About the 2012 Awards Nomination Process

Hi everyone,

Was a very long day yesterday, but the books for 2012 awards have been reviewed, scored, ranked and evaluated. The nominees will be announced on Veterans Radio Network Saturday, July 28 beginning at 9 em est. Dwight Zimmerman will host the show and MWSA VP Mike Mullins will appear in the third segment to read the nominees. (Neither Mike nor Dwight will see the announcement until minutes before the show. <twinkle.>)

We are doing something different this year. In the past, the selections for our special awards, Founder's Award, President's Award...and now our Author of the Year recognition has been kept a big secret until the announcement at the conference. Our Founder Bill McDonald suggested that we post the final three books/authors under consideration for the Founder's Award so that the people being considered will be aware of it ahead of time. We have followed suit with the President's Award and the Author of the Year.

The winners will not be announced until the Awards Ceremony at the Banquet at the Conference on September 29. If you have a book in the running, this should give you plenty of time to get hotel reservations and sign up for the event. It is always a lot of fun...and like a horserace, it's even more fun when you have a horse in the race. :) I'll be providing even more information about the banquet after the nomination process is over.

Now how this usually works, is that Twitter and Facebook light up like a firecracker as the nominees are read on the radio. You can literally feel the excitement as your friends start congratulating you. As soon as the show is over, I will start the official tweets of the nominees...so if you are online at that moment, please retweet them and share them to your followers on Facebook so that we give our nominated authors as big a publicity moment as we can. I'll post the entire list on the website...and link it here as soon as the show is over.

Then, I'll be sending out the individual notifications...which will take me a couple of hours ...so if you are a nominee, please be checking your email. It will include not only your official notification, but a list of tips put together by Sandy Lawrence of Perceptive Marketing to maximize your recognition to your audiences. I'll also give you some specific information about the conference and your role in it if you can come.

While I am doing this, Sandy will be putting finishing touches on our national media release and sending it out. By Sunday morning, you should start seeing it on the internet..and you MAY have newspapers and radio shows calling YOU...however, that totally depends on your local media. You can send out media releases of your own though...and we recommend it.

Then, the next day....we'll publish the long silent Dispatches with the nominee list...and the detailed schedule for the conference. Not long after that, the pdf version of the conference program with the nominees and schedule will be out...please help us spread the word of our author's nominations far and wide. Thanks ahead of time, folks. :)

Good luck, everyone.

J