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The International eBook Award Foundation Announces Finalists For Frankfurt eBook Awards
NEW YORK, NY, September 5, 2001 - The International eBook Award Foundation (IeBAF) has proudly announced the names of the finalists for the 2001 Frankfurt eBook Award, the first award designed to recognize achievements in the emerging eBook industry. Selected from a field that included entries from e-publishers, independents, large and small publishers alike, the finalists include celebrated authors who will join members of the international publishing community at the Frankfurt Book Fair later this year, where the winners of five awards will be announced, with the top awards, the Author’s Grand Prizes of $50,000 going to the best fiction and non-fiction eBook.
“The Judges were very pleased with the high literary quality of the titles that have now been published in eBook form, represented by the excellence of the authors selected as finalists in both categories,” said IeBAF Director of Judges Peter Mollman, a former publishing and software executive with World Book Encyclopedia and Random House. “They found the overall experience of reading a large number of books on-screen to be a positive one. Following the submission criteria, particularly in the non-fiction category, the panel gave weight to eBooks that took advantage of the features that eBooks can offer-including the ability to create notes, place bookmarks, and do searches-making them easier and more enjoyable to delve into in their electronic presentation.”
As it was last year, the 2001 Frankfurt eBook Awards will be announced on the evening of October 10, 2001, during a ceremony at the Old Frankfurt Opera House. Final judging decisions on the winners will be made in a confidential closed session. The judges will pick the Grand Prize winners from the fiction and non-fiction Distinguished eBook category finalists. All winners will be kept secret until they are presented at the Award Ceremony.
The finalists for the second annual Frankfurt eBook Awards are:
Fiction
Chris Adrian, Gob’s Grief (Broadway Publishing)
Alan Furst, The Kingdom of Shadows (Random House Publishing)
Amitav Ghosh, The Glass Palace (Random House Publishing)
Joyce Carol Oates, Faithless: Tales of Transgression (PerfectBound Publishing)
Barbara Shulgasser-Parker, Funny Accent (St. Martin’s Press)
Francois Taillandier, Intrigues (Editions 00h00)
Non-Fiction
Dwight Allen and William H. Cosby, Jr., (Bill Cosby) American Schools: The $100 Billion Challenge (iPublish.com)
Paul Clayton, Carl Melcher Goes to Vietnam (Electric eBook Publishing)
George Gilder, Telecosm: How Infinite Bandwidth Will Revolutionize Our World (The Free Press)
Steven Levy, Crypto: How the Code Rebels Beat the Government (Penguin Putnam Publishing)
David McCullough, John Adams, (Simon & Schuster)
Eric Nisenson, The Making of Kind of Blue: Miles Davis and His Masterpiece, (St. Martin’s Press)
Best eBook Technology
To be announced October 10, 2001
Best Children’s eBook
Submission remains open until December 15, 2001.The award will be presented at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in April 2002.
The Grand Prize in Fiction and Non-fiction of $US 50,000, as well as the prize of $US 10,000 for the two Distinguished eBook categories, will be presented to eBook authors. The judges will also bestow a $US 10,000 technical achievement award for the advancement and implementation of eBook technologies and features. Grand Prize winning eBooks must include technical enhancements that distinguish it from a paper book. The Judges reserve the right not to award a Grand Prize if, in their opinion, no title of sufficient overall merit is available. The jury panel, at its discretion, may further recognize certain members of the eBook publishing world with special citations for titles they feel meritoriously distinguish themselves by the use of technological enhancements, architecture, and/or marketing efforts.
The international panel of Frankfurt eBook Award judges includes Sarah Crichton (US), Digby Diehl (US), Dorothee Grisebach (Germany), Alain Pierrot (France), Hermann Rotermund (Germany), Robbie Stamp (UK), Walter Walker (US), Nick Webb (UK), and Honor Wilson-Fletcher (UK).
Alberto Vitale, Chairman of the International eBook Award Foundation, said, “We have been gratified to note the wider range of publishers that submitted entries this year, as well as the increasing application of new eBook technologies. In addition to shining a light on the eBook industry, the Foundation has successfully opened a worldwide dialogue on eBooks and created a forum for bringing together the best examples of this creative form from countries around the world. We see a very promising future for authors, editors, and publishers of eBooks, as we as an industry navigate our course.”
Added Dick Brass, Microsoft’s Vice President for Technology Development and the individual who created the award concept, “The fine selections of quality works represented in today's finalists illustrate just how far eBooks have come in a very short period of time. With demonstrated support from high-quality publishers and authors, the second annual eBooks awards will continue to build recognition for original work in this innovative form."
To be presented for the first time during the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in April 2002, the Children's eBook Award will highlight outstanding accomplishments in eBooks for younger readers. The IeBAF feels it is important to bring attention to authors and publishers who explore the rich potential of eBooks as educational tools, with music, images, and videos used to enhance the digital text, taking advantage of the broad opportunities eBooks present. The inaugural Children’s eBook Award will be overseen by the IeBAF and the jurors of the Bologna New Media Prize, an international group of experts specializing in children's literature and interactive media. The submission deadline for the Children’s eBook Award is December 15, 2001. Submission criteria is available by visiting the IeBAF website at http://www.iebaf.org.
The International eBook Award Foundation sponsors the Frankfurt eBook Awards. Further information is available on the IeBAF website, which includes complete finalist listings, submission criteria, profiles of the judges, and other background material regarding the Foundation.
IeBAF is sponsored by Microsoft Corporation (www.microsoft.com/reader/default.asp), Gemstar eBook Group (www.ebook-gemstar.com), Adobe Systems, Inc. (www.adobe.com/epaper/ebooks/main.html), OverDrive (www.overdrive.com), and other organizations dedicated to promoting excellence in, and advancement of, this exciting and challenging breakthrough in the international world of publishing, with support from Open eBook Forum (www.openebook.org), Reciprocal (www.reciprocal.com), Thomson RCA (www.thomson-multimedia.com/gb/00), the Frankfurt Book Fair (www.book-fair.com) and the Bologna Children’s Book Fair (www.bolognafiere.it/BookFair/welcome.html).
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