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Devotional book awards
Recognition for books read a page at a time rather than cover to cover. Daily readings, reflections, meditations, and prayers. Every book is read in full and measured against our published Standard of Excellence.
What this category recognizes
A devotional is built to be returned to. Daily readings, weekly reflections, seasonal collections, prayer books, and any work structured so a reader takes a small piece at a time and comes back tomorrow. The demand it makes is unusual: every entry has to work on its own, and the whole has to hold together across a year of them. It is open to every tradition, and to reflective collections outside any tradition. Books that teach belong in Faith and Religion; books read through in one arc belong in Spirituality or Inspirational.
What the standard looks like in devotional
The ten pillars apply to every category. This is how each one is read when the book is a devotional.
The Writing
Voice, Tone and Style
Whether the voice is one a reader would want to sit with every morning for a year.
Craft and Technical Execution
Compression. Whether each entry does its work in the space it has, without padding or abruptness.
Structure and Organization
Whether the collection has an arc, and whether each entry stands alone while contributing to it.
The Substance
Originality and Concept Strength
Whether the organising idea gives the collection a reason to exist beyond covering the calendar.
Depth of Content and Insight
Whether the entries go somewhere, or restate the same encouragement in different words.
The Reader
Audience Impact and Purpose Fulfillment
Whether the book sustains a reader across the period it covers.
Emotional and Psychological Impact
Whether individual entries land, and whether the accumulation builds something.
Overall Impact and Distinction
Whether a reader would begin it again the following year.
The Finished Book
Production Quality and Presentation
Typesetting and design built for daily use: navigable dating, comfortable page length, and durability.
Category Relevance
Whether the book is genuinely structured for reading in pieces rather than presented that way.
Spirituality, Faith and Religion, Devotional, Inspirational, or Faith-Based Fiction?
Spirituality
Inner life and meaning, not bound to one tradition.
Tell: the subject is the interior, and no doctrine is assumed.
Faith and Religion
Theology, doctrine, practice, and religious history.
Tell: it teaches, and it assumes or explains a tradition.
Devotional
Read in pieces rather than through. Daily readings, reflections, prayers.
Tell: nobody reads it cover to cover in one sitting.
Inspirational
Encouragement and hope, for any reader.
Tell: the reader finishes steadier, not taught.
Faith-Based Fiction
A story shaped by faith or belief.
Tell: the author made it up.
Questions about entering a devotional
Does my devotional have to cover a full year?
No. Thirty-day, seasonal, and topical collections are assessed on the same ten pillars.
Can a devotional be secular?
Yes. Reflective collections outside any tradition are welcome and are assessed on the same standard.
Does it need to include scripture?
No. Whether scripture is used is a choice about the book, not a requirement of the category.
Related categories
Submit your devotional
Entry is $79 for your first category. Your complete manuscript is read in full and measured against the ten pillars.