Crystal Lake author named semifinalist in Soon to Be Famous author contest
Crystal Lake resident Araseli Rodriguez, a talented yet not well-known writer, just moved closer to well-earned recognition and fame, and Illinois readers have just been introduced to her wonderful new children's book. And it's because of the growing partnership between writers and librarians.
Rodriguez, a patron of the Crystal Lake Public Library, has been named as a semi-finalist in the eighth annual Soon to Be Famous Illinois Author Project Indie Book Competition for her book, "Proudly Bilingual/Orgullosamente Bilingüe."
Why is this book different from most other books on library shelves? It did not come out of a major publishing house, nor has it been featured (yet) in publishing journals, but because it was entered in the STBF contest, it was read and evaluated by multiple volunteer Illinois librarian judges, trusted professionals who know what appeals to their reader patrons.
For a variety of reasons, thousands of high-quality books fly under the radar of the major publishing houses each year. Eight years ago, a group of Illinois librarians took up the challenge to find these hidden gems, and demonstrate the power of libraries to create "buzz" around them - to make their authors famous - and the Soon to Be Famous Illinois Author Project was born. Previous STBF winners have enjoyed higher book sales, increased visibility on library platforms, and at least one publishing contract. This year we expanded the contest to include a category for Spanish language works. We're thrilled to announce Ms. Rodriguez's children's book as one of the inaugural group of semi-finalists.
This outstanding work, along with five other Spanish language novels, five works of English young adult fiction, and eleven English adult fiction books were chosen as semi-finalists in this year's competition. Winners in each category will receive a cash prize, opportunities to promote their books at libraries and author fairs throughout Illinois, and the chance to compete with winners from other state competitions to be named Indie Author of the Year. They may also choose to have their book made available on online library platforms with the opportunity of earning royalties based on the number of times it is downloaded.
The judges are now back at work re-reading and further examining the semi-finalist novels, and will narrow the field to three finalists next month, and after one more round of judging the winner will be announced in October.
For more information on the Soon to Be Famous Illinois Author Project and its competitions, please visit soontobefamous.info.
The Soon to Be Famous Illinois Author Project is the brainchild of a group of Illinois librarians who were inspired by a talk given by NYU professor, brand expert and library advocate David Vinjamuri at the American Library Association 2013 conference. Vinjamuri challenged librarians to demonstrate their power and influence by taking an unknown author and "making them famous."
They accepted the challenge and created the Soon to Be Famous Illinois Author Project. With the enthusiastic support of librarians throughout Illinois, hundreds of self-published books by Illinois authors have been read and evaluated by librarians, and dozens of compelling stories have been recognized for their excellence and enjoyed increased sales and readership. The manuscript contest was added in 2019. In 2016, STBF began a partnership with BiblioLabs greatly increasing the discoverability of many of our winning books by including them in the online platform BibiloBoard.
The STBF model inspired other states to establish similar contests; today indie author contests are held in 14 states and one Canadian province. Winners of these regional competitions then vie for Indie Author of the Year.
The latest exciting news is the launch of De la Página a la Fama, the STBF Illinois Author Project Spanish-language contest through which libraries are helping to connect local authors writing in Spanish with readers. For more information on all the contests and to enter, please visit soontobefamous.info.