BYOBA: Buy Your Own Book Award

 There are so many horrible books I have read lately that are "award winning" and by "award winning authors." Yes, you can buy your own book award, but why go to the trouble when you can just make one up yourself and post a website somewhere for it? This fad is going to cause serious problems in the future and the people pushing these awards should be prosecuted for fraud. These are not real awards. 

One example is: Literary Titan This not only allows you to pay to get a book award, you also get a good review (or many good reviews) out of it. 

Another is the Book Excellence Award. They are trying to sell you their promotional services. 

Yes, bad reviews are hard to stomach. But they should be learning points. Did the reviewer personally not care for your book or was there a universal flaw that needed to be fixed? Being told your book is amazing as long as you can pay someone to say that is not an accomplishment. 

How do you know it is a fake award? There are many ways to tell. 

• You could read a few samples of the "award-winning" books on Amazon and look for typos and content issues. 
• How long has it been an award? If it has been around for decades it has a better chance of being legitimate. If it started after 2019, it's probably a scam.
• What kind of prize do you win? A lot of awards talk about the "cash value" of the prize you win. For example, with the Book Excellence Award, you get a grand prize with a "cash value" of $30,000. Now, that is their estimated cash value and the only real thing you win is a free marketing package that the sponsoring company does. Grand prizes should be the chance to get real representation and traditionally published or produced. 
• Is the sponsor their own editing/marketing/book cover design/vanity press type company? If it is a company that is selling any book related services in addition to the contest, its a scam.
• If the award is offered by a publishing company, look carefully at their website and see if authors must do pre-orders or pay a fee to get their book published. If either of the above is true, the contest may be a front for getting more clients. There is nothing wrong with entering it (as long as the entry is free or low enough cost you don't mind losing the money), just be prepared to be solicited if you lose the contest. 
• How often are awards given out? If it is any more frequent than yearly, it's a scam. 
• High entrance fees.

A lot of people say if there are a lot of categories it is also a warning sign, but I disagree with this. Final Draft, for example, is a good reputable script competition, but it has a ton of different categories. The more categories and the more prize levels the more likely you will win--especially if you write in a niche category. However, a lot of categories doesn't necessarily mean it is a scam.

Probably the worst part about being self-published is that major publishing companies frequently are the sponsors of legitimate book awards. This means, in case you didn't guess, that you will probably not be able to enter.