Whitney Hill: Self-Published E-Book Awards Winner Whitney Hill, winner of the 8th Annual WD Self-Published E-Book Awards, talks fan fiction, creating her own stories, and why she chose to self-publish. Author: As a child, Hill was an avid reader, encouraged by her grandmother—who was always reading—and mother. She found herself entranced by the worlds of science fiction and fantasy, but there was a glaring issue: There was never a Black girl on the covers of the books she loved. She was never able to see herself as the main character. Hill explained, “Especially being biracial, there’s even kind of a smaller niche where you don’t really see what it’s like for the character to have to straddle kind of two worlds in that way.”