The rules and regulations that govern the Self Ink It Awards™ are established by the Self Ink It™ Awards Committee, which is comprised of representatives appointed by Sabwig Enterprise, LLC d/b/a Little Aiden Press.
SII AWARD
Dates
Submissions open: January 15
Submission deadline: February 15 (extended until February 29th)
Winners will be announced in May 2024
THE AWARD CATEGORIES (Fiction/Non-Fiction)
Children's Picture Book — Ages 2 to 8
Early Reader Book — Ages 5 to 9
Middle-Grade Book — Ages 8 to 12
Best Book Cover Design
Self Ink It™ Readers' Choice Award
New Author Award
ENTRY REQUIREMENTS & ELIGIBILITY:
- Entry is FREE. Limited to 1 book per author.
- Self-published from 2020 to current must be for children and youth from Age 2 to 12.
- Must be a BIPOC author or illustrator. Under the age of 13 years of age, parent(s) must submit on your behalf.
- Your book can be submitted in multiple categories.
- Must have an ISBN and be available on Amazon.com and/or other online bookstores or authors' websites to purchase.
- Must be available for sale by the contest deadline.
- All entries must be received by February 29, 2024.
- Finalists will be notified in April 2024. Winners will be announced in May 2024 via live stream.
- All submissions are final.
- You must send by mail at least one copy of your book that will be donated to a youth organization. Your submission is not complete until we receive your book.
Not Eligible
- Non-BIPOC authors
- Explicit content or material
- E-books
- Advanced Reader Copies... book must be published
- Must not be under a Conventional publishing contract with a major publisher such as Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin, Random House, or Simon & Schuster. Any big publishing house
- If you have won in the past two years you do not qualify for entry at this time. We want to make sure that we can spread the love to as many worthy authors as possible.
Submission Requirements
Book Submission Requirements
- Mail one copy of the print version and upload a pdf copy of the published book with your entry.
- We must receive your physical book by the submission deadline.
- Put all the categories on one Submission Form and be sure to place a copy of the submission form in the book you send in.
- Unless you receive an email stating you are a finalist or winner, please do not send an email asking for updates.
- Self Ink It™ physical book submissions will not be returned. Each entry must contain the official entry form, including your e-mail address and contact telephone number.
- Submitted books will be donated to local libraries, foster homes, shelters, and/or schools for further use, we do not simply discard them.
Illustration Submission Requirements
- Make sure you choose images that convey your work's best qualities and make sure they're optimized for the entry form.
- Formats: save your file as RGB in either .jpg or .png
- Size: under 4MB and up to 3000px wide.
- File name: name your files using this format: artistname_title_image1 (or image2, image, etc if your entry is a multiple).
- Ensure the file name uses only letters and does not contain any special characters (i.e &*£$/. etc).
NOTIFICATIONS & DEADLINES OF WINNERS & FINALISTS
A confirmation email will be sent for your entry once the book has been processed. Self Ink It will announce the winning entries on our website once the panel completes their review, this will happen within a few months from the submission closed date.
Depending on the volume of entries, it could take up to two weeks to send you a notification that your book was received.
A WORD ABOUT OUR AWARD NOMINATION
Different contests have a variety of nominations. We have structured the Self Ink It Awards (SIIA) so that only one book per category may be selected as the “Winner”, however, there is always more than one book in a category that deserves recognition. We are committed to celebrating excellence in self-published books so SIIA will also recognize five (5) “Finalists” in each category.
Books recognized as Finalists are exceptional. Deciding on who the Winner and Finalist are often come down to one small factor that the call might have gone either way. Being recognized as a Finalist is a high honor and very competitive, it is something an author should be extremely proud to promote. The number of Finalists reflects the number of entries in a given category.
Our readers will appreciate our Winners and Finalists as worthy of their attention and their book-buying dollars.
Winners
- Beautiful Award and a certificate mailed directly to you along with 50 seals for your books
- Digital award badge to display on your website
- Book featured on Self Ink It™ award website
- Announcements shared on our social media platforms
- "Award-winning Author" status. Add this to your author's website and bio and your online presence, such as social media, etc...
******* Winners not in the United States may be required to pay a fee for the shipment of their award.
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Self-Ink It™ Awards is a program run by Little Aiden Press that seeks to honor and recognize self-published Black/Indigenous/People of Color authors.
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SELF-INK IT™ is a Registered Trademark of Sabrina Wiggins
P.O. Box 5822, Capitol Heights, MD 20791