through my publisher and Amazon, etc. I would love to enter
this in the contest but feel I may be at a great disadvantage as you say the judges will review the information provided rather than reading the eBooks first and you also say the judges don’t need to read all eBooks just identify finalists.
You see my situation is that I may not receive reviews back on time for the judges to look at and also I don’t have a website yet. I don’t want to pay the $59 entry fee and nobody bothers to read my book. Is this a level playing field competition. Please put my mind at rest
Hi Liam,
Our judges are most likely to be either professional reviewers (book bloggers and librarians) or amateur reviewers (book club presidents and subject matter experts). We trust their (ahem) judgment when it comes to their opinion on how good a book is. If they don’t feel it’s good enough to be a finalist, then we trust them, but you will be getting valuable feedback from the judge or judges who read your book no matter what.
As a fellow-author, I can tell you that I was pretty disappointed that I was told that my book needed major editing. I really didn’t want to go back and have to redo what I had done when I thought it was really great.
The truth is that they were right and, unlike a major publishing house, we’re not just going to send a rejection slip. We will tell you what is good and what is not good about your book. Each judge is capable of doing that. If not, then we don’t want them to be a judge. We will give them adequate instruction so that they don’t treat your ebook unfairly. In other words, it would have to simply not be a good ebook for them to disallow it as a finalist; good books will become finalists. Remember, WE WANT YOUR EBOOK TO BE READ!
And don’t worry if you don’t have reviews yet. We will accept books until June 30th and they may have NO reviews at all. We will be using reviews and other such things as TIEBREAKERS only. The books that become finalists will compete for score based on judge feedback. Ties will be settled by looking at what the submitter has done with the ebook page of their ebook; in other words, did they fully participate in this contest and did they actually LEARN something we taught them. We will give those extra points to authors who help to promote this competition, but again, this is only in the case of tiebreakers.
We feel that this contest IS the most level-playing-field contest out there. We aren’t interested in allowing anyone person to have more chance than others at becoming a finalist and when it comes to being a winner, they will either be a clear winner based on score (and not favorites) or in the case of a score tie then it will go to the one who has used our coaching and advice to the best of their ability in this contest.
I hope that puts your mind to rest.
That’s all sounds very good and very fair Joseph. Thank you very much for taking such pains to explain things so clearly.
You have put my mind completely at rest and I will definately be entering my eBook now.
I am entering my mystery/thriller. Can I also become a judge? Is this an oxymoron?
Yes, you can be a judge but not in the category where you have a book.
Joseph,
Please send me the info to be a judge. I’m entered in the children’s eBook, but would be happy to judge another category.
Cheryl Carpinello
“Guinevere: On the Eve of Legend”
Hi Cheryl,
We would love to have you in another category as a judge.
To access the entry form to sign up as a judge, just click the link in the second paragraph at the beginning of this page. And here’s the link: CLICK
I have a question: What happens if a category has a small number of entries — some have one 1 so far, and the deadline approaches fast! Winning such a category wouldn’t count for much, and would be very unsatisfying as an author and competitor.
I agree, Trish. We have been talking about what to do with that and we’ll let you know what we decide as we get closer to starting the judging process. Thanks for asking.
When will the winners be announced?
August 20th in Santa Barbara!