‘You can be both disappointed for yourself and delighted for other people at the same time.’
Book awards are great for visibility and credibility. But there’s another side to them too.
Entering for an award means putting the product of months or years of private work into the public gaze to be judged. And however highly evolved you are, there’s a good chance that fear, hope, self-doubt, and even a sulk can all be part of the process that follows.
In this episode, authors representing every dimension of the experience reflect honestly and helpfully on their experience and what they’ve learned.
Hear from:
- Sarah Robb on the difference between the award and the real reward
- Tom Pullen on awards as a way through the ‘post-publication valley of death’
- Helen Beedham on the surprising questions that success raised about her identity as an author
- Susan Ni Chriodain on why there’s nothing wrong with wanting something enough to be disappointed
- Martin Farrell on what awards revealed about his own need for recognition
- Virginia Cinquemani on managing expectations and breathing through the nerves
- Angela Rixon on the very real value of shortlisting
- Ian Pettigrew on the need to take care around the meaning we attach to an outcome
- Alice Sheldon on treating an award result as data rather than a verdict
- Trevor Merriden on why awards judges understand more than authors might realise about what’s at stake.
BBA winners: https://www.businessbookawards.co.uk/winners-2026/
Alison on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/the-alison-jones/
The 10-day Business Book Proposal Challenge: www.proposalchallenge.com
