I dunno about you but when I hear the word ‘Award’ I automatically think to myself, ‘ERMERGOD WILL HUGH JACKMAN BE THERE?!’

I have it on good authority that La Jackman will not be in attendance at the Carousel CAP Awards this year (sadly) but nonetheless it will be full to the rafters with excited and excitable independent authors like me.

You see, self-publishing is both an exhilarating and a lonely process – you know that you want your book ‘out there’ at all costs and without the support or interest from an agent or publisher, you have little choice but to attend every available workshop and seminar that you can find, in order to figure out how to do it alone.

I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and process of self-publishing my first book and am proud to have accomplished getting ‘I Forgot To Take My Pill!’ to print and available to buy on the great Amazon.

The downside has been, I have found, that there is little support for a self-published author thereafter. I also have a completed novel that I find I cannot enter into competitions for ‘unrepresented authors’ as to be self-published is to be considered published, one way or the other.

It’s as though I am done now and don’t require any further assistance but really, I so do!

This is an argument that I will continue to have until it changes because indie authors still need to be afforded the same opportunities as an unpublished one. We are, in reality, similarly unknown to the professional literary world and are in dire need of the same introductions!

But here I am, off on a tangent.

What Writing Cap and the Carousel/Aware team have set out to do is to create the very first competition of this kind which allows self-published independent authors access to a platform to showcase their talent and work to professional booksellers and distributors.

And not only that, but the bulk of the monies raised via competition entries goes directly to Aware, the charitable organisation that helps those suffering with depression.

As if all of THAT wasn’t brilliant enough, I am also happy to report that they then selected ‘I Forgot To Take My Pill!’ for the shortlist in the Non-fiction category.

I LOVE THESE PEOPLE!!

We will see what happens on October 25th but in the meantime..

1. Don’t Forget To Take Your Pill
2. Don’t Forget To Buy The Book