British Book Awards opens for submissions for 2023 Nibbies after record year upon return

Submissions have opened for the next instalment of The British Book Awards, to be held in person and online on 15th May, with awards for all aspects of the book trade.

The 2023 ceremony will take place on 15th May 2023 with a ceremony to be held in London, and a live stream available for those who wish to tune in remotely. The 2022 show attracted the largest audience in its recent history, with more than 1,200 in-person attendees, plus thousands more joining online and in two regional parties in Manchester and Edinburgh. Among the big winners of the year were Marcus Rashford and his co-author Carl Anka, writer Marian Keyes, the journalist Sathnam Sanghera, publisher Simon & Schuster and independent bookshop The Bookery, based in Crediton, which picked up two awards.

The submissions deadline is 5pm on 3rd February, with this year’s criteria available on the awards website.

Of Simon & Schuster’s 2022 Publisher of the Year crown, c.e.o. Ian Chapman said: “[Winning] was an incredible achievement for Simon & Schuster UK. It means so much to every single person at the company, and all our brilliant authors, to be recognised. It’s a wonderful celebration of the hard work that happens all year round. It is a huge honour and we will never stop reminding people of it!”

Co-autor of the Overall Book of the Year, Anka said: "Marcus Rashford once said that we must allow children to dream because sometimes dreaming is all we have. We were honoured to win a British Book Award for our attempt to help children dream. Books are such an important way to imagine possibilities that can help change the world."

The 2023 ceremony will take place on 15th May 2023 with a ceremony to be held in London, and a live stream available for those who wish to tune in remotely. 

Book awards to be presented at the 2023 ceremony include Début, Fiction, Non-fiction Lifestyle, Non-fiction Narrative, Crime & Thriller, and an overall Book of the Year. There will also be awards for Author of the Year and Illustrator of the Year, won last year by Marian Keyes and Dapo Adeola respectively. The ceremony also includes Discover Book of the Year, for underrepresented writers, and Pageturner, for popular fiction published in any format with a particular emphasis on titles from romance, horror and science fiction and fantasy writers.

Trade awards include the highly coveted Publisher of the Year, won in 2022 by Simon & Schuster; Book Retailer, won last year by Bookshop.org; Children’s Publisher of the Year, last won by Knights Of; and Independent Publisher, won by Pushkin in 2022. There are also awards for agents, rights professionals, editors, designers, imprints, marketing professionals and publicists. The Individual Bookseller of the Year award, recognising the vital role booksellers continue to play in the sector, returns again in 2023.

Independent Bookshop and Small Press awards are also open for entries, with the regional and country finalists to be announced on 15th February and 17th February respectively, ahead of the winners for these areas, which comprise the shortlists for the overall awards, in March. The overall winners for these awards will be announced at the May event, and also go on to contest the Book Retailer of the Year and Independent Publisher of the Year awards. Chair of the judges will once again be Philip Jones, editor of The Bookseller, with books editor Alice O’Keeffe to preside over the book awards. The shortlists will be announced on Friday 17th March.