Press Release

Deadline approaching for the Second Annual Independent eBook Awards

Nominations open through Nov. 30th for the Indie Awards

Designed to recognize and reward excellence in electronic books and digital storytelling, the Independent eBook Awards program is accepting nominations for electronic books published between December 1, 2000 and November 30, 2001.

"Electronic books are in their infancy and there are still many technical issues to resolve, but authors are not waiting for the perfect time to write great books," said Sunny Ross, Co-Founder and Executive Producer of the eBook Awards. "We are seeing high quality nominations from new authors and established professionals. The Indie Awards program helps readers discover their work."

Responding to suggestions from the eBook community, the Awards Committee has established many genre categories. Two finalists and one winner will be chosen per qualifying genre for the eBook categories. This year there are $1,000 cash awards for the Best of Fiction, Best of Non-Fiction and Best Use of the Medium, plus three Achievement Awards for outstanding work in the field of electronic literature. Also new this year, the Reader's Choice awards will recognize Favorite eBook, Favorite eBook Related Website, Favorite e-Reader Device and Favorite e-Zine.

The Independent eBook Awards are open to authors and artists published by independent publishing houses, self-published authors, or authors who use non-exclusive publishers. The primary goal of the Awards program is to help authors gain recognition for their work.

Works will be judged on quality of content, professional presentation of the work and creative use of the medium. Finalists will be announced on the website March 31, 2002 and winners will be announced at the Awards Ceremony, tentatively scheduled for early May 2002 in Santa Barbara, California.

Judges include:

  • Mark Amerika, Author and Publisher of Alt-X, Fine Arts faculty member at the University of Colorado and former Creative Writing Fellow and Lecturer at Brown University.
  • Andrea Brown, Founder of the Andrea Brown Literary Agency, Inc. and Co-Founder of LitWest Group, LLC.
  • Douglas Clegg, Author of the Internet's first publisher-sponsored email serial, as well as more than ten novels.
  • Barnaby Conrad, Artist-Author and Founder of the Santa Barbara Writers' Conference.
  • Martin Eberhard, former CEO and Co-Founder of NuvoMedia, creators of the Rocket eBook.
  • Jeanne Kalogridis, Author of the Diaries of the Family Dracul trilogy and The Burning Times, a historical fantasy.
  • Fred Klein, Editor and former Vice President of Marketing at Bantam Books.
  • Mardi Link, Editor-in-Chief of Foreword Magazine.
  • Michael Larsen, Author and Co-Founder of the Michael Larsen/Elizabeth Pomada Literary Agency.
  • Mary Anne Mohanraj, Author and Founder of the erotic webzine, Clean Sheets and Editor-in-Chief of the speculative fiction webzine, Strange Horizons.
  • Jon Noring, Chairman and Founder of Windspun, Inc.
  • Scott Rettberg, Executive Director at the Electronic Literature Organization.
  • Gabriele Rico, Ph. D., Author of Writing the Natural Way and Professor of English and Creative Arts at San Jose State University.
  • David Seaman, Founding Director of the Electronic Text Center at the University of Virginia.
  • Louise Purwin Zobel, Author of The Travel Writer's Handbook, award-winning writer and instructor at numerous writers' conferences.

"The future of literature is now, as its most active online practitioners find themselves in the unique position of making history," said Mark Amerika, juror for the Awards. "Whether you call it hypertext, digital narrative or electronic writing, the important thing is that the Internet is helping create an environment for creative cultural production like never before."

Excerpts of the winning books will be shown on major websites again this year. All finalists and winners will receive annual membership in the Mystic-Ink Community and may participate in promotional events during the year arranged in conjunction with the Electronic Literature Institute's e-Tour. (Additional prizes may be announced.)

Nominations can be submitted online or snail mailed to the Independent eBook Awards Committee. Submission procedures are outlined on the website at the following URL: (http://www.e-book-awards.com/
indie2002/info/aboutsubmissions.html)

The Dana Atchley Scholarship for Digital Storytelling was created to honor the father of the Digital Storytelling movement and, as Dana Atchley had done for many years, to help authors and artists learn about new ways to share their stories. Atchley was a judge for the inaugural Independent eBook Awards but passed away last December before the Awards were announced. He was President of Dana Atchley Productions, Founder and Director of the annual Digital Storytelling Festival and co-founder of The Center for Digital Storytelling.

A portion of each entry fee submitted for the Independent eBook Awards will be used to develop a scholarship fund for the recipient(s) to visit Dana Atchley Productions in San Francisco and attend workshops at the Center for Digital Storytelling. More information about the Scholarship is available on the Indie Awards website. (http://www.e-book-awards.com/
indie2002/scholarship/storytelling.html)

Background on the eBook Awards

The Independent eBook Awards were created last September as the result of a collaboration between M.J. Rose, author of Lip Service, the first eBook discovered online by the mainstream publishing industry, and Sunny Ross, Publisher and Founder of the Mystic-Ink Community, one of the first online communities for writers. Rose and Ross created the Indie Awards as a way to recognize the true pioneers in the new world of electronic literature.

The inaugural Independent eBook Awards were celebrated last March during Publisher's Day at the Virginia Festival of the Book in Charlottesville. The Awards ceremony took place during a special luncheon sponsored by Barnes & Noble.com and Xlibris at the Omni Charlottesville Hotel. For a list of the 2001 winners and finalists, please see the press release. (http://www.e-book-awards.com/
indie2002/media/archive/03.24.01.html)

It was fitting for the first Awards ceremony to take place in Charlottesville as it is also home to the Electronic Text Center at the University of Virginia, the world’s largest public eBook library. David Seaman, Founding Director of the e-Text Center, is serving his second year on the Judges Panel for the Awards.

"I'm delighted again to be a part of the Independent eBook Awards and to contribute to an informed celebration and recognition of this emerging creative and commercial medium," said David Seaman. (http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/)

Ms. Rose has returned to her writing career while Ms. Ross and her team at Mystic-Ink together with the Awards Committee, the Preliminary Readers and the Panel of Judges are going forward with the second annual Awards program. The Electronic Literature Institute, Inc. was formed to administer the Independent eBook Awards and the eBook Festival where the Awards ceremony will take place next May. Hosted by the Mystic-Ink Community (http://community.mystic-ink.com) and produced by RoadWizards e-Media (http://www.roadwizards.com), the Indie Awards continue to recognize and reward talent in electronic books and digital storytelling.

"Education is crucial for the general public to accept eBooks, and none of this is going to happen overnight. A huge obstacle for electronic literature is the confusion that readers feel when they first encounter eBooks," said Ross. "The good news is that standards are being established, affordable e-reader devices are being developed and publishers and authors are working together to educate readers. Behind the headlines and speculations about eBooks, many talented authors are busy writing. The goal of the Indie Awards is to help readers discover those voices and outstanding books."

More information about the Independent eBook Awards is available on the website: (http://www.e-book-awards.com/indie-intro.shtml) Independent eBook Awards in the News: (http://www.e-book-awards.com/indie2002/media/news.html)

Media Contact

Laurel Communications
3020 Bridgeway #204
Sausalito, California 94965
Telephone: 415.898.7054
Fax: 415.898.8913
info@laurelcommunications.com
http://www.laurelcommunications.com