U.S. Selfies Shortlist Announced

Fourteen finalists are competing for top prizes in the U.S. Selfies book awards.

Publishers Weekly and BookBrunch announced the shortlist for the U.S. Selfies awards on May 26. The U.S. Selfies are sponsored by IngramSpark, Combined Book Exhibit, Barnes & Noble Press, and Author Solutions. The U.S. Selfies book awards, now in their second year, were created to discover and reward the best self-published titles each year. The judges look for stories with high production value that entertain and delight readers, and e-books or print books with creative and effective marketing and publicity campaigns. This year saw the exciting integration of a children’s book category to the contest. In both the adult and children's categories, seven finalists will compete for the top prizes. The organizers produced a free sampler exhibiting the shortlists available to (download here). 

The adult fiction category finalists include Paty Jager (who was also shortlisted in 2020) for Fox Goes Hunting; N.D. Jones for A Queen’s Pride; Lilianne Milgrom for L'Origine: The Secret Life of the World’s Most Erotic Masterpiece; Charlie Newton for Privateers; Adam Pelzman with The Boy and the Lake; Penny Reid with Engagement and Espionage, Solving for Pie; and Nicolas Lietzau with Dreams of the Dying.

The shortlist for the children’s book category includes four picture books (Steadfast: Frances Perkins, Champion of Workers’ Rights by Jennifer J Merz; The Amazing Adventures of Aya & Pete in New York by Serena Minott and Asha Gore, illustrated by Caroline Buzio; How to Fold a Taco by Naibe Reynoso, illustrated by Ana Verala; and The Big Adventures of Little Tree by Nadja Springer, illustrated by Tilia Rand-Bell); a middle grade reader, The Rumble Hunters by Courtney Dunlap, and two YA novels, The Lost Coven by Bekah Harris and The Benevolent Lords of Sometimes Island by Scott Semegran.

“The quality of the entries in both adult fiction and in children’s books is an exciting testament to the creativity and resourcefulness of the self-published community of authors in the U.S.,” said Cevin Bryerman, CEO and publisher of Publishers Weekly.

The winning authors will receive $1000 cash supplied by IngramSpark, $2,500 of promotional book displays at major book fairs around from Combined Book Exhibit, and a $5,000 advertising package in Publishers Weekly’s print magazine and online.

This year’s winners will be announced on Thursday, June 25, 2021, during Happy Hour (5:30 p.m. C.T.) at the American Library Association’s annual conference.