Is Your Book Eligible for the Novel of the Year?

 

As we enter into the second half of the year, it's time to start thinking about our upcoming 2018 Novel of the Year. All Top Picks from 2017 are nominations for both of our Novel of the Year awards: The Editor's Choice and Reader's Choice awards. So far we have the following books nominated for the honor:

Gary’s Guide to Life by Michael Nabavian and Phil Wall
Monstrous by J.L. Murray
Reverie by Lauren Rico
Stim by Kevin Berry
The After War by Brandon Zenner
The Last Detective by Brian Cohn
The Right Wrong Number by Jim Nesbitt

Our Reader's Choice award is selected by a combination of editorial input and reader popularity. Because of that, we are expanding the eligibility for this award to include all books that received a 5-star review this year, as well as any 2017 Badge Winners (Pitch Perfect Picks and Popular by Vote badges). Books that qualify for the Reader's's Choice award can be self-nominated for a fee of $20. The deadline for self-nomination is December 31, 2017.

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In March of 2018, we will announce two final Novel of the Year award winners: an Editor's Choice award and a Readers' Choice award. Here is how they will be determined:

Novel of the Year: Editors' Choice - Selected by our editors with the help of a team of judges (meet the whole team here). Every nominated book will be read by a minimum of two judges. Each judge will comment on professional presentation, literary voice, plot/theme/pacing, characterization/dialogue, and suspension of disbelief. The books will then be ranked against each other, with high-ranked books going on to be read and ranked by 3-5 judges total. All judges will fill out a voting sheet for each book, which authors will receive anonymously at the end of the voting period. The final Editor's Choice award will be given to the book that stands out the most within its genre.

Novel of the Year: Readers' Choice - Decided by popular vote. A final list of entrants and terms for voting on our Reader's Choice award will be announced in our first 2018 issue.

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Let's talk about prizes!

Editor's Choice Prize:
- $50 in publicity services and/or cover design for the winning novel (author's choice of publicist/designer)

Reader's Choice Prize:
- $50 in editing and/or cover design services for the winning novel (author's choice of editor/designer)
- Private editorial review of their book within three months. If the author likes the review, it will be published on Underground Book Reviews

Both winners will receive:
- Three free months of advertising on our sidebar, in our magazine and in our header ($100 value)
- Ten Social Media Blasts: Author writes a message for our 4000+ social media followers. ($30 value)
- Author Spotlight ($25 value)
- A lifetime of moral support and free mentions from the Underground Team - just ask! (priceless)

All Editor's Choice entries will receive:
- A minimum of two anonymous critiques/responses from each judges' voting sheet.
- 1 to 5 personal reviews on Amazon and Goodreads from our judges (rating NOT guaranteed to be positive!)

In order to claim prizes, all we ask is that the author proudly displays our award icon on the front cover of the winning book. Prize money may be spent on a designer incorporating our logo, or the author may do the work. Prize money must be spent on Underground Certified services. If the author would like to use a specific publicist, editor or designer which has not yet been listed on Underground Book Reviews, the service provider must first go through our certification process.