Book Trade Awards Categories
The Book Trade Awards categories for The British Book Awards
The British Book Awards is a celebration of books, and all who make them. It honours the stories that have been loved, shared and acclaimed throughout the year, alongside the teams whose unique mix of skills, savvy and hard work have carried those stories to readers.
The Book Trade criteria are varied, as every business and individual comes to this differently, but we aim to recognise:
- Creativity, both in reaching readers and approaches to business
- Commercial and/or prize success
- Commitment to industry values, particularly around diversity, sustainability and looking after your people
Full criteria and material requirements for Book Trade Awards are available below...
Academic, Educational and Professional Publisher of the Year
Our judges are looking for the academic, educational and professional publisher that had the best year in 2024 (judging period January to December).
Open to any UK or Irish publisher operating in the academic, educational and professional sectors, including large groups and small independent presses.
Please submit by completing the entry information below, including the submitter’s contact details. Full criteria, including word-length, formats and supplementary material requirements can be found below.
For queries, please email awards@thebookseller.com
Book Retailer of the Year
Our judges are looking for book retailers that have shown great results for the judging year (January – December 2024) with clear evidence of how their efforts have created success and sustained their businesses.
We know that every bookseller’s experience will be different, so please let our judges know what success looked like for you, whether that’s community engagement, nurturing customer loyalty, enabling runaway bestsellers, or hand-selling quieter titles.
Please submit by completing the entry information below, including the submitter’s contact details. Full criteria, including word-length, formats and supplementary material requirements can be found below.
For queries, please email awards@thebookseller.com
Children’s Bookseller of the Year
Our judges are looking for the children’s specialist that has sustained its sales and has demonstrated real dynamism in bringing in new young readers, maintaining the interest of children as they get older or helping reluctant readers in 2024. In particular, for this award we want to hear about your activities for young people, children and their parents.
Please submit by completing the entry information below, including the submitter’s contact details. Full criteria, including word-length, formats and supplementary material requirements can be found below.
For queries, please email awards@thebookseller.com
Children’s Publisher of the Year
Our judges are looking for the children’s publisher that had the best all-round success in 2024, either from sales, award triumphs, or simply by publishing well across all of its lists maximising rewards for their authors. Open to any children’s publisher in the UK or Ireland, including children’s divisions within larger publishing groups and independent publishers.
Please submit by completing the entry information below, including the submitter’s contact details. Full criteria, including word-length, formats and supplementary material requirements can be found below.
For queries, please email awards@thebookseller.com
Designer of the Year
Our judges are looking for individuals who have excelled in their design work on books published in the UK in the past 12 months (January – December 2024). Open to all UK-based designers (in-house or freelance) working in the book design sector.
Please note: this award is for an individual designer, and small teams of designers will only be considered in exceptional circumstances.
For queries, please email awards@thebookseller.com
Editor of the Year
Our judges want to find the editors that are going the extra mile for their authors, the lists they look after and the overall publishing business. Excellence in all-round publishing, irrespective of the genre or format, allied to sales and awards success. In particular, we want examples of how editors approach author-care, list development and respond to a changing market.
Please submit by completing the entry information below, including the submitter’s contact details. Full criteria, including word-length, formats and supplementary material requirements can be found below.
For queries, please email awards@thebookseller.com
Imprint of the Year
Our judges want to find the imprints that had the best all-round success between January and December 2024, judged by list development, author management, and sales or awards success.
Open to any imprint of a UK or Irish publishing company. Please note there is no minimum sales requirement, nor maximum limit.
Please submit by completing the entry information below, including the submitter’s contact details. Full criteria, including word-length, formats and supplementary material requirements can be found below.
For queries, please email awards@thebookseller.com
Independent Bookshop of the Year
Our judges are looking for the best independent bookshops across the UK and Ireland. We recognise that not every bookseller experiences the same set of challenges, and so we are particularly keen to learn what you do in your local community and how this impacts your bookselling and range. Equally, we want to hear how the shop is a destination for book lovers.
Please submit by completing the entry information below, including the submitter’s contact details. Full criteria, including word-length, formats and supplementary material requirements can be found below.
For queries, please email awards@thebookseller.com
Independent Publisher of the Year
Our judges want to find the independent trade publisher that had the best year in 2024, from sales or award success, or simply by publishing well across all of its lists and maximising rewards for their authors.
Open to any UK or Irish independent publisher. Please note that while there is no longer a sales threshold for this award, publishers with turnover less than £5m are encouraged to enter the Small Press category, with the winner automatically included on this shortlist. Exceptional indies can also now enter the overall Publisher of the Year award
Please submit by completing the entry information below, including the submitter’s contact details. Full criteria, including word-length, formats and supplementary material requirements can be found below.
For queries, please email awards@thebookseller.com
Individual Bookseller of the Year
Our judges want to find the booksellers – be they shop managers or young retailers – whose retail skills, knowledge and enthusiasm have made a fundamental difference to the performance of a shop or book department. In a customer-facing business, these are the individuals that customers look out for, or the managers who have created a culture of great customer service.
Please submit by completing the entry information below, including the submitter’s contact details. Full criteria, including word-length, formats and supplementary material requirements can be found below.
For queries, please email awards@thebookseller.com
Library of the Year
Public libraries are at the heart of communities. We want to celebrate impactful reading projects or campaigns run by UK and Irish public library staff to reach and engage new library users and readers within their community. We recognise that each library is unique and has a special understanding of the opportunities in the local communities they serve as well as the challenges they face.
The awards are announced in three stages: in February, Regional and Country finalists will be announced; Regional and Country winners are unveiled in March; these winners then make up the shortlist for the overall Library of the Year award.
Please submit by completing the entry information below, including the submitter’s contact details. Full criteria, including word-length, formats and supplementary material requirements can be found below.
For queries, please email awards@thebookseller.com
Literary Agent of the Year
Our judges are looking for the literary agent who can best demonstrate dynamism and success on behalf of their authors. That success can be reflected across their client list, or it can relate to one author whose book has achieved outstanding sales. In particular, we want examples of the approach to author care, selling new books, or building a client-base. Judges are looking for evidence of the agent’s ingenuity in representing their authors’ interests.
Please submit by completing the entry information below, including the submitter’s contact details. Full criteria, including word-length, formats and supplementary material requirements can be found below.
For queries, please email awards@thebookseller.com
Marketing Strategy of the Year
Our judges want to find the marketing professionals who are showcasing their talents across individual product lines and lists with imaginative, innovative and effective campaigns.
Open to anyone working in marketing at a UK or Irish publisher, bookseller, book charity/organisation. A marketing strategy in the context of this award can be a single campaign for a book; a campaign to support an event or initiative or the creation of a genre or imprint-specific marketing, or branding, initiative.
BMS seasonal winners are automatically submitted to this award, and do not need to re-enter.
Please submit by completing the entry information below, including the submitter’s contact details. Full criteria, including word-length, formats and supplementary material requirements can be found below.
For queries, please email awards@thebookseller.com
Publicity Campaign of the Year
Entries are not required for this category. Winning campaigns from the annual PPC Awards will be sent to The Bookseller, from which the judges will then select the shortlist for Publicity Campaign of the Year.
For queries, please email awards@thebookseller.com
Publisher of the Year
Our judges want to find the general trade publisher that had the best year in 2024, from sales or award success, or simply by publishing well across all of its lists and maximising rewards for their authors.
Open to any UK or Irish publisher, publishing group, or publishing division within a larger entity. There is no minimum sales requirement, but please note publishers need to demonstrate an ability to sell at scale across the UK and Ireland and create commercial bestsellers. Strong indies may submit, but are also encouraged to enter the Independent Publisher of the Year award.
Please submit by completing the entry information below, including the submitter’s contact details. Full criteria, including word-length, formats and supplementary material requirements can be found below.
For queries, please email awards@thebookseller.com
Rights Professional of the Year
Our judges are looking for individuals who have driven revenue through the licensing of international rights and/or co-editions or serial rights. They are looking for imaginative examples of how deals are done, and books/authors are championed, as well as how rights selling has changed in the period since the pandemic.
The award is open to all individuals working in UK or Irish publishing houses or literary agencies, whether they are working on their own, in small teams, or as part of larger rights departments. Teams may also be submitted, and will be considered under exceptional circumstances.
Please submit by completing the entry information below, including the submitter’s contact details. Full criteria, including word-length, formats and supplementary material requirements can be found below.
For queries, please email awards@thebookseller.com
Small Press of the Year
Our judges want to find the Small Presses from the UK and Ireland that had standout years in 2024, either from sales or award success, or simply by publishing well and sustaining their business. It is for businesses with annual sales of less than £5m.
This is not an award judged solely on commercial success or the production of bestselling books; instead the judges will be looking for excellence in publishing; author/list development and/or visibility within the trade; and the ability for the publisher to build a sustainable business supported either by sales, or external (i.e. Arts Council) funding.
Please submit by completing the entry information below, including the submitter’s contact details. Full criteria, including word-length, formats and supplementary material requirements can be found below.
For queries, please email awards@thebookseller.com
The British Book Award for Export
Our judges are looking for export teams that have performed outstandingly well over the judging period (January to December 2024), and whose efforts have added to the company’s overall trading performance.
Open to any publisher based in the UK or Ireland, large and small. Judges recognise that a small education start-up will inevitably have lower revenues than a long-established large publisher. It is how each company has performed, year on year, that matters.
Please submit by completing the entry information below, including the submitter’s contact details. Full criteria, including word-length, formats and supplementary material requirements can be found below.
For queries, please email awards@thebookseller.com
