We are delighted to announce the shortlist for the Independent Booksellers Week Book Award 2013 (IBW Book Award), supported by independent bookshops across the country.
Publishers were invited to submit titles from which independent members of the BA selected their best ten adult and twelve children’s books for 2013. The winning books will be chosen by two judging panels comprised of authors, broadcasters and booksellers, and chaired by BA President Patrick Neale.
The IBW Book Award is unique amongst book prizes as it is the only award chosen by independent booksellers in the UK.
IBW Book Award 2013 – Adult Shortlist
| Title | Author | Publisher |
| The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry | Rachel Joyce | Black Swan |
| HhHH | Laurent Binet | Vintage |
| Bringing Up The Bodies | Hilary Mantel | HarperCollins |
| Capital | John Lanchester | Faber |
| The Etymologicon: A Circular Stroll Through the Hidden Connections of the English Language | Mark Forsyth | Icon Books |
| Flight Behaviour | Barbara Kingsolver | Faber |
| The Song of Achilles | Madeline Miller | Bloomsbury |
| Walking Home | Simon Armitage | Faber |
| A Tale for the Time Being | Ruth Ozeki | Canongate |
| Behind the Beautiful Forevers | Katherine Boo | Portobello Books |
IBW Book Award 2013 – Children’s Shortlist
| Title | Author | Publisher |
| Wonder | RJ Palacio | Corgi |
| The Sacrifice | Charlie Higson | Puffin Books |
| Gangsta Granny | David Walliams | HarperCollins |
| White Dolphin | Gill Lewis | OUP |
| Oh No, George! | Chris Haughton | Walker Books |
| Dear Scarlett | Fleur Hitchcock | Nosy Crow |
| Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever | Jeff Kinney | Puffin Books |
| Maggot Moon | Sally Gardner | Hot Key Books |
| WARP: The Reluctant Assassin | Eoin Colfer | Puffin Books |
| The Secret Hen House Theatre | Helen Peters | Nosy Crow |
| Matilda’s Cat | Emily Gravett | Macmillan Children’s Books |
| Socks | Nick Sharratt & Elizabeth Lindsay | David Fickling Books |
‘Independent booksellers have picked a fantastic cross-section of titles this year. Both shortlists include real variety, with debut authors featuring alongside established names and even a previous winner. It will be fascinating to see the judges’ final selections.’ - Meryl Halls – Head of Membership Services at the Booksellers Association
Shortlisted this year, comedian and author of Gangsta Granny David Walliams commented: ‘Thank you so much for voting for me. Thank you also to all Independent bookshops and booksellers for how hard and passionately they work to support and sell books. I’m grateful to you for the huge part you’ve played in the success of my books and delighted to be a part of IBW 2013.’
Rachel Joyce author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry also said: ‘What has moved me most of all in the publishing process is the passion and commitment with which the independent booksellers have embraced HF. Without this commitment to new writing from the booksellers and this inventive flair for sales, I fear that books like mine wouldn’t stand a chance.’
Shortlisted titles will be heavily promoted by and to all participating bookshops in the UK and Ireland during Independent Booksellers Week and beyond. Shortlisted authors will have the opportunity to participate in bookshop events as part of IBW, and shortlisted titles will be promoted as a group to booksellers via high quality POS materials including posters, bookmarks and leaflets featuring the shortlist and winning books. The IBW and BA websites will carry full information about the shortlisted titles.
The overall winners of the IBW Book Award 2013 will be announced on 29th June 2013, the first day of Independent Booksellers Week.
Last year, Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? By Jeanette Winterson won the adult category and the children’s prize was awarded to Eva Ibbotson for One Dog and His Boy.
For any queries, contact sharon.benton@booksellers.org.uk 020 7421 4640.
INDEPENDENT BOOKSELLERS’ WEEK BOOK AWARD 2012 WINNERS ANNOUNCED!
We are delighted to announce that the winner for the 2012 adult category is Jeanette Winterson for Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? (Vintage) and the children’s winner is Eva Ibbotson for One Dog And His Boy (Marion Lloyd Book
s.)
Jeanette Winterston: “This award is particularly important to me because independent bookshops are the life of the book business and those men and women who own and run them have read everything. They love books. And so for Why Be Happy to be chosen is an honour. I am delighted.”Marion Lloyds, Editor for Eva Ibbotson: “Eva Ibbotson, whose children’s books won many distinguished literary prizes over the course of her long writing life, would have been especially delighted to win one sponsored by independent bookshops. Her own beautifully-crafted stories helped to turn many children into lifelong readers, and she greatly valued the expert role played by knowledgeable booksellers in matching the right book to the individual child.” The shortlist of ten adult and twelve children’s titles were voted on by IBW booksellers, from nominations put forward by publishers. The winning authors were voted for by your bookshop customers who picked up the IBW Book Award voting leaflets in-store. The leaflets form part of the IBW POS Kit.
The shortlisted titles for 2012 are:
IBW Book Award 2012 – Adults’ Shortlist
| Title | Author | Publisher |
| Why Be Happy When you Could be Normal? | Jeanette Winterson | Vintage |
| Pure | Andrew Miller | Sceptre |
| Now All Roads Lead to France | Matthew Hollis | Faber |
| The Sense of an Ending | Julian Barnes | Vintage |
| Smut | Alan Bennett | Faber & Profile Books |
| On Canaan’s Side | Sebastian Barry | Faber |
| Sarah Thornhill | Kate Grenville | Canongate |
| All Hell Let Loose | Max Hastings | HarperCollins |
| Before I go to Sleep | SJ Watson | Black Swan |
| My Dear I Wanted to Tell You | Louisa Young | HarperCollins |
IBW Book Award 2012 – Children’s Shortlist
| Title | Author | Publisher |
| One Dog and His Boy | Eva Ibbotson | Marion Lloyd Books |
| Tom Gates: Everything’s Amazing (sort of) | Liz Pichon | Scholastic |
| Ella | Alex T Smith | Scholastic |
| The Fear | Charlie Higson | Puffin Books |
| Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth | Jeff Kinney | Puffin Books |
| All Fall Down | Sally Nicholls | Marion Lloyd Books |
| There is No Dog | Meg Roscoff | Puffin Books |
| Never Say No to a Princess! | Tracey Corderoy | Alison Green Books |
| The Whizz Pop Chocolate Shop | Kate Saunders | Marion Lloyd Books |
| TimeRiders: Gates of Rome | Alex Scarrow | Puffin Books |
| Young Samurai: The Ring of Wind | Chris Bradford | Puffin Books |
| Blood Red Road | Moira Young | Marion Lloyd Books |
All booksellers who participated in IBW received IBW Book Award shortlist posters featuring all 22 shortlisted titles.
Voting opened on the first day of IBW, 30th June, and closed on 31st August.
As you’ll remember, last year, Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal won the adult category and the children’s prize was awarded to Eoin Colfer for Artemis Fowl and the Atlantis Complex.
Winners from 2011
EDMUND DE WAAL – THE HARE WITH AMBER EYES (Vintage Books)
CHILDREN’S CATEGORY:EOIN COLFER – ARTEMIS FOUL & THE ATLANTIS COMPLEX (Puffin)
Meryl Halls, Head of Membership Services, Booksellers Association, said: “We offer our congratulations to Edmund de Waal and Eoin Colfer, who both enjoy huge support from independents. This is the fifth Independent Booksellers’ Book Prize, and the quality of this year’s shortlist is testament to the important part the Prize plays in IBW.”
Edmund de Waal, winner of the Adult category, said: “Books need champions. Writing a book about a great-uncle in Tokyo and an art-form that no one can pronounce is not a sensible thing to do. I owe a huge debt to the real, passionate, independent, local, engaged bookshops for stacking my book next to their tills, talking about it, and pressing it into customers’ hands. It is these booksellers who have made my ‘niche’ book fly. I am delighted to have won the Independent Booksellers’ Book Prize this year, especially as the votes come from independent booksellers and their customers.”
Eoin Colfer, winner of the Children’s category, said: “It means a huge amount to me to receive an award from independent booksellers, as these are the people who really foster a love of reading in our young people. Their expertise and passion keep books alive and thriving in a competitive time, so to be honoured by these guys is to be honoured by people who really know what they are talking about, which makes the award mean so much more. A huge thank you to everyone involved in IBW.”
The Independent Booksellers Book Prize is unique amongst book prizes as it is the only award chosen by independent booksellers in the UKand their customers, giving publishers a prime opportunity to promote key independent titles into the independent sector.
A shortlist of ten adult and twelve children’s books were selected by a judging panel of independent booksellers from nominations put forward by publishers. Participating bookshops showcased the short-listed titles in special promotions that ran throughout Independent Booksellers Week (18th-25th June), with voting taking place from May until the end of August. Winners were selected by independent bookshop customers who cast postcard or email votes for their favourite books.
The shortlists for the 2011 IBW Book Award were:
Adult Shortlist
| Title | Author | Publisher |
| The Hare with Amber Eyes | Edmund de Waal | Vintage Books |
| The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet | David Mitchell | Sceptre |
| Empire of the Clouds | James Hamilton Paterson | Faber and Faber |
| The Betrayal | Helen Dunmore | Fig Tree/Penguin |
| The Man in the Wooden Hat | Jane Gardam | Abacus |
| Skippy Dies | Paul Murray | Penguin |
| The Empty Family | Colm Toibin | Penguin |
| The Forgotten Highlander | Alistair Urquhart | Abacus |
| Peter Pan’s First XI | Kevin Telfer | Sceptre |
| The Butterfly Isles | Patrick Barkham | Granta |
Children’s Shortlist
| Title | Author | Publisher |
| The Dead | Charlie Higson | Puffin |
| CHERUB: Shadow Wave | Robert Muchamore | Hodder Children’s |
| The Kane Chronicles: Red Pyramid | Rick Riordan | Puffin |
| The Joshua Files: Dark Parallel | MG Harris | Scholastic |
| The 13 Secrets | Michelle Harrison | Simon & Schuster |
| Artemis Fowl & The Atlantis Complex | Eoin Colfer | Puffin |
| Time Riders: The Doomsday Code | Alex Scarrow | Puffin |
| An Imaginary Menagerie | Roger McGough | Frances Lincoln |
| Young Samurai: The Ring of Water | Chris Bradford | Puffin |
| The Saga of Larten Crepsley: Birth of a Killer | Darren Shan | HarperCollins Children’s |
| School According to Humphrey | Betty G Birney | Faber Children’s |
| Magicalamity | Kate Saunders | Scholastic |
If you would like to see the shortlisted titles for the IBW Book Award 2010, click IBW Book Award Shortlist Titles 2010.
The Winners of the 2010 Award were Hilary Mantel for Wolf Hall and Michael Morpurgo for Running Wild. Both authors were delighted with their wins:
Running Wild win the Independent Booksellers Book Prize means a very great deal to me. I love being a small part of that buzz. I’m a happy bee today!’ Michael Morpurgo
Not long ago I did an event in Melrose at the wonderful Mainstreet Trading Company. I found myself plunged into a hive of enthusiasm and expectation. The place simply buzzed with books and people who love them.
Six months before Wolf Hall was launched I spoke about it in public for the first time at a meeting of independent booksellers, and the enthusiasm gave me a real lift – it was the first indication that the book was poised for success. Over my writing years I’ve become increasingly aware that a well-run independent bookshop can influence and inspire readers in the area it serves … and the taste and discrimination of independent booksellers are more important than ever in maintaining a lively reading culture.