I got the physical award last week. I was happy. I placed 3rd out of 4th which is like 2nd runner-up. Storytrade Awards is newer than some award organizations. They also have a Goodreads and a Facebook page. They graciously gave me a good reveiw on Goodreads. I tried to tag them in my author Facebook post about the award. That is a "shout out" in social media parlance.
The window starts in the Spring and runs until July 30th. They have several different categories and you may enter several books in several different categories. I liked that I was able to enter a more specific subgenre category: Christian Contemporary Fiction.
Why?
Because I wrote a Christmas book and a book about finding the
Christian faith in the face of suicide ideation, depression, and
addiction.
All this goes to say what? I placed higher in this smaller contest with a more specific category and subgenre than I did in the Book Life Prize which only has five categories. There, I got a 7/10 for the first round for the category of General Fiction--which is a huge umbrella. There were at least 78 books in my category and they were also ranked by time they placed. So, right now I'm sitting at 74/78 unless more lower scored reviews are made known.
Are contests worth it? Yes. More so than entering book fairs which gives you access and visibility to less scrupulous companies--that has been my experience.
Contests help you with promotion and more feathers in the cap.