4 Science Awards for 3 Children's Nonfiction Books

Maps, Snails, and Horses

One of my publishing strategies is to submit my children’s books to awards. If a book wins an award, it’s easier to market it to the education market.

I am picky about the awards, only submitting to industry-wide reputable awards. Here’s a list of awards that I consider. The Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLI) also maintains a list of awards and rates them on a scale from Excellent to Caution. This is one of my major strategies for finding recognition for my books. When I submit, I understand the there are many factors that go into such awards and this particular book may not find advocates. However, the judges of these committees are opinion-makers in their field! Even if they don’t give my book a certain award, I want them aware of the book. For another use, they may find it’s the perfect book.

However, as a marketing scheme, it’s unreliable. Books I feel should win, go unrecognized. And I’m surprised occasionally when an under-the-radar book finds recognition. That’s what happened this year!

The Przewalski’s Horse wins Eureka!

All year, I’ve written a series of blog posts about the process of publishing NOT EXTINCT: The Przewalski’s Horse Returns From Extinct in the Wild. I’m thrilled that it was recognized by the California Reading Association as a Eureka! Nonfiction Honor book. This means teachers and librarians in California will be especially interested in using the books in their classes.

CLIMATE named a Best STEM Book

Before you even start a conversation about climate change, kids need to understand what climate means. Additionally, a study of weather and climate is required by the NextGen Science Standards. When I heard about the story of Köppen, I was fascinated to learn that we still use the maps he drew about 100 years ago. They’ve been refined some, but are basically still sound. That’s an amazing achievement.

Then, I found his autobiography in a version that included both the original German and translated English. Perfect. The result is this fascinating book about weather and climate. Illustrated by the amazing Peter Willis, this is a visually fun book.

This is one of my favorite images from the book! The kites are just plain fun.

Two Awards: Snails are NOT slow!

Don’t overlook the humble snail! It won two awards, the NSTA Outstanding Science Trade Book and the Best STEM Book. The awards are slightly different, with the Outstanding Science Trade Book going to books about information while the STEM Book award recognizes the process of science. It’s rare to get both awards, so it’s particularly thrilling. And two awards look nicely balanced on the cover!

This is Book 7 of the Children’s Animal Book Series. Other titles include a bird, mammal, marine mammal, reptile, amphibian, and a spider. I’d love to write another book in this series, but the stories feature a single animal, not a species, that has been named for some interaction with humans, which also has a great story, and also has a scientist (or a rich historical record) to answer questions. Where am I going to find a fish story?

This is almost that fish story, the one that keeps growing. Did I tell you the one about the book that won an award? No, it was two awards? Ha! It’s a humble story that has found love from the science teachers! Thrilling.

Do Awards Mean Sales?

Awards don’t mean automatic sales, but they do bring a book a higher profile. It gives you a reason to talk about the books with teachers, science enthusiasts, and more. I’m strategically creating images, press releases, and emails to talk with a targeted group of people about the books. That will include reps at Ingram and Lulu, science specialists at different levels, local teachers, and more. Increasing the visibility will help find more readers for these books!

One thing I’ve done is create a new kind of catalog. Before this, I’ve created catalogs that look like a regular publisher’s catalog. See it here. This time, I created a catalog that emphasizes the curriculum tie-ins for the Next Gen Science Standards, and the SEL (Casel Framework) curriculums. The hope is to make the collection of science books more useful and visible to curriculum specialists. Download that catalog here. Ask me in a couple months if it helped!

Finally, on a personal note, it’s satisfying to see the collection of books grow into, well, a collection. Individually, I’ve loved creating each book. Over the last 13 years, though, I’ve also created a collection of books that reaches curious kids with fascinating stories. That’s surprising to me. I concentrate on individual books and the myriad of problems each one brings, and voila!—like magic—here’s a group of books that make a coherent collection. Isn’t this a wonderful life we lead? I’m blessed to be publishing books I love for an audience that I love.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!