NCIS meets Bluebloods in this riveting Northern Lakes series. Former law enforcement officer-turned-author, Nania creates a fascinating set of characters, strong narrative voice, and captivating dialogue---a well-crafted series from a writer who writes from experience to swift the reader through the story, page over page.
— Next Generation Indie Book Awards Judge

Local Author Honored in 2024 Indie Book Awards 

The Northern Lakes Mystery series by Portage resident Jeff Nania has been named by the Independent Book Publishing Professionals Group as one of the best indie fiction series of 2024.

Nania’s series with the titles Figure Eight, Spider Lake, Bough Cutter, and Musky Run, tied as the winner of the best fiction series category in the 2024 Next Generation Indie Book Awards, the world’s largest book awards program for independent publishers and self-published authors.

This is the second award the series has received. Books 1-3 were named as "finalist" in the 2022 competition. 

Learn more

About the Award

The winners and finalists will be honored June 28th at a gala event at the US Grant Hotel in San Diego, CA, coinciding with the American Library Association Annual Conference. Organizers of this year’s gala hope to livestream the awards presentation on Facebook, commencing at approximately 5:00 pm Pacific Time at https://www.facebook.com/NextGenerationIndieBookAwards. Videos of the 2022 and 2023 events have been viewed more than 100,000 times.

2024 is the 17th year of the largest international book awards program. This year’s Platinum Sponsor is FabJob, a leading publisher of dream career guides with over half a million satisfied customers over 6 continents. IAP Career College, which offers online certificate courses in more than 100 career fields including book editing and book publishing, returns as a Gold Sponsor of this year’s awards.

The Next Generation Indie Book Awards are judged by leaders of the indie book publishing industry, including many with long careers at major publishing houses. Their love of a great read and experience in the publishing arena identify books deserving a wider audience. 

In an article at CNN.com titled If it’s cool, creative, and different, it’s indie, journalist Catherine Andrews wrote: “The term ‘indie’ traditionally refers to independent art – music, film, literature or anything that fits under the broad banner of culture – created outside of the mainstream and without corporate financing.” That definition remains true for book publishing. 

Independent book publishing companies are independent of the major conglomerates dominating the book publishing industry. Indies include small presses, larger independent publishers, university presses, e-book publishers, and self-published authors.

According to Catherine Goulet, Founder and Co-Chair of the Next Generation Indie Book Awards, “Like other independent artists, many indie book publishers face challenges that the industry giants don't experience. The indies have to work much harder to get their best books into readers’ hands.”

“Authors and publishers who compete in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards are serious about promoting their books,” adds Goulet. “They aim to stand out from the crowd of millions of books in print.”

According to recent statistics collected by Zippia.com, the U.S. book industry made $28.1 billion in revenue in 2022. Over 4 million new books were published in 2022 alone, with 2.1 million of those being self-published. Romance is the most popular genre of books sold in the U.S., achieving over 32 million print copies sold in 2022.

To help indie authors and publishers reach a wider audience, the top 80+ books in the 2024 Next Generation Indie Book Awards will be reviewed by New York literary agent Marilyn Allen of Allen Literary Agency (formerly the Allen O'Shea Literary Agency), or one of Ms. Allen’s co-agents, for possible representation in areas such as: distribution, foreign rights, film rights, and other rights.

A complete list of 2024 winners and finalists is available at the Next Generation Indie Book Awards website at indiebookawards.com.

About the Literary Agent

Marilyn Allen has over 25 years of sales and marketing experience, including serving as Senior Vice President, Associate Publisher, and Director of Marketing for Harper Collins and directing sales and marketing teams for Simon & Schuster, Harper Collins and many divisions of the Penguin Random House Publishing Group.  Ms. Allen has worked with many best-selling authors including Stephen King, Ken Follett, Barbara Kingsolver, John Gray, Mary Higgins Clark, and many more.

About IBPPG

The aim of the Independent Book Publishing Professionals Group is to promote professional standards in independent book publishing (also known as "indie" book publishing) and provide support and recognition for the independent book publishing profession.

 

MEDIA CONTACT: Victoria Rydberg-Nania, office@feetwetwriting.com