More prize money, new eligibility criteria for 2014 Barbara Jefferis Award
The Australian Society of Authors (ASA) has announced a number of changes to the Barbara Jefferis Award.
In 2014, the award’s prize money will increase from $35,000 to $55,000, with $50,000 to be awarded to the winner and $5000 to be distributed among shortlisted titles at the discretion of the judges.
The eligibility criteria have also been expanded to include digital-only publications and self-published titles with mainstream distribution. According to the award’s guidelines, ‘self-published works (including digital-only editions) are eligible, provided that they were made available for purchase through an established book sales channel (e.g. Amazon, Lightning Source, a book distribution company)’.
ASA program manager Lucie Stevens told Books+Publishing that changes to eligibility criteria were informed by member feedback and industry trends. ‘A number of other awards are now considering self-published works, and we are curious to see the outcomes of expanding our own criteria,’ said Stevens.
The Barbara Jefferis Award is presented biennially for ‘the best novel written by an Australian author that depicts women and girls in a positive way or otherwise empowers the status of women and girls in society’. The award was previously presented annually. In 2012 the winner was Anna Funder for All That I Am (Penguin).
For more information about the award, visit the ASA website here.
Category: Local news
