Welcome to the 2025 Golden Crown Literary Awards

Please be sure to read the 2025 Awards Changes before submitting a nomination.

IMPORTANT- Nominators, be aware that due to changes in the Special Categories (Ann Bannon, Debut, & Tee Corinne) process last year, all nominations must be made at the same time. Nominators are no longer able to nominate a book only for a Special Category. All Special Category Nomination must be made on the same application as the Genre Nomination. This means that nominators will need to coordinate with Author/Publisher on who will make the nomination, which categories it will be nominated in, and how it is paid for.

For example, if you are an author whose publisher nominates their book, but only in the Genre Category and you would like it nominated in a Special Category, you will need to talk to your publisher about adding the Special Category nominations to that application.

1. NOMINATIONS

To nominate a book or audiobook, select Nominate a Book from the main menu or the link at the bottom of this section. If you have not created an account, you will be directed to do so first. If you have already created an account, simply log in on the left side of this page with your email and password.

BEFORE SUBMITTING A NOMINATION - Please READ the AWARDS GUIDELINES and the 2025 AWARDS CHANGES to understand what qualifies a book for a nomination, and for how many categories you can submit a nomination for that book.

In order for a book to be eligible for nomination in one of the 17 judged categories of the GCLS Awards, it must satisfy Eligibility Rules including content about women or sapphically aligned nonbinary people who are romantically and/or sexually attracted to women or sapphically aligned nonbinary people, first edition, publication date, etc. In certain categories, there is a minimum word count requirement. The Awards Categories page defines each category and lists guidelines for judging and eligibility criteria by category.

The nomination deadlines are as follows:

a) Judged categories - Genre categories, Audiobook Narrator, Ann Bannon):

b) Tee Corinne awards:

2025 Fees are as follows:

When submitting nominations, you will be required to provide your own contact information in addition to the following:

Title of the book/audiobook (as it appears on the cover)
Author's/Narrator's full name (as it appears on the cover)
Publication/Release date (mm/dd/yyyy or mm/yyyy)
Wordcount (for specified categories)
Author's/Narrator's email address
Author's/Narrator's mailing address
Name of Publisher
Publisher's email address
Publisher's mailing address
If submitting eBooks, you'll need 2 versions - .epub, .pdf. (These must be DRM-free so that all judges in a category can access them. We suggest watermarking the eBooks with "Review Copy" or something similar.) - Books are not required for Debut Novel, Ann Bannon, and Tee Corinne.
If submitting an audiobook, if the audiobook being nominated is available in the US marketplace of Audible, please indicate that on the nomination form and no file is required. If it is not available on Audible, you will need to upload a DRM free .mp3/ .mp4 file of the full audiobook.
A high-resolution .jpg/.jpeg file of the cover image.
For Tee Corinne - Cover Artist's full name (as it appears in the book)
For Tee Corinne - Cover Artist's email address
For Tee Corinne - A high-resolution .jpg/.jpeg file of the full cover image (including front, back, and spine).

*We are committed to protecting your personal information and your right to privacy. GCLS will not sell or distribute your information.

Please take the time to read through the following sections before nominating a book:

CLICK HERE TO NOMINATE A BOOK

2. JUDGES

Click "My Account" then "My Judging Assignments" and navigate to the bottom of the page to view and access your reading queue.

The page contains all the training and reference materials, including:

Judging Process: being a judge, evaluation instruments and evaluation criteria
How to use the online awards management system
Category Descriptions and Judging Guidelines
Sample Completed Evaluation Form
PDF of all evaluation forms
A Glossary of Definitions and Explanations

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact the Awards Administrators at awards@goldencrown.org.