Design Competition Deadline Extended to May 2, 2008.
Identify Yourself and…
Celebrate Excellence in Washington-Area Book Publishing!
Washington Book Publishers’ BOOK DESIGN & EFFECTIVENESS
AWARD COMPETITION, held in the spring of each year, presents the
DC area’s most prestigious book awards.
The goal of the competition is to recognize, celebrate, encourage,
and learn from examples of excellence in book-making in the Greater
Washington, DC, book publishing community. The judges represent
the spectrum of publishing: senior management/editorial, graphic
design, marketing/sales, and retail bookstores. They evaluate the
excellence of an entry’s design and also its effectiveness
in achieving the publisher’s goals and meeting the reader’s
needs. Prizes are awarded to design area and publisher type.
Click here to submit individual entries online
Click here for a PDF of the 2008 Design and Effectiveness Competition Brochure
Washington Book Publishers 2008 Book Design & Effectiveness Awards
Information about Competition
Now in its 23d year, the Book Design and Effectiveness Awards competition recognizes, celebrates, and encourages excellence in bookmaking across the greater Washington book publishing community. The competition’s judges evaluate the excellence of each book’s design and effectiveness in achieving the publisher’s goals, meeting the readers’ needs, and reaching its market. Prizes are awarded in 15 categories—five designs for each of three publisher categories—plus Best of Show.
Dates to Remember
• Publisher must be located in the District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia, or West Virginia.
• Books must be copyrighted by or carry the ISBN of an eligible publisher.
• Books must have a spine.
• Books must have been published between April 1, 2007, and March 31, 2008.
• Entry(ies) must be received by April 25, 2008
• Entry fee(s) must be paid by May 2, 2008
Entry Fees and Deadline
The fee for each entry in each category is $30. The same title may be entered in an exterior and an interior category, but a separate fee must accompany the form and book for each category. WBP is not responsible for delayed or lost mail. Overpayments will be refunded at the conclusion of the competition. Books for which entry fees have not been paid by the time of judging will be removed from the competition. Entry fees are nonrefundable unless entries are disqualified. Books submitted with entries will not be returned under any circumstances.
All entries must be received by April 25, 2008.- All entry fees must be paid by May 2, 2008.
Where to Send Entries
Ship entries via courier, UPS, USPS, or FedEx to arrive by April 25, 2008, to:
Charlotte McNaughton
ASCE
1801 Alexander Bell Drive
Reston VA 20191
(703) 295-6238
Publisher Category
Books will compete against others within the same category of publisher. Copublished volumes will be judged in the commercial category if any of the copublishers is commercial.
• Commercial publisher
• Small- to medium-sized nonprofit publisher (35 or fewer books per year)
• Large nonprofit publisher (more than 35 books per year),
Nonprofits can include membership and trade associations, university presses, branches of federal or state governments, and policy and research organizations. Please indicate whether you are a small- to medium-sized or large nonprofit publisher.
Design Category
Awards go to books that are exemplary representatives of the following design categories:
Illustrated Text: Illustrations—such as photographs, line drawings, and maps—drive the designs of these books. Examples include (but are not limited to) art, museum, pictorial history books, and illustrated reports.
Typographic Text: Typography—the effective use of type—drives the designs of these books, which may include a signature of illustrations. Examples include (but are not limited to) biography, fiction, history, popular science, and social science books.
Technical Text: Typography and the presentation of data—in figures, tables, graphs, charts, photographs, and line drawings—drive the design. Examples include (but are not limited to) scientific, technical, and medical books.
Illustrated Jacket or Cover: Illustrations drive award-winning jackets and covers. Photographs, images, and illustrations should dominate the design.
Typographic Jacket or Cover: Typographic treatment of words drives award-winning jackets and covers. A textured background or thumbnail image may be present, but words in type should dominate the design.
The Judging Process
Four judges (representing senior publishing and editorial management, graphic design, marketing and sales, and retail bookselling) will review the entries and may select first-, second-, and third-prize winners in each of the 15 categories, as well as Best of Show. Depending on the merit of the entries, the judges may also award honorable mentions or may elect not to award prizes in a category.
- All judges’ decisions are final.
- Judges with any potential conflict of interest related to the entries in a category will excuse themselves from voting on that category.
- If a publisher enters a book in an incorrect publisher or design category, WBP reserves the right to reassign the entry to the correct category. WBP’s decision in such cases will be final.
- Books not published between April 1, 2007, and March 31, 2008, will be removed from the competition. Books published on or after April 1, 2008, may be entered in next year’s competition.
After the awards ceremony, all books will be donated to the District of Columbia Public Library. (For more information on the D.C. Public Library, visit www.dclibrary.org .) WBP reserves the right to publish the names of winning publishers, individuals, and books, as well as photographs of said individuals and books.
Please note: After the judging, a .pdf or .tiff file will be requested from the awardees to prepare a slide show and website of winning entries.
The Awards Ceremony Winners will be announced and the awards will be presented at a reception and ceremony on June 10, 2008. The reception and ceremony are open to the public, and all entries will be on display. Tickets for the event are available in advance or at the door. Look for invitations in your mail. The gala event will feature an interactive forum with the judges, the designers and editors of winning entries, and the audience. All books submitted to the competition will be on display, with the winning entries shown prominently. After the ceremony, books entered in the competition will be donated to the District of Columbia Public Library.
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