New-look UK book trade awards are unveiled

26.02.10 | Graeme Neill in The Bookseller

The new-look Bookseller Industry Awards, formed by the merger of The Bookseller’s Retail Awards with the British Book Industry Awards, a.k.a. the Trade Nibbies, are launched this week, with new judges and categories.

The awards will be presented at the Royal Courts of Justice in London on 17th May, the middle night of this year’s Book Industry Conference.

Two judging panels have been recruited, one for publishing and one for retail. The publishing panel, chaired by Bookseller m.d. Nigel Roby, comprises Judy Piatkus, founder of Piatkus Books; Eddie Bell, former head of HarperCollins and chairman of Bell Lomax Moreton; Kit Van Tulleken, executive director at Quayle Munro; Kate ­Wilson, former Scholastic chief and now m.d. of children’s publisher Nosy Crow; Brian Berg, m.d. of Universal Music; and Angus Phillips, director of the Oxford International Centre for Publishing Studies.

Joining the retail judging panel for the first time are veteran retail analyst Robert Clark, now director of Retail Knowledge Bank, bestselling author Kate Mosse and Peter Williams, former finance director and chief executive of Selfridges­.

They will be joined by Ottakar’s founder James Heneage, City analyst Paul Smiddy, ex-W H Smith’s director Jo Howard and consultant Damian Horner, plus The Bookseller’s editor-in-chief Neill Denny and features editor Tom Tivnan.

The closing date for submissions is 19th March and entries should cover the 12 months to 1st March. Shortlists will be announced on 23rd April.

Denny said: “We have tried to keep the best of both schemes, retaining the best categories and extending the transparent and open judging of our awards across all categories. I would urge people to enter all the categories they can, so that we can celebrate terrific winners on the night.

"We don’t have to look very hard to find bad news—but let’s find some success stories the whole trade can celebrate.”

Tim Godfray, BA chief executive, said: “The Book Industry Conference has long played a tremendous part in the UK’s book publishing and book retailing industries and it is a natural home for the new-look Bookseller Industry Awards. The awards are an invaluable opportunity for publishers and booksellers to showcase and recognise their many achievements; making them part of the Book Industry Conference brings them to the forefront of the book trade.”