2012 Independent Book Publisher Award winners announced

Gold medal winner for popular fiction

The following is from a press release from Jim Barnes, awards director, Independent Book Awards:

The winners of the 16th Annual Independent Publisher Book Awards have been announced and will be celebrated on June 4 during the annual BookExpo America publishing convention in New York. Conducted each year to honor the year's best independently published books, the "IPPY" awards recognize excellence in a broad range of subjects and reward authors and publishers who "take chances and break new ground."

This year's IPPY competition attracted 5,200 entries, and the 372 medalists represent 44 U.S. states plus the District of Columbia, seven Canadian provinces, and 10 countries overseas.

Launched in 1996 as the first unaffiliated awards program open exclusively to independent, university, and self-published titles, the IPPY Awards contest rewards winners in 74 national, 22 regional, and five e-book categories with gold, silver and bronze medallions and foil seals for their book covers.

See complete results for the 2012 Independent Publisher Book Awards

Outstanding Books are also featured on their own page.

"Independent publishers are growing in number, and the quality of their work is increasing," said Barnes. "One element driving the high rate of excellence is participation from university presses. This year, 29 medalists came from university presses and 9 came from museums. Their elevated level of writing, editing, design and production raises the bar and inspires us all."

University presses are known for tackling controversial topics and complex social issues. For example, Arab Detroit 9/11 (Wayne State University Press) explores how the lives of Arab Americans have changed in the "terror decade," Sovereign Erotics (The University of Arizona Press) is an anthology of voices from the Native American GLBT community, and In This Timeless Time (University of North Carolina Press) tells the stories of Texas prison inmates on Death Row.

Popular topics like country music, wine, and 60's counter-culture are covered by these fiction winners: Murder on Music Row (John F. Blair, Publisher) by Stuart Dill, Vertical (sequel to Sideways, from Loose Gravel Press), by Rex Pickett, and We Were Stardust (Bucket List Books), by Kathrin King Segal. IPPY Awards also went to six mouth-watering cookbooks, one of which is Off the Menu: Staff Meals from America's Top Restaurants (Welcome Books) and five intimate biographies, one being House of Cash: The Legacies of My Father, Johnny Cash (Insight Editions), by John Carter Cash.

The IPPY Awards are presented by IndependentPublisher.com, "THE Voice of Independent Publishing" operated by publishing services firm Jenkins Group of Traverse City, Mich.