Welcome to the inaugural year of the Bookish Reader’s Choice Awards! 🎉 Designed to actually give readers their voice to determine the “best” reads of the year, the goal of these awards is to recognize all of the amazing stories we got to read this year!
Why create these awards when Goodreads already does them?
I have long since felt like the Goodreads Choice Awards has solely been a marketing tool for Amazon to drive sales on the most hyped titles and newest releases. (Amazon bought Goodreads in 2013.) This has never been so evident than with this year’s nominations round. But the disparity goes beyond just the biggest marketing budgets: it adversely affects authors of color and other marginalized groups. YA author Margaret Owen eloquently points this out on Twitter:
I appreciate folks saying they're writing in TMC, but actually, I'm going to ask y'all to write in WHTF. It's 2019. The fact that there is not a single debut author of color on the YA SFF list, and only 3 out of its 15 nominees are by authors of color period, is a problem. https://t.co/g34ffJuHC7
— Margaret Owen, Temporary Hermit (@what_eats_owls) November 5, 2019
I am so excited to finally reveal this project and open up the nominations round for you all! In order to ensure fairness, all nominations will be done on the nominations form. I encourage you to make a post to celebrate your nominations (use the hashtag #BookishReadersChoice2019 and link to this post) to help spread the word so as many readers can participate!
Award Categories (Adult & YA Separate)
✨ Literary fiction
✨ Nonfiction
✨ True Crime
✨ Historical Fiction
✨ Contemporary (Realistic Fiction)
✨ Mystery
✨ Thriller
✨ Fantasy
✨ Romance
✨ Science Fiction
✨ Horror
✨ Humor
✨ Memoir & Autobiography
✨ Science & Technology
✨ Graphic Novels & Comics
✨ Poetry
✨ Picture Books
✨ Middle Grade
Fun Categories:
✨ Favorite Villain
✨ Favorite OTP
✨ Favorite Setting
✨ Favorite Sequel
✨ Cover Appreciation
✨ Favorite Squad
✨ Debut Novel
✨ Favorite Book
Nominations Rules
- Any book published between November 1, 2018 and October 31, 2019 are eligible for nomination.
- You are able to nominate up to three books for each subcategory.
- You do not need to nominate a book for every category.
- Every award category has two subcategories: Adult and Young Adult.
- The nominations form closes at 23:59 on November 30, 2019.
- Only nominations submitted via the form will be counted. The form collects an email address to ensure people only vote once, but email addresses will be deleted after nominations have been tallied.
- General voting will begin on December 3, 2019.
Go forth and nominate, my dear friends! I can’t wait to see what books everyone loved this year, and give the authors a boost of recognition and appreciation in the process. If you do make a nominations post to explain your nominees, please be sure to use #BookishReadersChoice2019 on Twitter to make sure that I see it!
Nominate your favorite reads NOW!
If you have any questions or feedback, please let me know in the comments or reach out to me on Twitter @kalventure!
More Awards!
- Reads Rainbow organized the Alternative(ish) Choice Awards to recognize the LGBTQIAP+ books released in 2019.
- Magical Reads organized the YA 2019 Releases Authors of Color Awards!
Let’s go on another adventure together!
Thank you so much to Loretta @ Laughing Listener for the award graphics! *cackles in secrets*
I think this is a wonderful idea, Kal! Like I told you when I first heard about this, I too am very disappointed with the GRCA and it does seem like a marketing ploy more than a celebration of books. I am so excited to see all the amazing and diverse nominees!
YAY, I’m so glad you approve, Ruby! I agree the goodreads awards feel more about driving sales than celebrating the books everyone is talking about so I am excited to see how the nomination pool differs.
Just finished voting! This is amazing, Kal! It feels good to really have a say on what books to be nominated and not just base on popularity. Ultimately, diverse books need to be amplified more and I think this will be a good springboard for that. <3
Thanks so much for nominating your choices, and I am really excited to see what everyone nominated & makes it to the voting round!
I think this is a great idea, especially as I read a lot of underrated or lesser known books and they never seem to appear on those lists…
Thanks so much, and I hope your nominations make it to the voting round!
Kal, I just finished submitting my nominations, and I had so much fun!! This is such a good alternative to the Goodreads choice awards, and I am forever thankful to you for making it!
Thanks so much for submitting your nominations, Caitlin! I’m glad you like the awards – I figured the time was now since I’ve been angry the past 2 years!
so excited you went ahead with this and to see a better range of books being supported!! 🙂 ill try and get some nominations up this week
me too, I almost talked myself out of running it again. but I think it’s much more productive to do something positive to inspire change rather than just… complain. Can’t wait to see your nominations!
Wiie this is so exciting! I have to think about my nominations before I submit them but I am already looking forward to what the results will be :)))
AHH, I am so excited to see your nominations!!!
This was such a hard job! I left so many cathegories open because I haven’t read any book fitting in there. Furthermore, the books I mainly read this year were translations and they don’t count because the original Eglish version is a backlist book right now. so I was stuck with the same books over and over, but I think I managed well.
No worries, I also left a lot of categories blank! Thanks so much for participating!!!
YES. I’ve always felt the same way, especially with the lack of authors of color. GR has always been aimed to the same crowd and it has honestly bothered me enough every year that I don’t even bother voting if I don’t remember because I’m just that salty (and I’ve always felt one vote doesn’t make a difference versus a huge group of people doing so).
I agree with you 10000% – which is why I decided to try and do something positive! I know I don’t have the reach Goodreads does, but I do want our voices to be heard. I hope you are able to nominate everything you want!
What an incredible initiative, Kal, you keep on amazing me every single day. Thank you for putting all of this together <3 <3
😭😭😭 MARIE, you are so incredibly kind! Thanks so much for the compliment, and I’m really glad you like the idea of the awards!
I’m so glad you’re hosting these awards and I can not wait to put in my nominees, although I can’t even begin to decide where to start from!
Also, GR feels too generic and mass scale and like a lot of people just vote based on their predetermined notions about what they’ve heard about a book or an author instead of actually taking the time to wreathe book and then voting, so its just a herd gravitating towards a book they have heard is good somewhere.
Thank you so much for these awards!
I know what you mean about not knowing where to start… it took me about two weeks to get the courage to put my nominations together. So hard to narrow things down, especially since I extensively read within two genres. I hope you are able to get your nominations in, and I agree with you re: the Goodreads awards… a lot of people vote for books they haven’t even read??? Why.
This is AMAZING! I do agree with you that Goodreads seems to be all about marketing, but I DIND’T know that Amazon bought them. I shouldn’t be shocked. I cannot wait to see who wins for all of those categories! This is a great idea – good for you.
Thank you so much, I’m glad you like the awards! And yea… Amazon bought Goodreads back in 2013 – that’s why all those Kindle & purchase history additions were made… and then nothing was done ever again lol.
I stan this so much! YES YES YES!
Thank you so much Kal for making this! I never really minded the GRCA choices in the past, but this year’s nominees during open voting was obscenely disappointing for a plethora of reasons. So seeing this with the shout outs to other awards that are happening (that I didn’t even know about so thank you for those!) is a real heart warmer. You are literally a gem and a voice in this community. 10/10
Awww thank you so much for your lovely comment, I am just so happy the Awards are so well received and that I was in the position to do something. I can’t wait for your nominations!
I love this! I’m gonna tweet it out. Now to cast my votes.
Thanks so much for nominating & boosting!!!
This is such a great idea!! I’m not great at coming up with nominees, but I’ll definitely vote when it’s time!
Thanks so much for stopping by, and I don’t blame you — it took me a stupid amount of time for me to get my own nominations together. Voting will be so much easier, hehe!
Aaaah, I’m so glad you’re doing this, Kal! I sent in my nominations 😀
Ahh, I can’t wait to see your nominations and I am so glad the awards are so well received! Thanks for participating!
This is brilliant — thank you for running this!
Thank you so much!!!