Double Happiness

It is an honor to report that Double Happiness has been recognized by another book awards program. The 2015 International Book Awards, sponsored by USA Book News, have selected Double Happiness as an award-winning finalist in the Memoir category.

Counting these book awards and prizes which have recognized Double Happiness, as well as these others, this award brings the total number of awards in which my book has either won or been recognized to eleven.

I’m proud of this book, and proud of all the work that so many people put into it on its way to publication. Every once in a while it’s nice to know that all that work is recognized.

It’s a delight and an honor to report that Double Happiness has received recognition at two more book awards ceremonies.

In addition to the awards it won earlier this year, Double Happiness has been recognized with these book awards:

• The Living Now Book Awards
  Silver Winner
  (INSPIRATIONAL MEMOIR – MALE)
  “Books For Better Living.” “Celebrating the innovation and creativity of newly published books that can help us improve the quality of our lives.”

• Readers’ Favorite Award
  Honorable Mention (TRAVEL)
  “Readers’ Favorite is the fastest growing book review and award contest… receiving thousands of entries from all over the world.”

As I’ve mentioned before, Double Happiness has been blessed to win several book awards.

Most book awards have decals that can be placed on the cover of the book, and this is a very good problem to have, obviously, but my question for you is: Should I acquire and attach decals for each award? Or just one award? Or none? Which looks best?

I want to present a great image to attract the people who would enjoy and benefit from the story of Double Happiness — as well as to sway some who might, you know, judge a book by its…

Some people have said they can’t really read the awards on the decals below. You can see the awards up close here.

Vote below. To vote for your favorite, just click on it. To vote for more than one, tick the boxes and click ‘Vote.’

[[POLL]]

There are more prestigious awards out there; none of these decals is yet for a Nobel Prize or a Pulitzer (one can always dream). Nevertheless I think including one or more of these awards helps potential readers and indicates a distinction about the book: professionals who spend a lot of time reading books have recognized Double Happiness as exceptional.

Another option is to have my wonderful cover designer add the award decal to the cover image itself, so that there’s no need to attach actual stickers.

What are your thoughts? Comment below; I’ve moved to social media commenting too. Do you like?

Thank you for your thoughts!

ps: You can still get Double Happiness for free or very reasonably priced during August and September.

It’s a delight to write this entry. Double Happiness has been winning or placing in most of the book awards it has entered.

I’ve already written about winning Best Memoir at the Paris Book Festival and attending the stateside awards ceremony (see video below).

ForeWord Book Reviews, one of the most prestigious magazines in the growing world of independent publishing, has just announced the winners of its Book of the Year Awards (recently renamed the “IndieFab Awards”). I’m honored to say that Double Happiness has been named Silver Winner in the Travel category, beating out hundreds of other titles.

Here are the awards Double Happiness has won thus far.

• ForeWord Book of the Year
  Silver Winner (TRAVEL)
  “These are the best of the best, the cream of the crop, the cherries on top a metaphorical ice cream sundae of indie books. You’ve been waiting months and now here they are, the winners of the 2013 IndieFab Book of the Year Awards.”
• Paris Book Festival
  Winner (BIOGRAPHY/AUTOBIOGRAPHY)
  “Awarding general excellence and the author’s passion for telling a good story, as well as the potential of the work to gain a wide audience in the worldwide market”
• Indie Excellence Award
  Winner (TRAVEL)
  “A proud champion of small presses, independent presses, and self-publishers that go the extra mile to produce books of excellence in every aspect.
• Eric Hoffer Award
  Honorable Mention (MEMOIR)
  “Established at the start of the 21st century as a means of opening a door to writing of significant merit. It honors the memory of the great American philosopher Eric Hoffer.”
• San Francisco Book Festival
  Honorable Mention (TRAVEL)
  “Considers entries in 18 categories. There is no date of publication restriction. “

I accepted the Paris Book Festival award at the stateside ceremony, at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel in San Francisco:
(apologies for the quality of the video).

Update July 21, 2014: Double Happiness has also been named a Finalist of the 2014 Readers’ Favorite Award.