Awards & Recognition
In 2023, Talking About Rakugo 1: The Japanese Art of Storytelling was selected as a finalist in the Arts & Entertainment category in the 17th NATIONAL INDIE EXCELLENCE AWARDS.
𝐴𝑛 𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑠ℎ𝑒𝑑 𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑟 𝑖𝑛 𝑝𝑢𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑤𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑠, 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑁𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝐼𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑒 𝐸𝑥𝑐𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒® 𝐴𝑤𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑠 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑛 𝑡𝑜 𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝐸𝑛𝑔𝑙𝑖𝑠ℎ 𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑢𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑏𝑜𝑜𝑘𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑡 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑎𝑢𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑚𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑡𝑜 𝑚𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑢𝑚 𝑠𝑖𝑧𝑒𝑑 𝑝𝑢𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑠ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑎𝑐𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑠 𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑦 𝑔𝑒𝑛𝑟𝑒𝑠. 𝐽𝑢𝑑𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑒𝑡𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑢𝑙𝑡𝑠 𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑎𝑠𝑠 𝑎 𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑙𝑦 𝑒𝑥𝑐𝑒𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑡𝑖𝑡𝑙𝑒𝑠 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑎 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑙𝑒 𝑊𝑖𝑛𝑛𝑒𝑟 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑒𝑎𝑐ℎ 𝑐𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑔𝑜𝑟𝑦 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝐹𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑠.
𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑁𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝐼𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑒 𝐸𝑥𝑐𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒® 𝐴𝑤𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑠 𝑐𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑏𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑎𝑙𝑜𝑔 𝑏𝑜𝑜𝑘 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚 𝑎𝑠 𝑎 𝑣𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑢𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑦. 𝑅𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑔𝑛𝑖𝑧𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐸𝑥𝑐𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑎𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛, 𝑁𝐼𝐸𝐴 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑓-𝑝𝑢𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑠ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑝𝑢𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑠ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 ℎ𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑞𝑢𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑏𝑜𝑜𝑘𝑠. 𝐸𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑠ℎ𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛 2005, 𝑁𝐼𝐸𝐴’𝑠 𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑚𝑒𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑢𝑙𝑜𝑢𝑠𝑙𝑦 𝑗𝑢𝑑𝑔𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑦 𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑡𝑠 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑣𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑐𝑖𝑝𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑢𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑦 𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑙𝑢𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑝𝑢𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑠ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑠, 𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑠, 𝑎𝑢𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑏𝑜𝑜𝑘 𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑠.
𝑊𝑖𝑛𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐹𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑠𝑡 𝑡𝑖𝑡𝑙𝑒𝑠 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑑𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑑 𝑜𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑏𝑎𝑠𝑖𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑢𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑟 𝑤𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑛 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑑 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑣𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑒 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑖𝑛𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑖𝑛 𝑎 𝑝𝑢𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑠ℎ𝑒𝑑 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑡. 𝐽𝑢𝑟𝑜𝑟𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑎𝑙𝑦𝑧𝑒 𝑡𝑖𝑡𝑙𝑒𝑠 𝑎𝑐𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑠 𝑎 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑚 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑚𝑒𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑠 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑢𝑠 𝑎𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑒𝑤.
–𝑫𝒐𝒖𝒈 𝑭𝒐𝒈𝒆𝒍𝒔𝒐𝒏
𝑷𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒕 – 𝑵𝑰𝑬𝑨
In 2024, Nickname Flower of Evil: The Abe Sada Story was selected as a finalist in the True Crime Nonfiction category in THE 2024 AMERICAN LEGACY BOOK AWARDS™.
LOS ANGELES, APRIL 2024 – American Book Fest announced the winners and finalists of 2024 AMERICAN LEGACY BOOK AWARDS. Over 500 winners and finalists were announced in over 100 categories. Awards were presented for titles published in 2010-2023.
American Book Fest covers books from all sections of the publishing industry—mainstream, independent, & self-published.
Jeffrey Keen, President and CEO of American Book Fest, said this year’s contest yielded thousands of entries from authors and publishers around the world, which were then narrowed down to the final results.
In 2025, From Girdle Maker to Water Commissioner - THE GREAT GILDERSLEEVE was selected as a finalist in the Arts & Entertainment category in the 19th NATIONAL INDIE EXCELLENCE AWARDS.
LOS ANGELES, June 19th, 2025 — The National Indie Excellence® Awards (NIEA), a long-standing leader in recognizing exceptional independently published books, is proud to announce the results of its 19th Annual competition.
Open to recent English-language books in print, the NIEA honors titles from self-published authors and small to mid-sized presses across all genres. The judging for this year’s contest is complete, and the full list of Winners and Finalists is now available online, along with recipients of the Sponsorship Prizes and Juror's Choice Awards.
NIEA celebrates the physical book as a cornerstone of the publishing industry, recognizing excellence in both content and presentation. Since 2005, the awards have championed independent authors and publishers who produce high-quality books. Entries are evaluated by a panel of industry professionals—including publishers, authors, editors, and book designers—using a rigorous set of criteria.
Winners and Finalists are selected based on written content as well as the overall design, function, and informational quality of the publication. Each submission undergoes thorough individual review before jurors reach a consensus.
Sponsorship Awards provide recipients with valuable professional development opportunities, including consultations, marketing, and distribution support. Additionally, three standout titles from among all Winners and Finalists are honored with Juror's Choice Awards, which include monetary prizes. This year’s Juror’s Choice awards were selected by author, editor, and coach Zoë Ruiz.
All awardees are also eligible for a complimentary listing in the NIEA Speaker’s Bureau.
"Self-published, independent authors, and small to midsize publishers continue to impress with strong entries across every genre. Final decisions made by our jurors often come down to the narrowest of margins when selecting a single Winner per category. The Team at NIEA are proud to stand behind each awardee as representatives of Excellence in their craft and the enduring value of books in print today."
— Doug Fogelson, NIEA President