Washington State author Bettye Johnson has received her second Independent Publisher Book Award (IPPY Award) for her latest book, Mary Magdalene, Her Legacy. Johnson's first book, Secrets of the Magdalene Scrolls was an Independent Publisher Book Award Winner 2006. The awards presentation ceremony was held May 30, during the annual BookExpo America convention in Los Angeles. Over 3,175 entries were submitted from 49 U.S. states, 9 Canadian provinces, and 16 foreign countries.
The Independent Publisher Book Awards were created in 1996 as a broad-based, unaffiliated awards program open to all members of the independent publishing industry. The awards are intended to bring increased recognition to the thousands of exemplary independent, university, and self-published titles produced each year, and reward those who exhibit the courage, innovation and creativity to bring about change in the world of publishing.
Bettye Johnson, recognized as an authority on the life and times of Mary Magdalene chose to utilize her extensive research into works of fiction in order to broaden her range of readership and has written in the genre of the Da Vinci Code. From a Writers Digest Commentary on Secrets of the Magdalene Scrolls: "Though it covers some of the same ground as the Da Vinci Code, the writing is infinitely better and far more believable. The heroines in the story are more realistic and the adventures described in a truer voice along with a possible time-line. The author knows how to write and tell a compelling and convincing story."
In addition to Mary Magdalene, Her Legacy and Secrets of the Magdalene Scrolls, Living Free Press has published Johnson's A Christmas Awakening.
Bettye Johnson's fourth book, Awakening the Genie Within is being published by Living Free Press and due for release in August, 2008. This will be Johnson's first work of non-fiction. Further information may be found on Johnson's website, http://www.magdalenescrolls.com.
