I’m a nominee!

A wonderful thing happened to me on Saturday. A friend alerted me to the list of 2013 nominees for the eFestival of Words Independent eBook Awards. She told me to pay attention to the General Fiction category. Lo and beheavenstobetsy! My novel The Brevity of Roses has been nominated.

To be eligible for the award, books must be “English-language published in digital format for sale through retail channels between January 2011 and December 2012 by independent authors or small press publishers.” They are “peer” nominated through a ballot process. Peers include published authors, publishers, editors, reviewers, and librarians.

The rules forbid nominating a book you’ve written, edited, formatted, designed the cover for, were paid a fee to review, market, promote, or advertise, etc. Nor can you nominate books published by a spouse or partner, and they don’t allow “collaboration” by authors swapping nominations. So I have no idea who nominated my book—and the organization does not reveal that to nominees.

After the ballots are collected and judged valid, a vetting and elimination process begins.

If my book is announced as one of the finalists on July 1st, voting will be open to the public. You’ll probably hear me screaming, but I’ll also blog to let you know because I’ll be counting on you to help me out by voting and spreading the word.

But even if Brevity is not one of the finalists, this nomination was a desperately needed boost to my spirits and another factor to consider as I reflect on my work so far and where I want to take it next.