Hello MarchRose,

Well, I wouldn't say Beaudry's Ghost is the most awarded, but I believe it was among the first ebooks to be awarded the Independent Publishers of America award for best romance. :)

To be honest, I don't think awards have a whole lot of influence over whether a reader will buy a book. Word of mouth will go further in selling a book than an award graphic on a cover or web site.

Like a review, an award is based on one person's (or a few persons) opinion. However, it's a good publicity tool which may get a reader, an agent or an editor to give the author's next book or manuscript a closer look. Or cause a journalist to take the author's requrest for an interview more seriously! :)

An award can inspire an author to keep going in their career. Or, as in my case, cause her to freeze because she is afraid her next book won't be "as good" as that award-winner. For example, I for one have to wonder why Harper Lee never wrote another book after her Pulitzer Prize winning "To Kill A Mockingbird." Did she believe that anything she wrote after that would always be compared unfavorably to that masterwork, so why try?

I don't know her reasons, but I can guess based on the taste of success I had with Beaudry. It took me longer than necessary to write the sequel to Beaudry's Ghost for precisely that reason - I froze. Finally I realized it didn't matter if other people thought the next book was as good. What mattered was getting it out there for the readers who were waiting for it.

I hope that answers your question without rambling too much! :)

Carolan