Winners
Cover Design: Fiction
2024 WINNERS - COVER DESIGN: FICTION
See below for the list of 2024 winners in the COVER DESIGN: FICTION category, for books with a copyright date of 2023
Desert Deadline: A Dante & Jazz Mystery
2024 Gold Winner
Author: Michael Craft
Publisher: Questover Press
ISBN: 9798218137953
Dante and Jazz: him and her … white and Black … gay and straight. They make an unlikely pair of crime solvers. But the race is on to name a killer, save a fortune, and rescue an innocent child.
The Exorcist Case Files
2024 Silver Winner
Author: Benjamin Black
Publisher: Koehler Books
ISBN: 9798888240151
As Victorian London’s only consulting exorcist, Asher Grey is called to perform an exorcism on an asylum patient and learns about the imminent arrival of a dark entity. When Asher’s childhood friend gets involved, he must stop the arrival of the fiend and keep his friend from harm.
Unsettled: A Novel
2024 Silver Winner
Author: Patricia Reis
Publisher: Sibylline Press
ISBN: 9781736795484
As Van Reinhardt clears out her father’s belongings, she comes across a request penned by her father prior to his death. Examining the family portrait of her German immigrant ancestors that he has left her, Van’s curiosity grows about one of the children portrayed there. Meanwhile in the 1870s, Kate is a German immigrant newly arrived in America with only her brother as family. When she and her brother split, she eventually finds her way back to him, but with a secret.
2023 WINNERS - COVER DESIGN: FICTION
See below for the list of 2023 winners in the COVER DESIGN: FICTION category, for books with a copyright date of 2022.
The T Room: A Novel
2023 Gold Winner
Author: Victoria Lilienthal
Publisher: She Writes Press
ISBN: 9781647423834
When her charismatic teacher chooses her as his professional partner, Vera’s massage career is about to ignite. Instead she quickly realizes that what seemed like an exciting opportunity is more like a dance with the devil and his wife. A vibrant send-up of the Marin County massage scene.
The Blue Butterfly: A Novel of Marion Davies
2023 Silver Winner
Author: Leslie Johansen Nack
Publisher: She Writes Press
ISBN: 9781647423476
The true-life story of Marion Davies’ thirty-four-year relationship with William Randolph Hearst including a whirlwind courtship, a movie career spanning two decades and forty-four films, a secret child, and harrowing family excesses, not to mention a secret love affair with Charlie Chaplin.
Lie Still the Dead
2023 Silver Winner
Authors: Matthew Heilman & Ryan Henry
Publisher: Stygian Press
ISBN: 9780978559175
A sinister presence lurks within the woods of Williamsport, Virginia. A mysterious, unpredictable, and cruel creature driven by spite and centuries of madness. Combining elements of modern police procedurals and atmospheric gothic horror, authors Ryan Henry and Matthew Heilman deliver one of the most frightening vampire novels in decades.
2022 WINNERS - COVER DESIGN: FICTION
See below for the list of 2022 winners in the COVER DESIGN: FICTION category, for books with a copyright date of 2021.
Match: A Medical Murder Mystery
2022 Gold Winner
Author: Amy S. Peele
Publisher: She Writes Press
ISBN: 9781647420185
What do politics, living donor kidney transplants, and the current opioid crisis all have in common? Informed by her thirty-five-year career in the organ transplant field, Peele expertly and authentically weaves all of these issues into one fast-paced, nonstop-adventure, fun romp of a buddy story that promises to keep readers turning pages after their bedtime.
The Essence of Nathan Biddle
2022 Silver Winner
Author: J. William Lewis
Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group Press
ISBN: 9781626348462
A sweeping, timeless, coming-of-age tale that fuses elements of literary fiction and Southern Gothic, The Essence of Nathan Biddle follows a young protagonist’s search for meaning.
Those the Future Left Behind: A Novel
2022 Silver Winner
Author: Patrick Meisch
Publisher: SparkPress
ISBN: 9781684630790
The ever-increasing socioeconomic disparity between people on Earth has grown to the point that governments are now implementing a radical program: submit your life for “Collection” at a young age and you’ll gain access to immediate wealth―with some strings attached. Those the Future Left Behind is a work of speculative science fiction that explores what life might be like on an Earth suffering from resource depletion and overpopulation―an Earth plagued by the same problems we continually brush off today on the chance that others will solve them for us tomorrow.
2021 WINNERS - COVER DESIGN: SMALL FORMAT, FICTION
See below for the list of 2021 winners in the COVER DESIGN: SMALL FORMAT, FICTION category, for books with a copyright date of 2020. Click here to watch the Gold and Silver winner speeches.
Life and Other Shortcomings: Stories
2021 Gold Winner
Author: Corie Adjmi (Lindsey Cleworth, cover designer)
Publisher: She Writes Press
ISBN: 9781631527135
Life and Other Shortcomings is a collection of linked short stories. Through each character’s journey, truths are revealed about what it means to be a woman―in a relationship with another person, in a particular culture and era―and how these conditions ultimately affect her relationship with herself.
Lyrics for Rock Stars: Stories
2021 Silver Winner
Author: Heather Mateus Sappenfield (cover design by Jessica Bell Designs)
Publisher: V Press LC
ISBN: 9781733048859
A widow encounters a bear, two bicycling women from different eras share one destiny, a ski instructor loses control, a 14-year-old girl lusts after an older cowboy, a 109-year-old man finally finds wisdom. Lyrics for Rock Stars maps the Rocky Mountain region, while whispering the secrets of its people’s hearts.
Philurius College Blues: A Novel
2021 Silver Winner
Author: Ray Carson Russell
Publisher: Koehler Books (Skyler Kratofil, designer)
ISBN: 9781633939615
Philurius College Blues explores a clash of cultures between an American academic subculture and a US military environment in Germany, and throws in some true love and indiscriminate erotic intrigue to boot.
2020 WINNERS - COVER DESIGN: SMALL FORMAT, FICTION
See below for the list of 2020 winners in the COVER DESIGN: SMALL FORMAT, FICTION category, for books with a copyright date of 2019.
The Breedling & the Shepherdess: The Element Odysseys - Book Three
2020 Gold Winner
Author: Kimberlee Ann Bastian
Publisher: Wise Ink Creative Publishing
ISBN: 9781634892186
Transported to the supernatural world of Euxinus, the Trickster Stingy Jack & his Breedling companion Buck must prepare themselves if they are to outsmart the Devil & save the Shepherdess.
ChoirMaster: A Mister Puss Mystery
2020 Silver Winner
Author: Michael Craft
Publisher: Questover Press
ISBN: 9780578523309
A marriage of convenience … a crisis of faith … a talking cat. What could possibly go wrong? Plenty, in fact, and it was murder.
A Man of Honor, or Horatio's Confessions
2020 Silver Winner
Author: J.A. Nelson
Publisher: Quill Point Press
ISBN: 9781733347501
A commoner’s oath to tell his friend’s true story launches his journey through war, love, and dishonor. How does Horatio create the legend of Hamlet?
About the
Independent Book Publishers Association
Founded to support independent publishers nationwide, the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) leads and serves the independent publishing community through advocacy, education, and tools for success. With over 3,200 members, IBPA is the largest independent publishing association in the U.S. Its vision is a world where every independent publisher has the access, knowledge, and tools needed to professionally engage in all aspects of an inclusive publishing industry.
For more information, visit www.ibpa-online.org.
