It's award season in the books world. If you scan the headlines of literary media, you'll see shortlists for the likes of the Goldsmiths (experimental fiction), Booker (fiction), Baillie Gifford (nonfiction), Cundill (history), and Schroders (business). Each of them has a large five-figure sum for the eventual winner. Not to mention the Nobel and its nearly seven-figure purse, and last week I reported on the Speakies.
ALLi News Editor Dan Holloway
But the shortlists that caught my eye this week come from the Digital Publishing Awards, backed by Publishing Perspectives. In general, I will report on prizes the first time they are held, if they raise important awareness of industry trends we should all be aware of, and most of all if there is a significant indie angle. The Digital Publishing Awards tick all of these boxes.
AI and Innovation in Digital Publishing
In terms of trends, there is inevitably a heavy AI leaning among the shortlistees announced so far in the Product, Process, and Start-up categories for the awards whose winners will be announced at Frankfurt on October 15. But when it comes to trends, it was also interesting to see several entries with strong educational and accessibility slants, which aligns with the increase in demand for accessible formatting of books, most notably in the wake of the implementation of the European Union's Accessibility Act.
Accessibility Takes Center Stage
I particularly noted the inclusion of Circular Software, a no-code tool that produces accessible EPUB files. And talking of EPUB and accessibility, last month saw the publication of the first draft of the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 3.0, which will lay down the standard for accessible websites and digital documents for years to come. It has a real shift of focus toward real-world usability that makes it a vital read for any of us who create our own digital content.
Super also to see a shout on the shortlist for Bookshop.org (in the wake of its ebook expansion announced last week). Slightly more eyebrow-raising was the selection of AI tools clearly aimed at indie authors, such as editorial assistants. Clearly a direction that has plenty of travel in it yet whatever one's opinions.
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