New York, U.S.A. - Independent Book Publishing Professionals Group has named the best indie books of 2012. The books are winners of the 2012 Next Generation Indie Book Awards, a non-profit awards program judged by leaders in the indie book publishing industry to identify indie books that deserve to reach a wider audience.

“We like to think of our awards program as the ‘Sundance’ of the book publishing world,” says Catherine Goulet, Chair of the 2012 Next Generation Indie Book Awards program.

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

According to Goulet, “Like other independent artists, many indie book publishers face challenges that the industry giants don’t experience. They typically have to work much harder to get their best books into the hands of readers.”

“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 Bowker, publisher of the Books in Print database, more than three million new titles were published in 2010. Of these, over 2.7 million were “non-traditionally” published books, including print-on-demand and self-published titles. These statistics do not even take into account the number of e-books published.

To help Indie authors and publishers reach a wider audience, the top 60 books in the 2012 Next Generation Indie Book Awards will be reviewed by New York literary agent Marilyn Allen of 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.

Marilyn Allen has worked as an executive and/or directed sales and marketing teams with Harper Collins, 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.

The top prize winning books in the 2012 Next Generation Indie Book Awards are:

Top Non-Fiction Books

First Place Winner ($1,500 Prize)

Inner Visions: Grassroots Stories of Truth and Hope, by Jan Thrope (Orange Frazer Press)

Second Place Winner ($750 Prize)

Put the Needle on the Record: The 1980s at 45 Revolutions Per Minute, by Matthew Chojnacki (Schiffer Publishing)

Third Place Winner ($500 Prize)

Strategy for Good: Business Giving Strategies for the 21st Century, by Susan A. Hyatt, M.S. (GoodWorks Publishing)

Top Fiction Books

First Place Winner ($1,500 Prize)

The Parsifal Pursuit, by Michael McMenamin and Patrick McMenamin (Enigma Books)

Second Place Winner ($750 Prize)

A Little Leg Work, by Royce Leville (Rippple Books)

Third Place Winner ($500 Prize)

Walter’s Muse, by Jean Davies Okimoto (Endicott and Hugh Books)

Other Winners

A prize of $250 was also awarded for Best Design to The Boreal Herbal: Wild Food and Medicine Plants of the North, by Beverley Gray, designer Anna Comfort (Aroma Borealis Press).

In addition to the grand prize winners, top indie books were named as winners and finalists in 60 publishing categories ranging from Action/Adventure to Young Adult. A complete list of 2012 winners and finalists is available at the Next Generation Indie Book Awards website.

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Independently published historical fiction author Jessica James is preparing for a busy Christmas season after receiving the coveted John Esten Cooke Award for Southern Fiction for her Civil War novel Noble Cause. This award is presented annually to encourage writers of fiction to portray characters and events dealing with Southern history and the war between the States in a historically accurate fashion.

Other John Esten Cooke Award winners include New York Times bestselling authors Donald McCaig for Jacob’s Ladder, Robert Macomber for Point of Honor, and Harry Turtledove for The Guns of the South.

John Esten Cooke, for whom the award is named, was one of the most important literary figures of nineteenth-century Virginia. A prolific author of historical adventures and romances in the tradition of SirWalter Scott and James Fenimore Cooper, Cooke’s work holds a significant place in Virginia’s literary history and in nineteenth-century American literary culture.

Released in Charleston, S.C., on the 150th anniversary of the firing on Fort Sumter, Noble Cause has garnered a number of other prestigious national awards, capturing the attention of Civil War authors and historians, as well as avid romance readers. It won the Next Generation Indie Award for Regional Fiction, and was named a Finalist in the Historical Fiction category in the USA ”Best Books of 2011″ Awards.

The Midwest Book Review calls Noble Cause, “riveting historical fiction,” while other reviewers have compared it to Gone with the Wind in scope, grandeur and quality. The fine line between friends and enemies is revealed in this epic love story that captures the emotions and fears of the country as war sweeps the land. Though laced with historical detail, it is less about the clash of armies on the battlefield, as it is about the clash of loyalty and love with honor and conviction.

A Yankee by birth, the author takes readers on a journey south of the Mason-Dixon Line to the rolling hills of Virginia in this historically accurate love story that is capturing national attention for its attention to detail and unique blending of romance with historical fiction. ”It’s very fulfilling to know that even those who are not interested in the Civil War are enjoying the book,” the Gettysburg author said.

James’ first novel, Shades of Gray, also won numerous national awards and temporarily moved ahead of Gone with the Wind on Amazon’s bestseller list in its category. The author was featured in the book 50 Great Writers You Should Be Reading, published in 2010, and has been invited as a featured author to the Amelia Island Book Festival in Florida in February.

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