2010 Indie Book Award Winners Announced

NEW YORK, May 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Independent Book Publishing Professionals Group has named the best indie books of 2010.

The books are winners of the 2010 Next Generation Indie Book Awards, a non-profit awards program judged by leaders in the indie book publishing industry to identify indie books that deserve to reach a wider audience.

"We like to think of our awards program as the 'Sundance' of the book publishing world," says Catherine Goulet, chair of the 2010 Indie Book Awards program.

In an article at CNN.com titled, "If it's cool, creative, and different, it's indie," journalist Catherine Andrews wrote: "The term 'indie' traditionally refers to independent art -- music, film, literature or anything that fits under the broad banner of culture -- created outside of the mainstream and without corporate financing."

Independent book publishing companies are independent of the conglomerates that dominate the book publishing industry. The indies include small presses, larger independent publishers, university presses, e-book publishers, and self-published authors.

According to Bowker, publisher of the Books in Print database, preliminary data for 2009 shows more than one million new titles were published last year alone. Of these, 764,448 were "non-traditionally" published books, including print-on-demand and self-published titles -- an increase of 181% over 2008.

To help Indie authors and publishers reach a wider audience, the top 60 books in the 2010 Indie Book Awards will be reviewed by New York literary agent Marilyn Allen of Allen O'Shea Literary Agency or one of Ms. Allen's co-agents for possible representation in areas such as distribution, foreign rights, film rights, and other rights.

The top prize winning books in the 2010 Next Generation Indie Book Awards are:

In addition to the grand prize winners, top indie books were named as winners and finalists in 60 publishing categories ranging from Action/Adventure to Young Adult. A complete list of 2010 winners and finalists is available at the Next Generation Indie Book Awards website at http://www.indiebookawards.com.

About the Literary Agent

Marilyn Allen has over 25 years of sales and marketing experience, including serving as Senior Vice President, Associate Publisher, and Director of Marketing for Harper Collins and directing sales and marketing teams for Simon & Schuster, Penguin Books and Avon Books. Ms. Allen has worked with many best-selling authors including Stephen King, Ken Follett, Barbara Kingsolver, John Gray, Mary Higgins Clark, and many more.

About the IBPPG

The aim of the Independent Book Publishing Professionals Group is to promote professional standards in indie book publishing, and provide support and recognition for the independent book publishing profession.

2011 Next Generation Indie Book Awards

Entries are now being accepted for the 2011 Next Generation Indie Book Awards. The awards program is open to fiction and nonfiction books released in 2010 or 2011 by independent authors and publishers worldwide. Visit http://www.indiebookawards.com for information.

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SOURCE Independent Book Publishing Professionals Group