Unity by Helsinki resident Anttimatti Pennanen has been named by the Independent Book Publishing Professionals Group as one of the best indie books of 2023.

Pennanen’s book is the winner of the science fiction category in the 2023 Next Generation Indie Book Awards, the world’s largest book awards program for independent publishers and selfpublished authors. The winners and finalists will be honored June 23 at a gala event at the Newberry Library in Chicago, IL, coinciding with the American Library Association Annual Conference.

Organizers of this year’s gala hope to livestream the awards presentation on Facebook, commencing at approximately 5:00 pm Central Time at https://www.facebook.com/NextGenerationIndieBookAwards . Videos of the 2021 and

2022 events have been viewed more than 100,000 times.

2023 is the 16th year of the largest international book awards program. This year’s Platinum Sponsor is FabJob, a leading publisher of dream career guides with over half a million satisfied customers over 6 continents. IAP Career College, which offers online certificate courses in more than 100 career fields including book editing and book publishing, returns as a Gold Sponsor of this year’s awards.

The Next Generation Indie Book Awards are judged by leaders of the indie book publishing industry, including many with long careers at major publishing houses. Their love of a great read and experience in the publishing arena identify books deserving a wider audience.

In an article at CNN.com titled If it’s cool, creative, and different, it’s indie, journalist Catherine Andrews wrote: “The term ‘indie’ traditionally refers to independent art music, film, literature or anything that fits under the broad banner of culture created outside of the mainstream and without corporate financing.” That definition remains true for book publishing.

Independent book publishing companies are independent of the major conglomerates dominating the book publishing industry. Indies include small presses, larger independent publishers, university presses, e-book publishers, and self-published authors.

According to Catherine Goulet, Founder and Co-Chair of the Next Generation Indie Book Awards, “Like other independent artists, many indie book publishers face challenges that the industry giants don't experience. The indies have to work much harder to get their best books into readers’ hands.”

“Authors and publishers who compete in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards are serious about promoting their books,” adds Goulet. “They aim to stand out from the crowd of millions of books in print.” According to recent statistics collected by Zippia.com, the U.S. book industry made $29.33 billion in revenue in 2021. Over 4 million new books were published in 2022 alone, with 2.1 million of those being self published. Romance is the most popular genre of books sold in the U.S., achieving over 32 million print copies sold in 2022.

To help indie authors and publishers reach a wider audience, the top 80+ books in the 2023 Next Generation Indie Book Awards will be reviewed by New York literary agent Marilyn Allen of Allen Literary Agency (formerly the Allen O'Shea Literary Agency), or one of Ms. Allen’s co-agents, for possible representation in areas such as: distribution, foreign rights, film rights, and other rights.

Other prize-winning books in the 2023 Next Generation Indie Book Awards include:

Top Non-Fiction Books First Place Winner ($1,500 Prize) Out Killing Indians, by Rick Steber (Bonanza Publishing, LLC)

Second Place Winner ($750 Prize) A Sacred Duty: An FBI Yellowstone Adventure, by Rhona Weaver (Two Oaks Press)

Third Place Winner ($500 Prize) The Tea Drinker's Guide to Adventure, by Andrée Jannette (Andrée Jannette)

Top Non-Fiction Books First Place Winner ($1,500 Prize) The Art of Astonishment: Reflections on Gifts and Grace, by Alice Brittan (Bloomsbury)

Second Place Winner ($750 Prize) The Accidental Reef and Other Ecological Odysseys in the Great Lakes, by Lynne Heasley, Illustrated by Glenn Wolff (Michigan State University Press)

Third Place Winner ($500 Prize) Dear White Woman, Please Come Home: Hand Me Your Bias, and I'll Show You Our Connection, by Kimberlee Yolanda Williams (Elephant Room Press)

Honorable Mention ($250 Prize) The Financial Mindset Fix: A Mental Fitness Program for an Abundant Life, by Joyce Marter (Sounds True)

Other Winners Top books were named as winners and finalists in over 80 publishing categories ranging from Action/Adventure to Young Author.

A complete list of 2023 winners and finalists is available at the Next Generation Indie Book Awards website at indiebookawards.com.

Where to Watch the 2023 Book Awards Event We hope to livestream the awards presentation on Facebook commencing at approximately 5:00 pm Central Time on Friday, June 23. Visit https://www.facebook.com/NextGenerationIndieBookAwards .

About the Literary Agent

Marilyn Allen has over 25 years of sales and marketing experience, including serving as Senior Vice President, Associate Publisher, and Director of Marketing for Harper Collins and directing sales and marketing teams for Simon & Schuster, Penguin Books and Avon Books. Ms. Allen has worked with many best-selling authors including Stephen King, Ken Follett, Barbara Kingsolver, John Gray, Mary Higgins Clark, and many more.

About IBPPG

The aim of the Independent Book Publishing Professionals Group is to promote professional standards in independent book publishing (also known as "indie" book publishing) and provide support and recognition for the independent book publishing profession.

2024 Next Generation Indie Book Awards

Entries are now being accepted for the 2024 Next Generation Indie Book Awards. The awards are open to books released in 2022, 2023, or 2024 from independent authors and publishers worldwide. Visit the Next Generation Indie Book Awards website at https://www.indiebookawards.com for more information.

Next Generation Indie Film Awards

Next Generation Indie Book Awards is proudly affiliated with Next Generation Indie Film Awards – a not-for-profit awards program for film, devoted to supporting filmmakers around the globe by recognizing excellence in filmmaking. To learn more and enter a film in the 2024 awards, visit https://indiefilmawards.co.

Black Table by Helsinki resident Anttimatti Pennanen has been named by the Independent Book Publishing Professionals Group as one of the best indie books of 2022.

Pennanen’s book is a finalist of the Science Fiction category in the 2022 Next Generation Indie Book Awards, the world’s largest book awards program for independent publishers and self-published authors. The winners and finalists will be honored June 24 at a gala event at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC, coinciding with the American Library Association Annual Conference.

Organizers of this year’s gala hope to livestream some or all of the awards ceremony portion of the event on Facebook, commencing at approximately 5:40 pm Eastern Time at https://www.facebook.com/NextGenerationIndieBookAwards . Videos of the 2020 and 2021 events have been viewed more than 100,000 times.

2022 is the 15th year of the largest international book awards program. This year’s Gold Sponsors are MindStir Media, an award-winning self-publishing company that helps people from all walks of life self-publish, distribute, and market their books and IAP Career College, which offers online certificate courses in more than 100 career fields including book editing and book publishing. Outskirts Press, an award-winning independent book publisher which provides services for self-publishing authors, returns as a Silver Sponsor of this year’s awards.

The Next Generation Indie Book Awards are judged by leaders of the indie book publishing industry, including many with long careers at major publishing houses. Their love of a great read and experience in the publishing arena identify books deserving a wider audience.

In an article at CNN.com titled If it’s cool, creative, and different, it’s indie, journalist Catherine Andrews wrote: “The term ‘indie’ traditionally refers to independent art music, film, literature or anything that fits under the broad banner of culture created outside of the mainstream and without corporate financing.” That definition remains true for book publishing.

Independent book publishing companies are independent of the major conglomerates dominating the book publishing industry. Indies include small presses, larger independent publishers, university presses, e-book publishers, and self-published authors.

According to Catherine Goulet, Founder and Co-Chair of the Next Generation Indie Book Awards, “Like other independent artists, many indie book publishers face challenges that the industry giants don't experience. The indies have to work much harder to get their best books into readers’ hands.” “Authors and publishers who compete in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards are serious about promoting their books,” adds Goulet. “They aim to stand out from the crowd of millions of books in print.”

According to the most recent (October 2019) report by Bowker, publisher of the Books in Print database, the number of titles self-published in the United States grew to over 1.6 million in 2018, an increase of 40% over the previous year. “This trend is likely to continue as the quality of many self-published works now rivals that of traditionally published titles,” according to the report.

Worldwide, as of 2022, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) estimates more than 2.7 million books are now being published in a single year.

To help indie authors and publishers reach a wider audience, the top 80+ books in the 2022 Next Generation Indie Book Awards will be reviewed by New York literary agent Marilyn Allen of Allen Literary Agency (formerly the Allen O'Shea Literary Agency), or one of Ms. Allen’s co-agents, for possible representation in areas such as: distribution, foreign rights, film rights, and other rights.

Other prize-winning books in the 2022 Next Generation Indie Book Awards include:

Top Non-Fiction Books

First Place Winner ($1,500 Prize) The Naked Truth About Breast Cancer, by Jane Marshall, Illustrated by Harriet Sheffer (Publish Central)

Second Place Winner ($750 Prize) Textures: The History and Art of Black Hair, edited by Tameka Ellington and Joseph L. Underwood (Hirmer Publishers)

Third Place Winner ($500 Prize) Sneaker Law: All You Need to Know About the Sneaker Business, by Kenneth Anand and Jared Goldstein (Sneaker Law LLC)

Honorable Mention ($250 Prize) Fishes of the Orinoco in the Wild, by Ivan Mikolji (Independent Publisher Network)

Top Fiction Books

First Place Winner ($1,500 Prize) The ForestGirls, with the World Always, by Sissel Waage, Illustrated by Ana-Maria Cosma (Lulu Press)

Second Place Winner ($750 Prize) My Stories Have No Endings, by Gayle Gonsalves (Yellow Bell Publications)

Third Place Winner ($500 Prize) Threads West Series: Books 1-4, by Reid Lance Rosenthal (Sastrugi Press)

Other Winners Top books were named as winners and finalists in over 80 publishing categories ranging from Action/Adventure to Young Author.

A complete list of 2022 winners and finalists is available at the Next Generation Indie Book Awards website at indiebookawards.com.

Where to Watch the 2022 Book Awards Event

We hope to livestream some or all of the awards ceremony portion of the event on Facebook commencing at approximately 5:40 pm Eastern Time on Friday, June 24. Visit https://www.facebook.com/NextGenerationIndieBookAwards .

About the Literary Agent

Marilyn Allen has over 25 years of sales and marketing experience, including serving as Senior Vice President, Associate Publisher, and Director of Marketing for Harper Collins and directing sales and marketing teams for Simon & Schuster, Penguin Books and Avon Books. Ms. Allen has worked with many best-selling authors including Stephen King, Ken Follett, Barbara Kingsolver, John Gray, Mary Higgins Clark, and many more.

About IBPPG

The aim of Independent Book Publishing Professionals Group is to promote professional standards in independent book publishing (also known as "indie" book publishing) and provide support and recognition for the independent book publishing profession.

2023 Next Generation Indie Book Awards

Entries are now being accepted for the 2023 Next Generation Indie Book Awards. The awards are open to books released in 2021, 2022, or 2023 from independent authors and publishers worldwide. Visit the Next Generation Indie Book Awards website at https://www.indiebookawards.com for more information.

Next Generation Indie Film Awards

Next Generation Indie Book Awards is proudly affiliated with Next Generation Indie Film Awards – a not-for-profit awards program for film, devoted to supporting filmmakers around the globe by recognizing excellence in filmmaking. To learn more and enter a film in the 2023 awards, visit https://indiefilmawards.co.

Jon and Gus, science fiction fans from Finland with a penchant for fist bumping and pop culture references, travel to the Portland Comic Con where tragedy strikes. Their hero, Dr Wells, suffers a heart attack. With his dying breath, the doctor exhorts Jon to “find the …” as he pushes a book into Jon’s hands. Following clues inscribed in the book, Jon and Gus discover an alien structure with a mysterious Black Table which they accidently activate, transporting them to an alien world. Jumping from world to world via the Black Table galactic transportation network, Jon and Gus embark on the adventure of a lifetime where they encounter monsters, alien tech, giant vessels made of water and make new friends. But those friends are facing an unstoppable and mindless enemy. An enemy that is destroying the galaxy, and Earth is next in its path. Can two fans from Finland save the day? Black Table is a rollicking yarn of two likeable, wise-cracking friends who like nothing better than pranking each other. That is, except when they are not doing something more serious, like saving the universe. JOIN THE FIGHT, JOIN THE BLACK TABLE NETWORK.

Book review:

Into the world of space operas and galactic empires comes a tongue-in-cheek science fiction book to knock you off your feet!  Two heroes, who rival the friendship of Captain James T Kirk and Spock, accidentally embark on an interstellar adventure.  Grab hold of your seats for this clever and inventive ride into the unknown. Black Table by Anttimatti Pennanen is a must read, 5 star, fantastic science fiction story that readers will not be able to put down!!

Two good-looking dudes from Finland, arrive at Comic Con Oregon dressed in their best ‘Next Generation’ uniforms, oh complete with pointed ears for Gus who appreciates the logic mind of Vulcans.  Fate, destiny or misfortune occurs that day when their beloved Dr. Wells has a heart attack in front of them.  Seconds, before he had pushed a book into their hands and urged them to find something.  Following the Dr.’s clues they find themselves discovering alien technology.  Like Alice falling down the rabbit hole, Gus and Jon find themselves slipping into an alien machine.  Is it a UFO?  Is it a time machine?  They have no idea and blunder their way around what they name the Black Table.  Both Gus and Jon are great characters, quick quips and lots of fist thumping make this a fun read.  Jon is a ‘survival’ guy and equipped to battle anything.  Gus is the techie and searches for the logic and reason in everything.  Together, they combine to make a team who will try not only to save Earth but the galaxy too!  With wonderful alien characters, super world-building, and an awesome sci-fi plot this is a page-turning adventure you won’t want to miss!

I assume Anttimatti Pennanen is a massive sci-fi fan, as the whole script is laced with references to great TV series and films which liven up the story and add that edge of wit which makes this such an entertaining read.  I think all science fiction fans will enjoy this, but especially those who love programs such as Star Trek, the lead roles are both Trekkies after all!  Black Table by Anttimatti Pennanen is a great addition to sci-fi adventures, and comes highly recommended by Artisan Book Reviews. Book reviewed by T N Traynor for Artisan Book Reviews.