FutureBook Awards finalists revealed with 34 shortlisted projects

The finalists for this year’s FutureBook Awards have been announced with 34 shortlisted projects, including Penguin Talks’ first ever hybrid event, Orion’s The Space to Write Project, Simon & Schuster’s TikTok team, W F Howes’ and Colour PR’s campaign for the World’s Strongest Audiobook, and children’s fiction development company Storymix.

The awards will be presented at the end of FutureBook 2022, The Bookseller’s annual publishing conference, which will take place this year on 18th November in London and online. Across the categories, Penguin Random House, HarperCollins and Hachette division Orion have the most entries with four apiece. Indies are also well represented, through Little Toller, Faber, 404Ink, and audiobook business xigxag.

There is also a shortlisting for the Inklusion Guide, described as a “kickass guide to making literature events accessible for disabled people”, the Edinburgh International Book Festival, Asian Women Writers’ mentoring programme for unpublished writers, Bloomsbury’s campaign for Edward Enninful’s A Visible Man, and the Do Book Co’s Sage Member Masterclass.

The awards are split across six hotly contested categories, from Event, with six shortlists, to Discover, with seven. The Team award includes six shortlistees, including The Mills & Boon Team, Penguin’s Social Impact team, and the 404 In(k)ternship. The Sustainability category includes three projects, including the PRH Sustainable Production Toolkit. 

For Startup of the Year 2022, technology reclaims the spotlight, with four box-fresh tech-led companies to the fore. From Norwegian AR edtech firm Ludenso to kids’ voice-enabled reading app Mosey, white label audio platform Audiyence to blended language-learning app Prismatext. Also included are interactive STEM publisher QuestFriendz and inclusive fiction studio Storymix.

Molly Flatt, The Bookseller’s comment editor and FutureBook programmer, said: “The standard of this year’s entries was incredibly high, with 34 finalists who represent the best of what this industry can do. From world-beating campaigns to pioneering startups, brave and tireless teams to soul-stirring events, each one of these unique success stories points the way towards an exciting publishing future, thanks to a whole lot of creativity, courage and hard graft. We’ll be showcasing several of them at the conference itself on Friday 18th November, so you can learn from all the insights, challenges and pivots these people and projects faced along the way, as well as unveiling the worthy winners in our end-of-day ceremony. In short? There’s a lot to feel very, very positive about.”

Last year’s winners included Bad Form Review, Penguin Random House’s Lit in Colour, Hachette’s Feminist Book Box, The Booker Prize 2020, Bookshop.org and the campaign for Empire of the Vampire (HarperVoyager).

The conference, now in its 12th year, is themed around “Common Ground”, the idea that if publishing is to get stronger, smarter and more sustainable it needs to find ways of better working together. The full programme can be viewed here, with tickets available here. Group rates and sponsor packages can be had from head of publisher relations Emma Lowe (emma.lowe@thebookseller.com).

Sponsors this year include Audible, Beat Technology, Bolinda, Bookbub, Bookwire, Glassboxx, Ingram, Inkshares, Midas, WF Howes and Nielsen BookData. 

The finalists in full:  

Event 
Penguin Talks’ first hybrid event 
Faber Members Events 
Orion on Tour 
Edinburgh International Book Festival 
#BookTok Creator House (HarperVoyager)
Do x Sage Member Masterclass
 
Sustainability 
Xigxag B CorpTM certification 
Perlego’s eBook solution 
PRH Sustainable Production Toolkit 
 
Discover
Romance Includes Everyone (Mills & Boon)
The Space to Write Project (Orion) 
Unbound Firsts (Unbound) 
Asian Women Writers 
Pineapple Lane Books (Little Toller) 
ABC Pride (DK) 
Inklusion Guide (Inklusion)
 
Team
The Mills & Boon Team 
Penguin’s Social Impact team 
404 In(k)ternship 
xigxag 
Orion Virtual Internship 
S&S Team TikTok 
 
Startup  
Ludenso 
Mosey 
QuestFriendz 
Audiyence 
Prismatext 
Storymix 
 
Campaign 
People Person by Candice Carty-Williams (Orion)
The World’s Strongest Audiobook by Eddie Hall (W F Howes with Colour PR)
Faber Direct to Consumer Campaign (Faber)
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (Vintage)
Menopausing by Davina McCall (HQ)
A Visible Man by Edward Enninful (Bloomsbury)