Merit of Distinction Award

Please review the submission guidelines for the 2026 Merit of Distinction in Literature below. After reviewing the guidelines, you may nominate your book here.

Eligibility:

Books published in 2025 and 2026 are eligible for a 2026 Merit of Distinction in Literature award. Our submission period for 2026 will begin on February 10, 2026. Late registration  begins on May 1, 2026. Registration will end on September 1, 2026. (Note: Books published after September 30, 2026 are eligible for nomination for the 2027 Merit of Distinction in Literature award.)

Submissions must meet the following criteria:

1.)  2026 submissions must be released in 2025 or 2026 and have an eligible ISBN. Entries must be distributed and available to retailers, and/or distributed nationally to online markets. eBooks are now eligible for submission.

2.) Book reviews of your book is no longer a required part of the submission in 2026 eligibility. If the entry has a book review, please include it on the form in the Professional Book Review field. If the entry does not have a book review, please type “N/A.” If you include a book reviews on the appropriate field on the submission form, the book review must be published by an established book reviewer or critic. Author may also provide a review from a qualified peer who has read the book. For nonfiction works or literature, authors may also provide a review from an established journal, magazine, professor, or other academic from a credible institution in place of a standard mainstream book review.

3.) Entry must be a  book, novel, or collection written in the English language by a living resident or citizen of the United States. No more than two entries may be submitted. A publisher or author may nominate a book for this award. A third party may also nominate a book with permission from the author.

4.) Entry must be submitted as a digital file through the online submission form in the following format: PDF. We do not accept in-person or mailed-in copies.

5.) Genres/Categories: We accept submissions in the following categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Children’s Literature.

6.) Entry must have a minimum of 15,000-150,000 words with the number of pages ranging between 40 – 450 pages, excepting poetry chapbooks and children’s books, which have a minimum requirement of 20 pages.

7.) Your submitted entry must be written by a human author. No exceptions. Text that is artificially produced, created, or authored by a non-human author within the body of work is ineligible. Book cover artwork must include a human designer or artist with some leeway for generative AI incorporated into the design (fully AI generated book covers without a human designer or artist involved in its creation are ineligible).

8.) Entry must be published in the United States by an established U.S. book publisher or distributor.

9.) Independently published titles: Independently published titles are accepted but must meet the following additional criteria:

• • • The book must be professionally formatted and edited using publishing industry formatting standards for printed books. The book must be free of grammatical errors and typos.
    • The book must not include song lyrics or pages dedicated to “music that inspired this book.”
    • The book must not include defamatory or libelous commentary about persons living or deceased, or other forms of legally questionable content. The work must not violate trademarks or copyright.
    • All other eligibility requirements outlined in the submission guidelines apply.
    • Self-published or independently published titles must be eligible for inclusion in physical bookstores (Note: book is not required to be in physical bookstores during the nomination period, only eligible).
    • Self-published or independently published titles must have an eligible ISBN from an official ISBN source. ISBNs issued by ineligible sources will automatically disqualify the submission. See the special category award for self-published titles.
    • Books using ISBN generators are ineligible.
    • Free ISBNs obtained through the following self-publishing platforms are eligible to under a special category: Amazon KDP, Lulu, Barnes & Noble Press, PublishDrive, Blurb, AppleBooks, Kobo Writing, Smashwords, Draft2Digital, BookBaby, etc.. (Note: Our stated objective is to endorse winning books that are eligible for placement in brick-and-mortar bookstores. Books distributed by self-publishing platforms with a nonreturnable status like KDP, Lulu, and other platforms are often ineligible for placement in brick-and-mortar bookstores and are often limited to online sales. The industry is often biased and exclude these books from eligibility regardless of literary merit. We have created a special category for books with distribution through self-publishing platforms like KDP, Lulu, Barnes and Noble Press, Draft2Draft, etc.: Merit of Distinction in Literary Arts, which is specifically for independent works. These are titles that have the met the highest quality of writing standards regardless of distribution type but are ineligible for placement in physical bookstore locations.)
    • Books published by “ghostwriting services” that advertise and publish works to the above-mentioned self-publishing platforms are ineligible.
    • Works primarily intended for personal distribution or private circulation (e.g., family histories, memoirs printed solely for family members) are not eligible.

10.) Books written or composed by ghostwriters or AI are ineligible. The purpose of this award is to highlight human authorship and talent.

11.) Books must demonstrate sufficient marketing efforts in 2025 and 2026. Marketing efforts can include media mentions, advertising campaigns, sponsored ads, blog tours, social media presence, sales figures, book signings, and more.

12.) Entry fee is required at the time of submission: $99. May 1, 2026 the late registration fee is $110.