Book Award Pro

    

An indie author faces a tough journey (ask me how I know). Especially if he or she doesn't have money to burn, book marketing is a Hobson's choice. You can purchase a $10 ad from a small promo site, but few subscribers means few sales, if any. You can "splurge" and buy a $40 BookBub ad, but the chance of even recouping your investment is small, especially when a site requires you to lower your book's price in order to participate.

Every author knows that reviews drive sales, but if you can't get anyone to read your book, you'll be stuck with maybe three or four Amazon reviews, which suppresses the algorithm. Social proof, whether in the form of reviews or awards or (ideally) both, help your book stand out in the over-crowded indie landscape. 

I've tried not necessarily begging for reviews, but asking nicely on sites like Goodreads, Reddit, Facebook, and the dreaded social media. Never got one. I've done massive giveaways (an opportunity that I obviously had to pay for), but the truism proves correct: Free book grabbers rarely even read the book, much less write a review of it.

Book Award Pro, which you can join for free in order to explore, is a service that compiles opportunities for reviews, both personal and editorial (depending on your plan), and writing contests.

For writing contests, it curates the competitions to weed out the unscrupulous ones. In addition to sometimes offering a cash prize, winning or placing in a contest bestows that all-important social proof we're all dying for. To be clear, I've never once in my independent research run across a $0-entry writing competition (I guess there is Amazon's Kindle Storyteller Award--good luck there), but some are more reasonable than others. Book Award Pro lays out the price of entry, so you're not stuck with having ten windows open at once, trying to locate pertinent details. It also lists the prizes for each. The site also allows you to keep track of the contests you've entered, eliminating yet another Excel spreadsheet. It also provides complete descriptions of each contest, as well as any restrictions. 

Opinions vary on the usefulness of writing awards. That's up to each author to decide for him or herself. Many authors swear by them. Of course, there's no guarantee that you'll win! But for writers on a budget, these competitions might be one more tool in their marketing toolbox. Some contests can be entered for under $50.00.

As for reviews, well, you can beg like me. You can give away thousands of books and not net one single review. While many of us are poor, that doesn't mean our time isn't valuable. I would never want to calculate the number of hours I wasted on social media sites publicizing my books, time that could have been dedicated to writing.  

Book Award Pro offers three verified Amazon reviews for $199.00. What, you proclaim? Well, look at it this way: It's simple as pie to spend $200.00 on marketing. I'm ashamed to admit how much money I spent marketing Running From Herself, mostly to no avail. BAP's reviews are on the up and up. The reviewer purchases the book, so there's never any doubt about a review's legitimacy. The reviewers are vetted and have expressed interest in your genre. Of course, since the reviews are real, there's no guarantee you'll get five stars. It's a crapshoot, but isn't every review a crapshoot?  

When you visit Book Award Pro's website, you'll find three membership tiers:

The Starter Plan is free. This is your chance to look things over, view the opportunities presented. Of course, this plan is limited, but you'll receive 2 to 3 accolades, as they're referred to, each week via email. 

The Essentials Plan costs $19.00 per month, and it presents you with at least ten matching awards each week. You'll also find complete descriptions of every award.

Pro costs $69.00 monthly. The Pro Plan, in addition to the opportunities mentioned above, also presents options for editorial reviews, as well as expanded awards listings that include audiobooks, series, and even your book cover (which I have no doubt you're extremely proud of).

All plans are cancelable at any time. 

It's important for indie authors to explore all marketing methods, especially if your budget is limited. It'll cost you nothing to take a look at Book Award Pro and evaluate its potential.