Congratulations on submitting your book!

Here are a few suggestions for what you should be doing in the coming weeks and months:

• Check your book’s library listing. Your first step is to make sure your library listing looks like you expected—that it accurately reflects what you submitted to us.

  • If you see errors or would like to make one or two changes, contact your awards directors and let them know.

  • However, please consider this a one-time good deal. Our awards staff cannot serve as your editors trying to keep up with changes you’d like to make to your original submission to get it “just right.”

• Keep track of your listing. Write down the URL link to your book or add a bookmark to your browser to be able to easily check what’s happening.

  • Visitors to our website may make comments or try to contact you, so notice what’s there and respond if necessary.

  • Keep in mind that those visitors might be potential book-buying customers.

• Check your book’s listing on our social media pages.

• When we add your book to our library, our website’s software also sends your book’s data and cover image to MWSA’s various social media pages: Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, and Blogger.

  • Blogger’s entry is an automatic repeat of what we post to our Goodreads page.

  • All the other social media sites use the information posted on our website.

• Check out our Social Media page to get to the various links and details

• Find your book on each social media page.

• Comment on, retweet, re-post, share, “like” your listing to increase its visibility.

  • Consider adding comments like “I just added my book to the Military Writers Society of America’s review and awards system.”

  • Encourage your friends, family, and fans to do the same!

  • Remember that every action you take online helps increase the visibility of…

    • you, the author

    • your book

    • MWSA.

• Keep track of your book as it progresses through each stage.

  • What are the Stages?

1. Submit your book (you’ve already finished this stage)

2. Awards Directors find 3 reviewers and request your books

3. Send your books/eBooks and confirm that they’ve arrived

4. Reviewers submit Scores and Comments

5. Resolve any scoring issues (like a scoring divergence)

6. MWSA review posted

• How can you monitor our progress?  By visiting our Where’s My Book? page as often as you like.  On that page you can track the various stages of your MWSA review and see details on…

  • how many reviewers have volunteered to read and evaluate your book

  • whether your book has arrived with each reviewer (once they’re identified and you’ve mailed/emailed review copies)

  • how many reviewers have scored your book

  • whether or not we’ve completed a reviewer conference (required for training or for a scoring divergence)

  • whether your review is complete

    • Once it’s complete, your review will be posted on your book page, and you’ll also get an email when this step is complete.

  • Please make sure to check out the “Where’s my Book” page before contacting the Awards Directors requesting a status update. Most of the time, you’ll find the answer on that page.

What happens next?

• Once all books are read, scored, and reviewed—around mid-August—we announce our awards finalists.

  • Being a finalist means you’ve won either a Gold, Silver, or Bronze medal.

  • We normally make this announcement via live video streaming.

  • At this time, we’ll send all participants an email notifying them of their status.