Saturday, August 10, 2013

Alexandra Sokoloff – Why Winning Awards Helps Author Recognition

Why Winning Awards Helps Author Recognition

by Alexandra Sokoloff

In my still relatively short career as an author, I’ve been lucky enough to be nominated multiple times for several major awards in several different genres: the Bram Stoker Award (horror), the Anthony Award (mystery), and the Thriller Award (which I’ve won), as well as making other less well known lists, and I’m often asked by interviews and aspiring authors if winning awards has helped my career.

I think anything that gets you recognition helps your career. Recognition is a cumulative thing rather than any one thing. An award is one more reason for a reader to consider giving your book a try – it’s been pre-screened by people who supposedly know. An award-winning book has an edge over a book than a non-award-winning book. How can it not?

Especially when you’re first starting out in the business, award nominations and wins make other authors and publishing houses pay attention to you as well. Those early award nominations for my first novel, The Harrowing (http://www.amazon.com/The-Harrowing-Ghost-Story-ebook/dp/B006K5RVXI) opened doors for me in social situations that led to valuable business contacts. I don’t know this for sure, but the nods may have gotten me my foreign publication deals, or at least helped. The awards help my film agents when they shop my books for film deals.

And the circumstances of some of my award nominations have been a little unusual, which brings a little extra buzz of publicity. The Harrowing was nominated for both a Bram Stoker Award (horror) and an Anthony Award (mystery) – which is an unusual combination – but perfectly describes the book, which is a ghost story with a strong sense of mystery, including about whether or not the haunting is really happening.  And the controversy over a horror novel being nominated for a mystery award was a bonus, too. So what if some genre purists were miffed! As they say, there’s no such thing as bad publicity…

I was also the first woman to be nominated for and win a Thriller Award. Being the only woman in a lineup of men is a little extra bonus, too – it makes me more memorable in a list, and gives me a “cool” factor in an edgy genre.

And now my thriller Huntress Moon (http://www.amazon.com/Huntress-Moon-The-Thrillers-ebook/dp/B008G14754) the first in my new crime series, has been nominated for a Thriller Award in the brand new Best E Book Original Category. Another first, and something I can use as an extra interest factor in interviews, because many awards are still not acknowledging original e books at all, so I’m one of the very first to be recognized this way.

It’s hard to quantify how much any award nomination or win does for the sales of the book, or author recognition, but I do believe every little bit helps.

And let’s face it – a steady line of award nominations really help ease the sting of those snarky Amazon reviews. Which may be the most practical benefit of all.

- Alexandra Sokoloff is the bestselling and award-winning author of nine crime and supernatural thrillers, including the Huntress Moon thriller series, currently nominated for a Thriller Award.  http://alexandrasokoloff.com

—- Book II in the Thriller Award-nominated Huntress/FBI series —-

Twenty-five years have passed since a savage killer terrorized California, massacring three ordinary families before disappearing without a trace.

The haunted child who was the only surviving victim of his rampage is now wanted by the FBI for brutal crimes of her own, and Special Agent Matthew Roarke is on an interstate manhunt for her, despite his conflicted sympathies for her history and motives.

But when his search for her unearths evidence of new family slayings, the dangerous woman Roarke seeks – and wants – may be his only hope of preventing another bloodbath.

*****

It is highly recommended that you read Book I of the series, Huntress Moon, first.

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre – Mystery / Thriller

Rating – PG13

More details about the author

Connect with Alexandra Sokoloff on Facebook & Twitter

Website http://alexandrasokoloff.com/

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