For the 7th Annual Indie Author Project contest, we made some exciting changes by switching from a region-based format to a genre-based format, allowing us to award winners and runners-up across seven genres: Romance, Mystery & Thriller, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Historical Fiction, General Fiction, Memoir, and Young Adult Fiction. This allowed us to open the contest up internationally, making it even more inclusive than before and leading to over 2,000 submissions—double last year’s!

Librarian-led judging panels selected the winners from those submissions, showcasing the best indie ebooks in each genre. We were also able to increase the prize money this year, and each winner will receive $2500 with each runner up receiving $500. These books— and many more top indie titles— are available with unlimited, multi-user access in the Indie Author Project Select collections on BiblioBoard Library, The Palace Project, OverDrive, cloudLibrary, Boundless, and more.

We would also like to take a moment and celebrate two statewide contests: the Minnesota Author Project contest and the Soon to be Famous Illinois Author Project contest (winners announced soon!).

Missed the live announcement of the winners during Indie Author Day? You can view the recording here.

From these regional winners, one overall Indie Author of the Year will be chosen by a panel of industry experts in 2025. Along with the prizes that come with their regional award, the Indie Author of the Year will also receive an additional $5,000, professional audiobook production, and a myriad of marketing and promotional opportunities. 

“Now that I’m in a place where I’m working in the profession, I can see how formative libraries have been for me, in ways I didn’t even consider until I found myself providing them to others. The public library is a really important community space.”

Bobe Headshot

Melissa Bobe
2024 Indie Author of the Year