The People’s Book Prize is a nationwide book competition that is judged by the people and open to all publishing companies. Members of the public vote for their favourite books showcased on their website www.peoplesbookprize.com
The ambition of founder, Tatiana Wilson, is that independent publishers and authors are given equal opportunity in the marketplace, based purely on their talent and ability.
It offers a level playing field for authors and publishers for whom it is almost impossible to acquire shelf space or high profile in the online publishing community or to get shortlisted for any of the major book prizes.
As a result, the public remains ignorant of many newly-published books: the potential of budding authors is either limited or lost.
The founding patron was Dame Beryl Bainbridge. Following her death in 2010 Frederick Forsyth, acclaimed writer of Books such as The Day of the Jackal and the Fourth Protocol is now the Patron.
Thousands of followers have been achieved with the enthusiasm and energy of its creator, Tatiana Wilson, and recently supported by co director Tony Humphreys. Together they have managed to build a solid and loyal following and base without any commercial advertising or promotional campaigns which help underlie the need and interest in such a community Award as The People’s Book Prize.
Summer, Winter, Autumn and Spring Collections
As The People’s Book Prize covers each of the four seasons it is hoped that libraries and local communities will get together and new reading groups are formed to read all the books in one category not as is customary the same title by all in the group.
One of the main aims of the Prize is to help to eradicate illiteracy.
The Founding Patron’s vision: “Something like this, this idea — which is absolutely amazing – once it takes off, it will be of enormous importance to writers. I look forward to the time when we mention this particular prize as the greatest.” Dame Beryl Bainbridge DBE
The People’s Book Prize annual Awards Ceremony at the prestigious The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers, Ave Maria Lane, London, EC4M 7DD will be held on 27th May and is being broadcast on Sky News for the first time.
The Prize works in 4 quarters and each quarter provides a list of books from which the final selection is chosen and voted for by the public prior to the gala event.
Each year’s competition begins on the 1st of June, when publishers can enter one book in each of the three categories for the Summer Collection. The public has the months of June, July and August to vote online for their favourite titles. The three winners of the fiction, non-fiction and children’s literature categories in the Summer Collection go forward to the year’s finals.
The same applies to the Autumn Collection (which begins on the 1st of September, through October and November), the Winter Collection (which begins on the 1st of December, through January and February), and the Spring Collection (which begins on the 1st of March, through April and May).
How does the public vote?
The People’s Book Prize website lists each Collection’s chosen titles in the three categories. Members of the public register onto the website as voters, and then have three months to comment and vote for their favourite book in each of the three categories in each Collection. The website constantly monitors which books are winning the public’s votes. The public can also give their opinions on every book they read – in other words, the public are not only the judges, but are also the book critics!
The winners of the three categories of each quarterly Collection are the year’s finalists in the 
competition.
The public can vote for their favourites among the finalists online from 21st May until voting closes an hour before the winners are announced at the gala event on 27th May. The votes are kept secret until the final winners are announced.
www.peoplesbookprize.com Tatiana@peoplesbookprize.com
