Wonderful News!

These days, I don't enter as many writing competitions as I once did. The vast majority of these are vanity, pay-to-play scams, in which entering a book is little more than buying gold stickers to put on the covers of unsold books. 

I've never entered the scam awards programs; I only have entered contests in which my books would be judged solely on their merit. That's why I like the Next Generation Indie Book Awards (sometimes referred to as the Sundance Festival for independent books). I've entered the Next Generation six times, with great success: 

• 2020: A Century of Autopoint took a gold medal for Best Overall Design (Non-fiction) and a silver medal in Writing/Publishing.
• 2021: The Leadhead's Pencil Blog Volume 6 won silver in Writing/Publishing
• 2022: The Leadhead's Pencil Blog Volume 7 also won silver in Writing/Publishing
• 2023: A Field Guide to Sheaffer's Pencils won three medals: gold in General Non-fiction, silver in Coffee Table/Photography and silver in the Specialty/Novelty book category.
• 2024: I didn't publish a book that year.
• 2025: Eversharp: Cornerstone of an Industry won two silver medals, one for Best Overall Design (Non-fiction) and one in General Non-Fiction.

And now, for 2026 . . . 

I'm pleased to report that The Leadhead's Pencil Blog Volume 8 has won two silver medals, one for Best Overall Design (Non-fiction) and another in the Specialty/Novelty Book category.

The link to order the book is here.

Six times I've entered my books in the IBA awards, and all six times they have been honored for a total of eleven medals -- two gold and nine silver. 

After each awards reception, authors are invited to have their picture taken with the awards organizers. For the 2025 ceremony, I decided to take all of my prior medals along and wear all of them. Janet snapped this picture while the official photographers were doing their thing:

Janet said I looked like Mark Spitz without the Speedo. Moments later, she took a candid picture as the organizers were amused:

When I registered to attend this year's awards reception in Chicago, there was from what I recall a new question: how many times have you won an award in the IBA awards? Maybe this stunt planted the seed of an idea . . . I don't know how many independent authors have consistently done this well in the Next Generation Awards, but maybe this year I'll find out.

I've sent the IBA an email to ask if I should bring my previous medals along to the awards reception again this year. It would be fun to have eleven pieces of hardware around my neck. 

I promised to leave the Speedo at home.

Volume 8 is here!

I should have posted this earlier- it is always such a whirlwind when a new book comes out.

Volume 8 of this series is now available and was well received at the Baltimore Show, with a third of the press run selling over the course of the weekend. 

The good folks at Total Printing Solutions were fantastic, moving mountains to have things ready for the planned release and doing a spectacular job. These are the same guys who made the Eversharp book for me, and I was so impressed with the quality of their work that I was excited to work with them again.

The link to order the book is here.

As of right now, the only source for the book is yours truly. Normally, I'll simultaneously release a "second printing" edition through IngramSpark, with the idea that their print-on-demand service can reach a wider audience through Amazon and book retailers. I've never liked the product IngramSpark delivers -- there is only one paper option, so it doesn't look as good. In addition, they are slow, expensive, and the way they package books for shipping (especially bulk orders) doesn't protect the corners from getting dinged up. 

And, this time there has been an additional complication: IngramSpark now has a 2-gigabyte maximum for file uploads, and this one tips in at 3 gigabytes and change. My man-behind-the-scenes, David Braughler at Braughler books, tells me that he can't compress the files any more without compromising the quality of the photographs, and he recommended reaching out to my "customer service representative" to explore other file uploading options.

I put that in quotes because their "service" is nothing but chatbots repeatedly telling me how important my question is while failing to answer  it. I will do an IngramSpark edition if they ever get around to answering me, but it's been a month . . . 

I digress. It's for the best, really. The ones TPS made are so much nicer anyway. 

Details about the book are in the last couple posts and on the website - buyers of previous books retain their number in the Order of the Leadheads, and new members are automatically initiated into the Order and will also receive their custom commemorative stickers to place inside the front cover. And then there's the upcoming pen shows: Atlanta, Chicago, Raleigh, DC, Detroit and Ohio are on my calendar for this year. 

Thanks to everyone who has supported this project. This volume, and all my prior books, are proof positive of my conviction that print books, my first love, will never die - the power doesn't need to be on and Google doesn't need to cooperate to enjoy a great story as long as it is immortalized in print. I've always said if any community will keep the art of print alive, it will be those who celebrate putting marks on a piece of paper!