Completely unexpected, but thrilling news – two Roma Nova books have been given a gold medal each in the much esteemed Coffee Pot Book Club Book of the Year awards for historical fiction.
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Even I was rendered speechless for at least five minutes. This book club focuses on historical fiction across all sub-genres: JULIA PRIMA won in the Ancient World category and INCEPTIO in Alternative History.
What do awards mean?
I wrote a post over six years ago when I had only a few books out and I was keen to accumulate those lovely badges and accreditations. And in that last word lies a big fat clue.
Recognition, validation, acknowledgement of your ability and achievement – these are the reasons we love to gain awards. When self- or indie publishing first emerged, there were no ways of showing which books were worth readers paying and which were not. Readers were and are the final judges, of course.
Indie published books are a firm part of the book world; some have been developed for the screen such as Andy Weir’s The Martian, others have even made their authors millionaires. But as with traditional publishing, most authors are not at those heights. However, most competitions and award schemes in the early days were closed to indies (😢 Some still are.).
To remedy the lack of ways in which to indicate high quality indie reads, a variety of award schemes emerged in order to sift out the not-so-good from the excellent. Some such as Discovering Diamonds Reviews and Chill with a Book run by prominent writers have since closed as they devoured a lot of time and needed full-time dedicated work. Others like the venerable Indie BRAG now charge an admin fee to cover time and costs, while the Historical Novel Society now mixes everything together.
But that doesn’t negate the awards/accolades given by them in the past.
The Coffee Pot Book Club Book of the Year awards have gone from strength to strength in nurturing and promoting historical fiction. The authors strive to be the best – who doesn’t like a shiny medal? – and readers can be reassured they will get a good quality experience from reading these books.
My thanks go to Cathie Dunn and dedicated team in managing these awards. It must involve the judgement of Solomon!
Meanwhile, I’ve off to polish these lovely medals…
Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers – INCEPTIO, CARINA (novella), PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO, AURELIA, NEXUS (novella), INSURRECTIO and RETALIO, and ROMA NOVA EXTRA, a collection of short stories. Audiobooks are available for four of the series. Double Identity, a contemporary conspiracy, starts a new series of thrillers. JULIA PRIMA, Roma Nova story set in the late 4th century, starts the Foundation stories. The sequel, EXSILIUM, will be out in February 2024.
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