FutureBook Innovation Awards shortlists unveiled

HarperCollins has claimed the highest ever number of shortlist nominations in the four years of The Bookseller’s FutureBook Innovation Awards. HC has nine nods across the nine categories in the book trade’s premier digital awards, including three in the Best Use of Digital in a Marketing Campaign, for its HarperCollins Virtual Romance Festival, launching the #BookaDayUK Twitter hashtag, and the promotion of Sophie Hannah’s Monogram Murders.

Penguin Random House has five spots in the shortlists, which were revealed at a ceremony at today's (9th October) Frankfurt Book Fair. The winners will be announced at the FutureBook Conference on 14th November. PRH’s nominations include Rob Ryan’s The Invisible Kingdom in Best Children’s Digital Book, and MyIndependentBookshop.com in Best Consumer-facing Website.

The Bookseller editor Philip Jones said: “It’s incredibly important that publishers continue to double-down on innovation, and leverage their undoubted skills in the content business across the changing face of digital. These shortlists demonstrate a step-change in quality and a broadening of digital-know how. The Most Inspiring Digital Publishing Person shortlist shows an industry changing and becoming more inclusive as it expands into new areas and tackles key issues.”

The combined Pan Macmillan and Macmillan group joins PRH with five nominations, including one for WriteLaTex, the startup backed by Digital Science, Macmillan Science & Education's investment arm. Hachette UK has four nominations, including for Best Publisher Website, for Headline’s book blogger site Bookbridgr.com, and Hodder & Stoughton author David Mitchell's The Right Sort Twitter short story in Best Use of Digital in a Marketing Campaign.  

Nosy Crow leads independent publishers with three nominations, including one for founder Kate Wilson in Most Inspiring Digital Publishing Person, sponsored by FBF. Seven others join Wilson on the Most Inspiring shortlist: Macmillan Science & Education c.e.o. Annette Thomas, indie author Hugh Howey, WME UK literary head Simon Trewin, Hachette Book Group c.e.o. Michael Pietsch, Unbound co-founder Dan Kieran, Scribd c.e.o. Trip Adler and HC US chief digital officer Chantal Restivo-Alessi.

Overall winners will be announced at The Bookseller's FutureBook Conference, held at Queen Elizabeth Conference Centre in London on 14th November 2014. Tickets for the event, which will feature Penguin Random House UK c.e.o. Tom Weldon as a keynote speaker, are on sale now.

The full shortlists are:

Best fiction digital book
Profile Books 80 Days
Media-Melt/ Denise Weston The Memory Machine
HarperCollins US The truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains
Pan Macmillan Hotel Alpha Stories
Harlequin Mills & Boon The Chatsfield

Best non-fiction digital book
Penguin American Interior
Carlton Books Beatles in 100 objects
TouchPress, Profile Books Incredible Numbers
Quercus in conjunction with Aimer Mountain High
HarperCollins Brian Cox's Wonders of Life
Blink Publishing The Pointless Book
TouchPress, Bonnier, HarperCollins Collins Bird Guide

Best children's digital book
Bloomsbury in conjunction with Aimer Let's Do Mental Maths 6-7
Penguin Random House The Invisible Kingdom
Nosy Crow Axel Schleffer's FlipFlap Safari
Egmont UK Mr Tickle Storybook app
Nosy Crow Jack and the Beanstalk

Best use of digital in a marketing campaign
HarperCollins, Virtual Romance Festival
HarperCollins, BookADayUK
HarperCollins, The Monogram Murders
Penguin Random House, James Patterson is Missing
Scottish Book Trust Who in fiction are you?
Hodder & Stoughton/David Mitchell, The Right Sort Twitter story
Pan Macmillan, Where were you then?
Publishing Scotland, BookSpotting

Best Publisher Website
Pan Macmillan, Picador.com
Unbound, Unbound.com
HarperCollins, Corporate HarperCollins
Bloomsbury, Bloomsbury Collections
Text Publishing, textpublishing.com.au
Melville House, Mhpbooks.com
Headline, BookBridgr

Best consumer website
Bloomsbury musical express
Hardie Grant Publishing, Cooked
The Willoughby Book Club, The Willoughby Book Club
Penguin Random House, My Independent Bookshop
Put me in the Story, Put me in the Story
London Review of Books, London Review Bookshop
Rakuten Kobo Inc., KOBO

Best start-up
Loved by kids, Top that!
Lost My Name, Lost My Name
The Willoughby Book Club, The Willoughby Book Club
I've read that,  I've read that
BitLit Media,  BitLit Media
Bookmate, Bookmate

Best tech innovation
Foyles, Foyles Book Search
Rook, Rook
ValoBox, ValoBox
Snapplify, Snapplify
Cambridge Publishing Solutions, Futureproofs
Ricoh Europe, Ricoh Europe
Blackwells, Blackwell Learning
WriteLaTeX, Overleaf

Most inspiring digital publishing person
Nosy Crow founder, Kate Wilson,
Macmillan Science and Education c.e.o. Annette Thomas
Indie/hybrid author, Hugh Howey
WME UK literary head, Simon Trewin
Hachette Book Group c.e.o., Michael Pietsch
Unbound co-founder, Dan Kieran
Scribd c.e.o., Trip Adler
HC chief digital officer, Chantal Restivo-Alessi