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A Challenge To You-Let’s Do It For The Little Guy

Google Alerts is a marvelous thing. I get alerts every Friday that tell me whether someone has blogged about me, my books, or my work. They’re a pain to slog through, but they are a great way of keeping track of who is saying what and where. The best part is that I can compile all my reviews in one place to make it easy for you, dear reader, to find out all about my books.

This weekend, Google Alerts pointed me to a web site named Torque Control, the blog of the editorial staff of Vector, the critical journal of the British Science Fiction Association, where the blogger asked her readers to suggest “The Best Novels of 2011 So Far” in order to get a feel for what people think should go  for award nominations.

I was pleased as punch to see that one of my favourite reviewers, Rose Fox, championed me on the site:

Rose Fox Says:
July 8, 2011 at 6:50 pm

Triptych by J.M. Frey (it will never win because no one’s heard of it but it is AMAZING). Miéville’s Embassytown, of course. Possible Rajaniemi’s The Quantum Thief.

It is, as they say, an honour just to be nominated to be nominated. 😀

 But then I stopped to think. And I wondered. Why couldn’t TRIPTYCH win a major industry award? Why can’t a small press from Alberta, Canada that survives on the sheer will power and the love of books of publisher Gwen Gaddes and associate editor Gabrielle Harbowy produce a book that is powerful enough to get the attention of major nomination committees all over the world? Why must winners be the ones with the huge international marketing campaigns, advertising budgets, and famous faces?

Why can’t a good book win just because it’s good? Because, as Rose Fox puts it, it’s AMAZING?

 To that end, interwebs, I put a challenge to you.

 Let’s get TRIPTYCH on a nomination ballot.

Let’s get it on ALL the nomination ballots. Let’s put a spotlight on Gabrielle Harbowy, my editor, for all the incredible work she’s done. Let’s make sure that Gwen Gaddes and Dragon Moon Press are given all the attention they deserve. Let’s get my cover artist, Charles Bernard, a shiney award for his mantle.  Let’s work together to give the Canadian Small Presses the publicity and limelight that they’re worth.

 Let’s do it for the little guy.

 Because a book that is good should get attention for being good, not just because it has a big marketing budget. So let’s spread the word.

 How can you help?

 1) BUILD BUZZ. If you read TRIPTYCH, review it. Put up a one-paragraph blurb on Goodreads, Amazon, or Shelfari. Talk about it on your blog. Tweet. Mention it on facebook. Lend your copy to friends, or better yet, buy them one.

 2) SUGGEST IT TO REVIEWERS. Email trade magazines, or your personal favourite review blog, or online review houses and tell them about TRIPTYCH. Tell them why you loved it, and why you think it’s important for TRIPTYCH to become known in the mainstream. Let people KNOW about it, let them know it exists, and let them know what others are already saying.

 3) WRITE TO COMMITTEES. Found out about an award for Best Editing? Best Cover Art? Best Design? Best Writing? Best Death Scene? Best Book Trailer? Write to a member of the nominating committee and tell them about TRIPTYCH and Dragon Moon Press. Give them my contact information and website, so I can get them a copy of the book.

 4) NOMINATE IT. If you are on a nomination commmittee, nominate it. But luckily, not all awards require you to be a member of an association to nominate. If you can, nominate the book yourself. And nominate it for a lot – blog awards, fan awards, industry awards. Everything from the Hugo to “The Blog of Bogglingly Bodacious Babes In Books Award”.

 Where do you start?  TALK to people about TRIPTYCH. And point them to this page.

 Here is the information for some of the awards that TRIPTYCH is eligible for:

The Sunburst Award
The Hugo Award
The Campbell Award
The Scotiabank Giller Prize
Trillium Book Awards
Foreword Magazine’s Book of the Year Awards
Lambda Literary Awards
CAA-BookLand Press Emerging Writer Award
Governor General’s Literary Awards

Prix Aurora Award
Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize
Locus Award
The ReLit Award
Compton Crook Award
Betty Trask Prize and Awards 2011
Spectrum Award
National Indie Excellence Awards

JM FreyA Challenge To You-Let’s Do It For The Little Guy