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The Chanticleer Cover Design Awards (The CCDAs) for Fiction recognizes artistic excellence across genre in great cover design. The CCDAs are a new Award Division of Chanticleer International Book Awards and Novel Competitions (The CIBAs).

Our design is inspired by books designed by the incomparable Coraline Bickford-Smith. Her simple, beautiful, and evocative designs do so much to make the book work as a visual ambassador, capturing the essence of story and compelling potential readers to pick it up, click on it, or share it with others. A well-designed cover signals professionalism, sets expectations for your genre, and serves as a powerful marketing tool to stand out in both digital and physical spaces.

Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring clear genres, audience, time periods, typography, and longevity across genres of Historical Fiction, Romance, Literary, Satire, Speculative Fiction, and Youth Reads.

These titles have moved forward in the first look rounds from all 2025 CCDA Fiction entries to the 2025 CCDA Fiction LONG LIST. These entries are now in competition for the 2025 CCDA Fiction Short List. The Short Listers will compete for the Semi-Finalists positions. FINALISTS will be chosen from the Semi-Finalists and recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference, CAC26.

We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony on Saturday, April 18th, 2026 in beautiful Bellingham, WA sponsored by the 2026 Chanticleer Authors Conference. 

These titles are in the running for the SHORT LIST of the 2025 Chanticleer Cover Design Awards novel competition for Fiction Books!

Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works:

  • AJ Humphreys – Trip a Psychological Horror Novel
  • Andrew D.H. Moore – Children of Solo
  • Anne Polli – Mason the Magnificent
  • McKinley Aspen – Cogitatio Shadows in the Wind Book Two
  • Catherine M Mathis – Ines the Queens of Portugal Trilogy
  • Charlie Robinson Cover by Ruth Noble – Bow Tie Sex
  • Christine Knapp – Murder on the Green
  • Debbie Black – Deetjen’s Closet a Quest for Magic
  • Deborah Swenson – Till My Last Day Book Two in the Desert Hills Trilogy
  • Ellis K. Popa – Dawn To Dusk
  • Erika Lynn Adams – Allie’s Adventure on the Wonder
  • Gary Gabel – The Constitution Kids
  • George Petersen – The Summer of Haight
  • Glen Dahlgren – The Wrath of Order
  • Gregg Brandalise – The Death of Us All
  • J. Shep – The December Issue
  • JL Spears – Daemon Protocol
  • Julie Lomax – A Pawn’s Game
  • KD Straus – To Be True
  • Leslie Liautaud- Butterfly Pinned
  • Margaret Porter – Sequins and Starlight
  • Maria Giuseppa – R&R a Feast of Words
  • Mark A. Gibson – Roses in December
  • Michael Bailey – Sweet Hunger
  • Michele Sayre – Darke Realms One Tough Temporary She Alpha Arcana 2
  • Miki Taylor – Bentley Makes a Dump Cake
  • Once Upon a Dance – A Tail of Twirls
  • Richard G Nixon – The Legend of Fingerless Will Nixon the Scottish Borderlands 1508-1509
  • Sarah V Barnes – She Who Rides Horses a Saga of the Ancient Steppe Book One
  • Sarah V. Barnes – A Clan Chief’s Daughter
  • Sean Hagerty – Cabal
  • Sue C. Dugan – Cat-Atonic
  • Sue C. Dugan – Forever Ever Always
  • Susan Rogers – Warrior Pose
  • Sydney Roubian – Scarecrow Finds a Heart
  • Tamar Anolic – The Keepers
  • Theresa Janson – Reservations a Samantha Wright Crime Series
  • T.O. Paine – The Crisis
  • Travis Davis – War on the Porch

PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS! 

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We will also be promoting this list in our Newsletter, which you can sign up for here!

Congratulations to our very first Fiction Cover Design Grand Prize Winner!

Luna, Rhone & Stone Book Two

By Strider S.R. Klusman

Click here to see the rest of the 2024 Winners.

We are now accepting submissions into the 2026 Chanticleer Cover Design Awards for Fiction.

Please click here for more information.

Winners will be announced at the 2025 CIBA Awards Ceremony that is sponsored by the 2026 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

April 17 – 19, 2026! Save the Date for Registration!

Seating is Limited. The esteemed WRITER Magazine (founded in 1887)  has repeatedly recognized the Chanticleer Authors Conference as one of the best conferences to attend and participate in for North America.

Join us for our annual conference as we enter our second decade and discover why!