A New Partnership Benefiting Indies: Lunar Awards x Reedsy
Exciting news about what's next for the Lunar Awards and the benefits of being a member of this indie writing community
In 2025, after being passed the reins by Lunar Awards’ creator Brian Reindel, I shelved the “First Chapter Award” and community events to focus on the short story contests. To complete the planned six-round season, I selected six writers (D.W. Davison, Shaina Read, Simon K Jones, The Brothers Krynn, Leigh Parrish, and John Coon) to judge each round. I then brought on a community manager, Reina Cruz, to revive the writing events, host discussions, and further cement the Lunar Awards as a great place to share and discuss fiction.
After the success of Season 10 and the opening of my bookstore, I realized that the awards needed more external input to grow beyond my abilities. I sought out passionate ambassadors who celebrate indie genre fiction to join the Lunar Awards’ mission to elevate and reward emerging talent. That wonderful team of Genre Ambassadors is Zachary Roush (Fantasy), Brian Reindel (Science Fiction), and Shaina Read (Horror).
Now, we are in a new year (Season 11) of celebrating the best speculative, indie fiction on Substack, and Round 1 has already concluded. With Round 2 in full swing, I wanted to share some big news about how we plan to continue supporting our growing literary community.
To keep the Lunar Awards free and to improve our prizes, we’ve partnered with one of the biggest advocates for indies out there: Reedsy Learning!
Reedsy Learning is the go-to hub for educational resources tailored to writers. From premium writing courses and weekly masterclasses to conferences with industry leaders, they help writers at every stage develop their craft, understand the publishing process, and achieve their goals.
How will this partnership work, and how will it benefit you?
To start, we will periodically share exclusive discounts on the Monday Masterclasses. Tickets for these classes can be purchased à la carte (roughly $15–$19) or with an all-access annual pass called the Learning Membership ($249). An annual membership also comes with 6 conferences and 12 workshops.
A portion of every purchase made on Reedsy Learning using our affiliate link will support the Lunar Awards. We’ll use any funds generated by this partnership to improve the quality of our prizes, cover costs, and further legitimize the awards.
If that wasn’t enough, Reedsy Marketplace and Reedsy Discovery will also be contributing significant prizes to the winner of our upcoming summer contest set to replace the “First Chapter Award.” Details of that contest will be announced in a separate post soon.
To celebrate the launch of this partnership, Reedsy Learning has provided us with a 25% discount code (WINSTON25) to attend the course, “Creating Fantasy Systems for Your Book and Series” with Lev Grossman (The Magicians, The Bright Sword) on March 30th from 6–7 pm EDT.
In this hour-long Masterclass, we’ll learn:
How to design magic systems that inform character psychology.
When to explain the rules of your world (and when to let mystery do the work).
How to build systems that evolve across a series without collapsing under their own logic.
Common pitfalls in fantasy worldbuilding and how to avoid overengineering your magic.
This will be followed by a live Q&A where you can ask the bestselling author any questions you have about creating worlds that feel alive rather than ornamental, writing a fantasy series, and getting published.
I’m going to be there. I hope you will be, too. Don’t forget to use code WINSTON25 during checkout to get 25% off your ticket price. Thanks for making the Lunar Awards special!
