The Fourth Annual 2020 Book Blogger Awards: Rules and Categories!

The awards are back again!!

I’m so excited to be hosting the Book Blogger Awards again this year, and I can’t wait to see all the blogger love and appreciation start pouring in! But before we dive into the specifics, I have a few short announcements:

First of all, as I mentioned earlier: this year, I have a co-host, who is none other than my absolutely lovely friend Marie @ Drizzle and Hurricane Books! I was so honored that she said yes to my offer, because she’s someone I look up to so much, and also a blogger who has the same passion as I do for supporting other bloggers.

Second of all, we’re implementing some new changes/limitations in order to make this year’s awards better than last year’s! Hopefully, this means more bloggers will get the love. So please pay attention to all the rules to make sure you don’t miss anything!

Finally, this year Kat @ Novels and Waffles was able to make some stunning graphics for us, so all of the logos, promo images, etc. are all by her!! Please go follow her blog, commission her, and give her some love because she deserves it all.

CONTENT SUMMARY

Click for a quick access to each category!

› WHAT ARE THE BOOK BLOGGER AWARDS?
› HOW IT WORKS
» NOMINATIONS
» VOTING
» RESULTS
› RULES
» HOW TO NOMINATE
» VOTING LIMITATIONS
› CATEGORIES
› HALL OF FAME
› GIVEAWAY

Click for BLM resources.

sign petitions
text/call/email people
stream these videos (ad revenue will be donated, don’t skip ads!)
donate to the George Floyd gofundme
donate to the Gianna Floyd (his daughter) gofundme
donate to the Breonna Taylor gofundme
donate to the Ahmaud Arbery gofundme
donate to the Elijah McClain gofundme
donate to these bail funds, research local ones near you too
donate to these organizations
donate to small Black businesses that were destroyed
support Black-owned businesses
buy from indie Black-owned bookstores
protest, if you can be safe/healthy! wear a mask, tips on overall safety
I put together a list of just a few YA books by Black authors to read on Goodreads

WHAT ARE THE AWARDS?

The Book Blogger Awards were first created and hosted by Joce @ Write Through the Night in 2017. When she quit blogging in 2019, I began hosting them, and starting this year, Marie and I are co-hosting!

When we think or talk about the book community online, more often than not, we think about booktubers and bookstagrammers. They are the ones being recognized the most by awards, they are the ones we highlight first when we talk about book influencers.

They might be forgotten, at times, but book bloggers are a massive part of the bookish community online, too and, with these awards, we wanted to celebrate, recognize and uplift the incredible work of book bloggers specifically, working tirelessly to boost books through what some people would think is an “old school” medium, but is still, very very much thriving: a blog.

So, dear book bloggers, writing blog posts until dawn, boosting books you love and authors you adore with your words and all of your heart: these awards are for you.

HOW IT WORKS

Though there are a few changes to how this works/rules/categories, most of it is pretty much what Joce put in place before us, both because her process worked so well and to honor her!

ROUND 1: NOMINATIONS

When: June 28 (today) – July 26 @ 11:59 PM CDT
What: During these four weeks, you can nominate bloggers for each award category.
How: Write a post with your nominations—include a link back to this post or Marie’s post and comment the link to your post to make sure that we won’t miss it! OR submit your nominations through THIS GOOGLE FORM. It is strongly encouraged that you write a nominations post, in order to better promote and support bloggers, but it’s okay to use the form instead!
Check the Voting Round Limitations for more details.

THE TOP 4 BLOGGERS OF EACH AWARD CATEGORY (those with the most nominations for that category) WILL THEN MOVE ON TO:

ROUND 2: VOTING

When: August 2 – August 16 @ 11:59 PM CDT
What: During this week, you can vote for one of the top bloggers of each category.
How: On August 2, at 7 AM CDT, Marie and I will publish a blog post that only has a Google form embedded in it, plus a link to it, and you can vote for your top choices through this form.

THE WINNER OF EACH AWARD CATEGORY (blogger with the most nominations for that category) WILL BE ANNOUNCED IN:

RESULTS

When: during the week of August 30th
What: A blog post announcing and dedicated to the winners, with the amazing things you all have said about them!!

RULES

(Most of these are directly from Joce’s 2018 post.)

NOMINATIONS

Pay special attention to the ones marked with an asterisk (*).

All nominees MUST BE BOOK BLOGGERS.
You do not have to be a book blogger to nominate/vote for others.
*You can nominate up to three (3) bloggers for each category.
*You can nominate the same blogger up to three (3) times.
*1/3 of your nominations MUST be small bloggers (bloggers with 500 or less followers at the time of your nomination).
You do not have to nominate a blogger for every category.
Nominated blogs must have been active during at least the last four months.
Make sure that the blogger(s) you nominate for each category actually fit that category.
Please try to nominate as many different bloggers as you can, instead of nominating the same ones over and over again! (Note: If a blogger won an award previously, nominating them for the same award means that they will be put in the Hall of Fame—they cannot win it again.)
In your nominations, include the blogger’s name, their blog’s name, and a link to their blog. (Preferred format: May @ Forever and Everly.) It isn’t required, but it would be so lovely if you wrote a description for each blogger on why you chose to nominate them for that category!
To reiterate, you can nominate people by writing a post or through the google form. Tag your nomination posts with #2020BookBloggerAwards, and comment the link to your post.

VOTING ROUND LIMITATIONS

You must vote in at least half of the categories—12 out of 24—or none of your votes will count.
A blogger will not appear in more than 2 categories in the voting round.
A blogger can only win 1 award category.

AWARD CATEGORIES

Though most are pretty self-explanatory, please don’t hesitate to ask any questions about what these categories entail! Specific qualifications/descriptions are included in parentheses.

BEST OF THEIR AGE

Best Pre-Teen/Teen Book Blogger (13-19)
Best Adult Book Blogger (20+)

BEST GENRE BLOGGERS

Young Adult
Middle Grade or Younger
New Adult / General Adult
Romance
Science Fiction / Fantasy
Literary Fiction / Classics / Poetry
Mystery / Thriller

BEST OF BOOK BLOGGING

Best Book Reviews
Best Book Recommendations
Best Discussion Posts
Best Blog Aesthetic
Best Blogging/Writing Voice

MISCELLANEOUS

Most Helpful (someone who posts thoughtful blogging guides/advice)
Most Supportive (someone who always shares others’ posts in wrap-ups/has kind comments/boosts other bloggers with initiatives, etc.)
Most Engaged in the Community
Most Creative (creative/original posts)
Best Social Media Influencer
Best Personality
Friendliest Member of the Community
Best at Promoting Diverse Books

MOST IMPORTANTLY

Best New Book Blogger (started blog after August 2019)
Best Overall Book Blogger [two winners!]
*We took out Best Small Book Blogger this year, because we wanted to make sure that people aren’t voting for small bloggers ONLY in this category and instead throughout the categories as a whole, but if the result is unsatisfactory, we will reevaluate for next year!

HALL OF FAME

This isn’t a category you can nominate someone for, but it’s something new we want to try, courtesy of the lovely person who suggested this in last year’s feedback form! (If this was you, please let us know so we can properly credit you!)
The Hall of Fame is reserved for bloggers who receive enough nominations to move on to the voting round for an award they previously won. We really want to showcase a variety of bloggers, instead of having the same bloggers win the same awards every year—but this way, we still get to recognize them!
Ex: Marie won Best Overall Book Blogger last year. Say she gets enough nominations to move into the voting round for the same category this year. Instead of going to the voting round, she’ll be replaced with the blogger with the next highest amount of nominations and be included in the results as a “Hall of Famer” for Best Overall Book Blogger.

GIVEAWAY

SURPRISE! Marie is the kindest person in the history of the universe, and because of her, we’ll be hosting a giveaway this year!!

This giveaway is meant to be an incentive for participating in these awards and therefore helping boost book bloggers. You’ll receive entries for the giveaway by promoting not only the awards but also the bloggers involved! You can win THE BOOK OF YOUR CHOICE!

This giveaway is opened INTERNATIONALLY (as long as Book Depository ships to you).
You must be 18 years old, or have your parents’ consent to give out your mailing address. Your mailing address will only be used for the purposes of this giveaway and will not be kept.
This giveaway is open from June 28th, 2020 to August 16th, 2020, 11:59 p.m CDT. The giveaway winner will be notified by email and via social media. If the winner doesn’t answer within 48h, another winner will be picked out.

Click the image below, or enter here!

are you excited? will you be participating in this year’s awards? if you want to help spread the word, use our custom url bit.ly/BBA20!

if you have any questions or concerns, please voice them! there probably isn’t much we can do this year to change any issues you may have, but please know that Marie and I had lengthy discussions on how to make this year’s awards as inclusive as possible. and some things we try this year may not work out the way we want and we will reevaluate!