Awards. You either love ’em or you hate them. There is seldom an in-between when it comes to awards. And yes, it’s awards season again, or is that still? It does seem like there’s a constant stream of award announcements landing in my inbox. But there certainly is an uptick in Spring and again in the Fall.

It’s no accident that the awards season gets busier at these times of the year because book awards really do affect sales and authors’ reputations. Besides, Spring and Fall also mark flow of the publishing calendar—this is the time publishers are getting books ready for summer reading and/or for the Christmas market.

Book Award fans (like us at Read Alberta and the BPAA) get caught up in everything from the slow build-up in anticipation about a favourite book to the pageantry that comes with award ceremonies. For writers, it’s about sharing the joy of seeing your name, or those of colleagues and friends, on shortlists or among the winners. Agents and acquiring editors look at the lists and think, “I saw the value in this one!” For copyeditors, it’s a knowing that you worked on a book — you helped shape it.

Awards season is a time for recognizing the work that goes into making books. With publishers producing almost a million new books per year worldwide (nearly four million if you include self-published books), it is difficult to find traction for their book. Awards help.

You can read more about the BPAA Awards and the shortlists here, but what exactly are the criteria for deciding a winner? The BPAA Awards are a little different from other awards in that they are awards for the publisher, which means they are evaluated for the publishers’ influence on the final product. When you read through the criteria, you’ll notice an emphasis on things that the publisher can do to make a book a success — like marketing and editing — and you’ll also see that presses are evaluated on their interaction with authors.

The BPAA’s Book Design award is judged on the overall design of the entire print book, while the Book Jacket Award is judged solely on the cover. The Book Illustration award is judged on illustrations including drawings, paintings, photographs, and other artwork. In these categories, judges award points for design elements that show creative and communicative excellence, that are structurally compatible with excellence in the principles of design, and designs that will be accepted as evocative, creative, and effective by audiences. They look for a creative approach to the execution of design of the specific elements being judged, while still maintaining the excellence and artistic merit of the work. Beyond those factors, they look at production values that meet or exceed industry standards, that show excellent attention to detail in the production of the work, that represent effective and excellent use of a range of production elements, and that are appropriately creative and of artistic merit. Judges also consider how well the design elements link with audience expectations for a particular genre and how the design conveys the message of the work within the cultural context of the marketplace where the work is being offered.

When it comes to judging creative works — and that includes Trade Fiction, Trade Non-Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Poetry, and Graphic Novels — the judges consider the content first of all. How innovative and/or creative is the book in conveying the literary, entertainment, or educational purpose or mission of the book? For scholarly books or learning books, the emphasis falls more on the quality of the content than on creativity, but the other criteria are similar: Does the author use novel ways of communicating the content of the work, and how well do wraparound components (illustrations, photos, graphics, etc.) work? Do all these elements serve the audience well?

Judges also look at the comprehensiveness of the editing, the lack of mistakes and errors, correct (or appropriate) grammatical forms, proper flow of the text and a consistent stylistic voice, for editing that maintains the validity of the content (such as factual accuracy in an academic work or character development/context in a literary work).

That takes care of the book itself, but the are other criteria to consider. The quality of the marketing campaign to support the title, for instance: how creative were the marketing team in dealing with traditional and digital marketing? How strong was the social media campaign? What efforts were made to have the author meet potential audiences at readings, book signings etc.? Did they use multimedia, including audio/video clips, video book trailers, podcasts etc., effectively? Did the activities succeed in reaching both local and national/international audiences, or were they directed at specific niches appropriate to the book.

While judges do look at editing as part of their criteria for book awards, the Book Publishers Association of Alberta is one of the few book organizations that recognizes the work editors do through an award specifically for editing. The Lois Hole Award for Editorial Excellence considers the size and complexity of the project, and also looks at the editor’s accuracy, professionalism, and sensitivity during the editorial process.

Every year, the BPAA also recognizes an exceptional publisher. For the Publisher of the Year Award, judges consider factors such as the overall quality of the books, including editing, design and production, the promotional activity and market acceptance across the entirety of the books produced by a nominated press in that year. They also consider the degree and quality of service the press offers to clients in the publisher’s sector and the degree of activity and community service.

As you can see, books are not just judged by their cover (well, mostly not). A great deal of thought goes into picking a winner. Do they judges always get it right? Certainly not, but the decisions are not made on a whim, nor are they entirely subjective. So when award season comes along, we invite you to celebrate with us.

There is still time to get your ticket to the awards gala on September 25 by purchasing one here — the deadline is September 17. You can also get involved by talking about the books on the shortlist and telling us, or your social media contacts which your favourites are. Remember to tag the BPAA (@abbookpub) and Read Alberta (@WeReadAB) and use the hashtags #ABPubShortlist #ABPubAwards!