This page will be updated as needed, if you have a question that is not answered here feel free to Contact Us.
- 2019 – Nominations – Semi-Finals – Finals
- 2020 – Nominations – Finals
- 2021 – Nominations – Finals
- 2022 – Nominations – Finals
Rules
Nomination Rules: (Last Updated: 1.07.21)
- Do not nominate your own book, or a book you have not read.
- All nominations must be:
– Indie (self) published during the previous year.
– A Novella or Novel. (60+ Amazon listed page count.)
– Fantasy
– NO main-plot ROMANCE. (If the plot doesn’t work without the romance, then it is main-plot romance. If it’s in romance categories on Amazon. If the blrub discusses the romance as a major aspect of the book, etc.)
– Published in English.
– Submitted in the following format: Title by Author. Any other format will be disqualified.
– 5 Reviews on Amazon, with a rating of at least 4.0. - The top 10 books will advance to the Finals.
- Each author will only be allowed ONE book to advance to the next round.
- To advance a book MUST have a minimum of 5 nominations.
- A person can only nominate:
– a book once.
– 3 books total.
– Note: emails ending in .gov, .edu, .org & businesses are invalid. - By nominating you are subscribing to the Caffeinated Fantasy Newsletter.
- Nominations will be validated after they have closed, and books that do not meet the above qualifications will be removed.
- During the nomination round, making it to the current standings chart doesn’t verify that the book has met all qualifications.
Finalist Rules
- Do not vote your own book, or a book you have not read.
- A person can only vote for one book.
- Note: emails ending in .gov, .edu, .org & businesses are invalid.
- By voting you are subscribing to the Caffeinated Fantasy Newsletter.
We reserve the right to disqualify any participate for any reason we see fit.
If you are caught breaking the rules the author / book / email will be permanently banned from participating in the awards.
Duplicate votes will result in the voiding of all vote for that person.
What qualifies as Indie / Self Published?
Indie / Self published books are books that are published by a person. The person may have a company name that is their personal publishing house.
For all intent & purposes, the author is also the publishing company. The book is in no way connected to a traditional publishing house.
Coop publishing houses where the authors are doing all the work do qualify. Vanity Presses where the author hands over the manuscript and lets the press do the leg work do not qualify.
This will be judged on case by case bases, and we reserve the right to accept or deny houses as we see fit.
By published, we mean the book is available for sale at a retailer such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Kobo, etc.
My nomination isn’t listed.
If you find that your nomination isn’t listed, various things could be wrong.
- It was not published in the correct year.
- It is not indie or it is not fantasy.
- It is main-plot romance. (If the plot doesn’t work without the romance, then it is main-plot romance. If it’s in romance categories on Amazon. If the blrub discusses the romance as a major aspect of the book, etc.)
- Your nomination didn’t list a Book Title & Author. Both must be listed for the nomination to be valid, just listing the author name, or series title doesn’t count. It must be spelled correctly.
- The author (or email) has been banned from the awards or our site.
We hold rights to void any nomination that does not fit with our definition of Fantasy & would not fit with what our audience reads. Our choices are not made for personal taste, but to make sure that the author is going to get the most out of being in front of our readers.
Fantasy: “Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction set in a fictional universe, often inspired by real world myth and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became literature and drama.”
Do my votes carry over?
After each round the votes are counted then cleared. Every book will start with a clean slate at the beginning of each round of voting.
How are ties settled?
With using Google Forms, every entry is time stamped, in the even that multiple books only have the same number of votes we will defer to the time stamp of the nomination/vote and order them as such.
There will be no tie breaking round, as the time stamp will be used to break any tie.
I am an author and I see a mistake for my book.
Please contact us and let us know what the mistake is, title the email MISTAKE – *insert Round number* In the body, let us know the specific mistake.
Such as:
- Spelling
- Links
- Sub-Genre placement
- Needs to be removed because it is traditional or romance
Author Accolades
Blurb, website, etc. wording:
- Nomination Round:
- “Nominated for 2020 Indie Fantasy Book of the Year – Caffeinated Fantasy Awards”
- Semi-Finals:
- “Semi-Finalist for *genre* 2019 Indie Fantasy Book of the Year – Caffeinated Fantasy Awards”
- Finals:
- “Finalist for 2020 Indie Fantasy Book of the Year – Caffeinated Fantasy Awards”
- Winner:
- “2020 Indie Fantasy Book of the Year – Caffeinated Fantasy Awards”
All authors that make it to the finals will receive a Spotlight Interview post on the website. If you haven’t heard from us, we are probably trying to get in touch with you so please reach out!
Leave a Reply