Pay for Play Book Awards and the Award Winning Lie
Home › Podcast › Episode 06
Pay for Play Book Awards and the Award Winning Lie
Episode 06 of Calling Out the Shadows: A Clarity Over Comfort Podcast
By Neal Winsomer · Published 2026-05-28
How Pay for Play Book Awards work
Pay for Play Book Awards charge to nominate and often promise runner-up. This episode draws the line between an award that was earned and one that was paid to be nominated.
THE SHORT VERSION
- Pay-for-play awards charge roughly $20 to $200 just to be nominated.
- Many of these systems state on their own site that every entrant at least lands runner-up.
- Neal will not buy a bestseller ranking, a paid award, or any pay-to-win label.
LISTEN
QUESTIONS THIS EPISODE ANSWERS
Are paid book awards credible?
Pay-for-play awards charge a nomination fee and often guarantee at least runner-up on their own site. That is not the same as a juried award earned without payment.
What is the tell of a pay-to-play award?
A nomination fee in the $20 to $200 range, and language on the award site promising you will at least be a runner-up.
Why refuse a paid award?
A label you bought is not proof of merit. Marketing with transparency beats a pay-to-win badge.
What pay-for-play awards do
- Charge a nomination fee, often $20 to $200 per entry
- Print on their own site that every entrant at least places as a runner-up
- Sell add-ons such as stickers, certificates, press releases, and gala tickets
- Blur the line between award-winning and paid to be nominated
IN THIS CONVERSATION
- The pay-for-play model and the nomination-fee range
- Sites that promise you will at least be runner-up
- Paid awards versus juried awards earned without payment
- The marketing trade-off of refusing to pay
FULL TRANSCRIPT
The pay for play book award system bothers me. I get there are a lot of authors that love it, and many of these people that talk about award winning, it’s true in a sense, but they paid for that award. In many of these systems, these sites, these awards, you pay a certain fee and, you’ll win something.
Or in another place, you’ll even always be a runner-up. It states it right on the website. Now, my issue with that, and I remember seeing those, you know, business awards of going, all you have to do is send $499 and we’re going to send you a plaque and we’re going to call you this and we’re going to state this and we’re going to use a name that people most likely won’t look up. But if they do, they’re going to realize it’s completely fake. The same kind of thing ties over with these book things. This award-winning book that somebody spent anywhere from $20 to $200 to get themselves nominated, and in many cases on these higher ones, they’ll win something. That to me doesn’t seem real. And when you’re stating, okay, this is award-winning.
The pay-for-play model
How are you morally, ethically, honorably, and transparently able to say, well, I won that award? You didn’t win it, though. You paid to be nominated. You paid for whatever system. And in many of these, you pay for an award. And then you use this fake term.
And it’s all to be able to state award-winning. And yes, I understand that some of these larger scale award winners and these larger scale award systems, they have a little bit more of a credential to them. But I just don’t get it. I don’t see it. And if my book is ever to win an award, I’m not going to pay for it.
Guaranteed runner-up
And maybe that pushes down some of the marketing. And in some ways, for those searching for an award-winning book, for those searching for a bestseller book, maybe they’re not my audience. And maybe they’re not yours. When we look a little bit deeper, when we stand on a rock, on a foundation where we can be transparent and true, I think that means so much more. Just as I stated before, I’m not faking or going to buy a bestseller ranking or play the little Amazon game, and I’m not going to buy any nomination for any award.
And I get it. I mean it’s like some of these, I almost wish you could flip it around and say, hey, here’s a carousel of books, here’s a thing, and if you pay X amount, it’s going to be advertised at Y, or you’re going to be a part or something. But no, they’ve got to go that extra thing to say, no, it’s an award.
Juried versus paid
I just don’t like it. I don’t think it’s real. I don’t think it’s, you know, honest. And when I think about it, you know, if somebody was interviewing and saying, hey, this is an award, you want an award. Would you stand up and respond and say, you know what? I did. Here’s how I paid for it. Here’s how I was guaranteed to win.
Or here’s how I got into a certain genre where only so many people could win. So that to me is an issue. That to me is a problem. And that to me, again, not judging anyone else, is something I will not do. I will not practice. My book, if you see any kind of award associated or affiliated with it, it was earned without me paying for it.
Why I will not buy an award
And for those that are sitting here trying to figure out different ways to market and promote to an audience, and I know inside of AI it’s fake it out, make it look better than it actually is, use the terms like bestseller, use the award winners and all of that, maybe consider the route of marketing, creating content and messaging in honesty, transparency, and love. It may do that much better for you.
It may bring something out that’s that much more truthful, that much more honorable, that much more faithful, I invite you to try. And I invite you to stand in truth and not some kind of false presence that really in the end is lying. So stand in authority, stand in authenticity, stand in transparency, and don’t pay for play or pay to win an award and tell other people that you won it honestly, when you ended up paying for it.
ABOUT THE HOST
Neal Winsomer is the author of Calling Out the Shadows: A Father’s Stand Against the Current, a memoir and practical guide, and hosts this Clarity Over Comfort podcast, which he narrates himself. He writes from lived experience inside high-conflict co-parenting and marks throughout his work what is his subjective account and what is objective. He makes no claim to clinical expertise and offers no prescriptions. What you take from it is yours.
Published by Neal Winsomer Publishing LLC, an IBPA member (D-U-N-S 145038996), Gulf Breeze, Florida. hello@nealwinsomerpublishing.com
RELATED EPISODES
- Episode 02: When the Lie Becomes the Truth She Knows
- Episode 03: You Don’t Need to Read, Buy, or Review My Book
- Episode 05: 10 Months Down, One Month to Go
Calling Out the Shadows: A Clarity Over Comfort Podcast is hosted by Neal Winsomer. The accompanying book is available now from Neal Winsomer Publishing LLC in paperback, hardcover, eBook, audiobook, large print, and a Skimmer’s Edition. See all formats.
