Pay for Play Book Awards and the Award Winning Lie
Episode 06 of Calling Out the Shadows: A Clarity Over Comfort Podcast

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.