Six finalists were selected for the BookLife Prize in Fiction, an annual writing contest for unpublished or self-published novels launched earlier this year by BookLife, Publishers Weekly's website dedicated to indie authors.
BookLife received 760 prize entries, spanning six categories. The finalist in each category is as follows:
General Fiction: First, You Swallow the Moon by Kipp Wessel
SF/Fantasy/Horror: The Vanirim by TJ Slee
Mystery/Thriller: Cloister by TJ Slee
Romance/Erotica: Not Flowers, but Love by Krys Batts
YA: Riven by Jane Alvey
Middle Grade: Crushing the Red Flowers by Jennifer Kaplan
PW reviewers judged the contest’s first round, selecting quarterfinalists in each category. The quarterfinalists were then judged by the editorial staffs of BookLife and PW, which selected the 30 books that reached the semifinals. The semifinalists were then judged by a panel of six award winning and bestselling authors. Each author judged one of the six categories, selecting the titles for the finals.
“The entrants were very, very good across all genres, and it was very competitive,” said BookLife editor Adam Boretz “Discovering great works of fiction was a strong motivator for creating this prize.”
The grand-prize winner -- which will be judged by the panel of authors and announced in January 2017 -- will receive a cash prize of $5,000.
