The Guidelines.
Fourteen sections. Approximately six thousand words. Drafted on the evening of November 9, 1980, at the Grolier Club; formally adopted the following June; amended, in the intervening forty-six years, once — in January of 1994. What follows is the current text in full.
On the Purposeof the Awards.
The American Book Awards are conferred annually, by a foundation seated in the Borough of Brooklyn, in the City and State of New York, for the recognition and public celebration of the finest literature produced in the United States in the calendar year preceding the award.
The Awards are not a marketing instrument, not a promotional service, and not, in any capacity, a mechanism by which publishers may purchase visibility for their titles. Their purpose is the naming of the finest work, and the writing of a citation that will endure past the season in which the work first appeared.
On the Panels.
The Awards are conferred by five panels, one per category, of five jurors each. Each panel is chaired by a member of the panel appointed by the board of the foundation. Chairs serve one year. Panelists serve one year. No juror may serve on more than three panels in ten years, or on two panels in three years, or on any panel in the season immediately following the season in which they were a laureate.
- Every juror is named publicly on the day submissions open, without exception.
- Every citation is signed by all five panelists, without exception.
- A juror is expected to be prepared to defend, at any moment for the following twelve months, the choices of their panel.
- A juror's book is not read in the season they serve. It may be resubmitted the following year.
On Eligibility.
A book is eligible if it satisfies all four of the following conditions.
- It was first published in the United States during the calendar year of the award, in any print run, from any press, in any state of the union.
- Its author is either a citizen of the United States or has resided in the United States for at least three consecutive years within the past ten.
- It has not been longlisted, shortlisted, or awarded in any prior American Book Awards season, in any category.
- It is a book, being not fewer than thirty-two pages in length, not composed entirely of quotation, and available in a trade edition, bound and jacketed, for sale in the United States.
On the Categories.
The Awards are conferred in the following categories: Fiction, Poetry, Nonfiction, Translated Literature, and Letters to a Young Reader. A sixth honor, the Medal for a Lifetime of Letters, is conferred at the sole discretion of the board of the foundation, without submission, and not necessarily in every year.
On the Submission Process.
A book may be submitted by its author; its literary agent; its publisher; its editor; its bookseller; its translator; or by any reader in the United States, who may nominate one book per category per season. Submissions open on the first Monday of January and close on March 31 at midnight, Eastern time. Late submissions are not accepted, without exception.
On the Rate of Submission.
The submission fee is set as follows. It has not been amended since 2004. It is set at rates a first-time author can afford, a small press can afford twice, and a large house can afford a hundred times over. It is not a business model.
- Nothing, always, for authors submitting their own first book; for translators; for any submission from a US public library; and for any reader in the United States nominating one book per category.
- $25 per book, for any press publishing fewer than one hundred titles per year or with a total staff of fewer than twelve.
- $85 per book, for any submission from a commercial house, from a literary agent, or from an author with three or more previously published books.
- Fees are waived, on application, for any press with net revenue below $250,000 in the preceding calendar year.
On the Reading Season.
The reading season begins on the eighth day of January and ends on the sixth day of October. All submitted books are read in full by every juror on their category panel. Books are logged and dated within seventy-two hours of receipt at the foundation offices. No book is read before its date; no book is delayed past its position.
On the Longlist.
The longlist for each category consists of ten books, selected by the panel and published on the second Thursday of October. The longlist is not ranked. It is a statement, in effect, that the panel found ten books of consequence in the year, no more and no less. Longlisted authors receive a stipend and shelf placement in the eight founding library systems for one full year.
On the Shortlist.
The shortlist for each category consists of five books, drawn from the longlist and published on the first Monday of November. The shortlist is not ranked. Shortlisted authors receive a stipend equal to ten percent of the laureate's purse.
On the Deliberation.
The panel sequesters, without staff, on the evening of November 8, at the foundation's offices or a location of its choosing. Deliberation continues until a laureate is chosen and a citation is composed. There is no chair's veto. There is no tie-breaking mechanism other than the continued reading of the shortlist. There is no time limit on the deliberation.
In the event that the panel is unable to agree, the panel may — as it did in 1987 — decline to name a laureate, and publish instead a joint citation of the five finalists. This has occurred once. It may occur again. It is not, and has never been, an outcome the foundation discourages.
On the Citation.
The citation is a written statement, of no fewer than two hundred words, composed by the panel in the course of the deliberation, and read aloud at the ceremony by the panel chair. The citation is the copyright of the panel that wrote it. It is archived, permanently, in the public record of the foundation, and republished, permanently, on the foundation's website beside the winning book.
The citation is the prize.Everything else is what it comes with.
On the Purse.
Each laureate receives a purse of fifty thousand dollars, paid in full within thirty days of the ceremony, without restriction of use, and without claim on the winning book's earnings, film rights, or estate. Each finalist receives five thousand dollars. Each longlisted author receives twenty-five hundred dollars, with a matching stipend to the publisher for a modest reprint.
On the Ceremony.
The ceremony is held on the Ninth of November, at the Great Hall of the Cooper Union, at seven o'clock in the evening, before an audience of not more than nine hundred and fifty. In years when the Ninth of November falls on a Monday or Tuesday, the ceremony is moved to the following Sunday.
On Recusal, Complaint, & Amendment.
A juror must recuse themselves from consideration of a book if they are its author's spouse, parent, child, sibling, current student, current teacher, current editor, current agent, or current employer, or if they have, within the preceding three years, been any of these things. A juror may not recuse themselves for any other reason without written notice to the board.
Any reader may lodge a complaint with the foundation about the conduct of a panel, the eligibility of a book, or the operation of the ceremony. Complaints are read, in full, by the board. A written reply is issued within thirty days.
These guidelines may be amended only by unanimous vote of the board, at a meeting convened for the purpose, and with a period of public comment of not less than sixty days. The last such amendment was made on the fourth of January, 1994.
Download the full guidelines.
A PDF, set in Fraunces and Instrument Sans. 14 pages. Suitable for printing.