The New Zealand Book Awards Trust has announced that submissions are now open for the 2019 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards, which promote excellence in and provide recognition for, the best books published annually. Adult books published between 1 January 2018 and 31 December 2018 will be considered for the 2019 awards.

There are two submission dates. Publishers are asked to observe the guidelines for sending entries in two tranches, which are in place for ease of sending to judges. Submissions for titles published between 1 January 2018 and 31 August 2018 are now open and will close 5pm Monday 10 September 2018.

Submissions of titles published between 1 September 2018 and 31 December 2018 open on Tuesday 11 September and close (at the later date this year) 5pm on Wednesday 24 October 2018.

For books in the second tranche, bound page proofs will be accepted where books publishing in November or December are not yet printed at the time the submissions close. In such cases, finished books must arrive with the Awards Administrator, Ockham New Zealand Book Awards c/- Auckland Writers Festival, Suite 9A Wellesley Centre, 44-52 Wellesley Street, Auckland 1010 no later than 5pm, Monday 26 November 2018.

Following consultation with the industry, the New Zealand Book Awards Trust has made some changes to criteria and deadlines to make the awards more inclusive and to acknowledge the time pressures publishers face in getting their books to market pre-Christmas:

• The requirement that New Zealand residents must have lived permanently in the country for five years has been relaxed.
• The second submission deadline has been extended by almost three weeks, from early to late October.
• Judges will also have longer to consider all entries.
• The 2019 Ockhams longlist will be announced at the end of January 2019.

The judges of the 2019 Ockham New Zealand Book awards will be named later this month.

Click here for eligibility criteria and a Call for Entries information pack, then enter online here.

All entries must be submitted online at www.nzbookawards.nz and fees paid by credit card via the online submission form.

For any further enquiries, please email Awards Administrator Chris Chan at awards@nzbookawards.org.nz.