Bragging Rights? Really???

Yesterday I submitted my just-released novel, First Exposure, to the 2014 Rainbow Literature Awards contest, and today I’m wondering why.

You see, in the past I’ve entered two other novels—The Lonely War in 2010 and Match Maker in 2011—and both won first place in their categories. The Lonely War took first place for the Best Overall Novel, Best Historical, Best Setting, and Best Characters categories. Match Maker won first place for the Best Contemporary Novel category.

I entered those stories because I assumed that, if I won, I would get a nice bump up in sales. So in the name of marketing my books, I charged ahead and made dozens of posts about winning the awards. The sales results, however, were disappointing. I could discern no bump at all. So I assumed that readers really don’t care if a book is an award winner, unless you’re talking about the Booker or Pulitzer awards.

 So I have to ask myself, why did I bother to enter this year’s Rainbow Awards contest if it doesn’t contribute to sales? The only answer I can ascertain is that I enjoy the bragging rights of saying my books are award winners.

Sadly, for me at least, it’s an ego thing. I freely admit it seems rather shallow of me, and I’m really not proud of that fact, but there it is.